game, game. repeat.

Open Interviewing Policy

Mon 21 September 2015 #Leadership

I’ve been interviewing a lot of people in the past few weeks and I’ve been wondering how they, you know, get 4 hours off in the middle of the work day to interview. Fake doctor’s appointment? Call in sick? No one is paying attention to their office hours? WFH that becomes undocumented PTO? My guess is its not on the record…they aren’t telling their bosses that they are going on interviews. There’s some level of sneaking around.

Why?

Seems to me that the interviewing taboo is in no one’s best interest–not the employee, not the employer. If you are the kind of employer/manager that tries to retain employees by keeping them ignorant of other opportunities, good luck pulling that off in Silicon Valley…you’re just going to annoy your top talent and be left with, what’s left. Most of the talented people I know interview a couple times a year even when they aren’t interested in making a move–they consider it basic career hygiene to stay in touch with what the market is like, it also helps them figure out what they want (from their next career move).

I’m going to pitch my boss on an open interview policy for our company. I send him a crazy idea like this once a quarter or so. :) Everyone is expected to interview at least twice a year. You put it on your calendar and call it what it is. And to prove we’re serious, you get, say, 1% of your annual salary as a bonus for each set of interviews taken to 2nd round or later each year, 2 max.

Pros:

Cons: