Reference check horror

Is it just me or reference checks is very toxic. Lot of companies engage in blind reference checks which is even more shitty.

1/ an employee has got a raise in his/her current org recently and then asks for raise again to switch to a different org 2/ an employee has got a raise in his/her current org recently, gets an offer from another org and then asks for the current org to match the offer What’s your first thought? Is this justified? 90% of orgs will label them as opportunistic, money hungry & capital centric. But let’s get brutally honest here: Is the talent wrong to ask for more? We’re quick to jump to conclusions and slap on those labels. But have you ever stopped to consider their perspective? They are leveraging their value in the market. They are pushing for what they believe they’re worth. Isn’t that exactly what we teach about knowing your value and not settling? Are we really being fair when we default to calling them greedy? How many of you would really go back to hard, clear benchmarking and justify why this ask is justified? How many of you are really fighting this battle of moving a godzilla out of their position (in this case, a manager) who just says, "Nai yaar... pagal hai kya... bolo same salary pe aane ke liye... abhi to raise mila hai"? Most likely (as it is today) that this will result in a no-go from a manager or a comp approval request. And when it does - you can go all gaga on how you sold opportunity cost, how you justified the value the candidate brings to the table and all that verbatim in my head translates to CONVENIENCE. Someones convenience. This will always labelled "outlier" case. {continued in comments}

Context - Google asks it's employees this question when they refer a candidate for a role. Now my question is, what is the expectation from a referral candidate in general for any company? What value is given by the HM for this question, what would they be looking for in an answer??

I've noticed a pattern where HRs from mediocre companies are extremely arrogant and ask unnecessary questions. Whether it is from their tone of voice, to asking ridiculous questions about a candidate's personal life and things that are already on the resume, why do they act so holier than thou? Now FAANG adjacent companies and their HRs/ first point of contacts are always empathetic and very clear in asking sensible, relevant questions. Why don't companies realise that their first point of contact is what affects their brand and hiring unqualified folks makes it worse. Have you ever noticed this? What do you think can be done to make this/ candidate experience better?

When the recruiter or HM opens up for questions, are you inclined towards asking them tough questions related to the organisation? Lately I've started asking: - How were people who were impacted in the latest lay-offs decided? - Do you believe the team is at risk of lay-offs? In the overall org, where would you place this team in terms of business criticality. - In case of downsizing how will you ensure that your team is going to be least impacted. - Questions on talent being fungible, coding practices, knowledge organisation and sharing (hoarding/individual level, team level, org level) - How does the manager ensure equity in workloads (especially useful for startups). - Team agreements like stand-up timings, in-out timings, and most importantly, how often were these changed in the last 6m-1y. Folks, feel free to add to the list! Would love to hear your thoughts. Managers are supposed to manage teams and be technically competent. Everyone is a champ when times are easy. The true colors are shown only when the going gets tough. Most of the answers are gonna be template/standardizations. The key is to read between the lines. If the manager is clueless or the body language doesn't inspire any confidence, then it's a red flag.

So recently I interviewed in many companies including google, Microsoft, Amazon I have seen common pattern that HR not being transparent with candidates. They keep hanging candidates in between and not reply to text, email, messages, calls. Even if candidate is rejected why can’t they email or call to give feedback. Is this job really hard ? “If I will get a chance to snap out one profession from earth I will snap out all hrs, recruiters out there.” Ps:- Google ppl was very transparent throughout process one of best experiences for me .

Hi all, I have recently joined a new company and a lot of people (mostly people I don't know) are reaching out for referrals. I know the time is tough. How do you all decide whom to refer? Friends and people you know are definitely there. You can't be referring everyone as it decreases your credibility if they are not suitable for the role or don't get hired. Also, how do you say no to such requests? Thank you!

Recently, I had a mind-boggling encounter during a senior finance role interview at a prominent startup. After impressing the Finance Director and Controller, I expected an interview with CFO as a logical next step. Instead, I found myself facing an Independent Director—a puzzling addition to the process, especially with a CFO in place. What baffled me more was the interview's focus. Despite the role's clear scope within India, the Independent Director bombarded me with international tax inquiries, completely unrelated to the position or the company's operations. It felt like a ploy to glean free consultancy for personal matters. This experience left me questioning the rationale behind hiring protocols. Why subject candidates to irrelevant interrogations by individuals detached from the role's purview? It's disheartening to witness such a flawed process at the hands of those meant to guide a company's growth.

Is cause of ass-holish demands like these (see image) Some of you will blame the recruiter Some of you will blame the hiring manager Some of you will blame the org Some of you will question the mindset Some of you will question the logic Some of you will defend the stance Few would do anything from inside to fix something like this

I have been offered a full time software Engineer role at x company verbally now the recruiter is asking me to give the contact point of my colleagues and manager so that they can have a feedback on me. What should I do ? Is it normal when you are making switch as an experienced candidate?