Are you interviewing? Never admit the following.

Are you currently interviewing? Thinking about starting your job search, this is one episode you do not want to miss.

Inspiration for this episode comes from another recruiter who shared her thoughts. After 15 years in the industry, we offer our perspective and debunk some of the tips given.

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram at @talent_takeover_unfiltered

To watch this episode, visit The Millionaire Recruiter YouTube channel https://youtu.be/QnWPr8NZhZM

Shop Talent Takeover Unfiltered merch: https://shop.thriversity.io/collections/talent-takeover-unfiltered-merch

Creators & Guests

Host

Brianna Rooney

I am the CEO and Founder of TalentPerch, Techees Recruiting, The Millionaire Recruiter, and now Thriversity. My vision for the last 14 years has been to change the way the World views the Recruiting Industry. Even though I have two little kids, I remain firm on maintaining a work-life balance. I believe you can be as successful at work, as you are at home. You don’t have to choose. The choice is, to be present and rock everything you do!

Host

Taylor Bradley

Chief Strategy Officer, Talent Leader, Advisor, Podcast Co-host. I specialize in turning DIRT to GLITTER ✨

Producer

Jessica Reynolds

Editor

Kait Vickers

What is Takeover Unfiltered?

Want the raw, unapologetic realities of reclaiming your life? Then tune into the Takeover Unfiltered podcast hosted by yours truly, Brianna Rooney, The Millionaire Recruiter, and Taylor Bradley, The Humble Hustler. We're pulling back the curtain on our personal lives and sharing the ups, downs, and everything in between. From navigating relationships to juggling self-care routines, we're laying it all out on the table. We're all about taking control and making sh*t happen.

Expect raw, candid talks, seasoned with uncensored language. It's time to own your journey, embrace the chaos, and unleash your inner badass. Buckle up, because we're about to take you on a wild ride to self-discovery and empowerment. But don't worry, we're still dishing out some valuable insights into the recruiting world. It's all about finding that balance between work and play, and we're here to show you how it's done.

Ready to kick ass and rewrite the rule book? Grab your favorite drink, cozy up, and join us for some real talk you won't want to miss!

Welcome to Talent takeover.

Unfiltered.

When it comes to working hard and

keeping it real, we know our shit.

Self care, happiness, inner peace and time.

I'm Brianna Rooney, and this is Taylor Bradley.

Hey, y'all.

And we have thrived in chaos and

turned it into an art form.

So, Taylor, what are we doing here today?

We're here to give you a raw, under

the hood view of all things recruiting.

And finally, give credit where credit is

due to a long underrated industry that's

full of quote unquote experts.

All right, well, then, let's take

this show to the road.

All right, well, let's just get into it.

Welcome to talent. Takeover.

Unfiltered.

Taylor Bradley.

How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you?

We have to start with our body roll. Our shimmy.

Our shimmy.

But I'm a little embarrassed I'm not wearing, you

know, my Talent Takeover Unfiltered shirt, which, by the

way, you can get on our see, I take

dirt and turn that shit to glitter. I love that.

So you guys can get that.

And you can also watch this glorious movements

of ours on the Millionaire Recruiter YouTube channel.

So what are we talking about today?

Let's get to it.

This is something that I guess is trending on TikTok,

but you and I are both not on TikTok.

But that's okay.

We're going to Grammatize ourselves. Yeah.

Mima over here is not no more social

media for Mima, but I'm like another platform.

I'm over it.

However, I do see them on occasion on Instagram.

And so yeah, so this is a trend, I

guess, right now, that recruiters talking about things they

would never admit to a recruiter as a candidate.

So from the candidate perspective, things

they would never tell a recruiter. Yeah.

It's basically like what we laugh about.

Like, oh, my God, this candidate just told me this.

Why are they telling me this?

Yeah, and it's like, some tips.

And then also we're going to talk about what this

person on TikTok who posted this video, her perspective, then

kind of like what our thoughts are on that, too.

We may debunk some of this.

We may agree with it.

But having both been in the business for 15

years, I feel like we have some good thoughts

and ideas around what you should and shouldn't do.

But definitely, guys, make sure that you stay till

the end for our broke to boss Tip.

I know you all love that.

I know you all wish that we had one.

I guess our whole episodes are broke to boss tips.

I'm, like, gassing myself up for it

because I love them so much.

And you come up with them.

I love those little nuggets because I'm like,

okay, if you don't listen to anything else,

maybe that will help either pump your day

up or change your perspective on something true.

All right, so things I would never

admit to a recruiter as a candidate.

So the first one she said is, if you

forget about your interview, just make up a lie.

She's like, don't ever tell a recruiter the truth.

That you just fucking forgot the interview. Yeah.

You rushed your cat to the hospital.

Your ringer was on silent.

Your meeting ran over that.

I don't like the ringer on silent shows.

You're kind of an idiot, don't you think? Yeah.

And so I was just quoting what she said

so that we could debunk it, because I definitely

don't think it's a good look under any circumstances

at all to forget about an interview.

I think, what are you fucking doing?

If you need a job and you forget about an

interview, it's obviously going to show you don't have your

shit together because you don't have your shit together.

Yeah.

So I think what happens and this goes

back to I think why people use recruiters

so much is they want passive candidates.

And lots of times when a candidate is super

actively looking, they're all willy nilly just throwing up.

They're applying everywhere.

They're taking as many interviews as they possibly can.

Some of them are practiced.

Some of them they're super interested in.

And it gets to the point where it's like, I mean,

the worst thing in the world and I don't know, it's

giving me all the bad chilies is when a company calls

you and says, hey, I just want to let you know

your candidate didn't even know who we were during the interview.

And it's so embarrassing.

And that's probably why recruiters also

get, like, a bad rep sometimes.

But there's sometimes not our fault.

These people are just ridiculous.

And you actually bring up a good point because

I understand more from a passive candidate perspective if

you actually do have a meeting run over.

Because I can say historically in my life, in

all the times that I've been passively recruited, if

I've had somebody, yeah, there's been times where a

meeting ran over or I couldn't make it, I

always would let the recruiter know.

But I was honest about it,

and you get more flexibility.

And then from a recruiter perspective, I've had

that happen to me, and they let me

know, like, hey, I'm in this meeting.

I had this meeting run over.

But it's to be expected.

If they're a full time employee somewhere,

they may have meetings run over.

They may be in situations like that

where they thought they could make it.

We all know sometimes most of

the time we don't take lunches.

Like we work through lunch.

Not saying that you shouldn't take a lunch.

It's just like you don't have that

dedicated hour of a lunch break anymore.

That's just not the really work culture I feel

like anyone has anymore because you have so much

flexibility in other hours of the day.

So that's one that I'm like, yeah.

I would never say I forgot about the

interview, but we also need to talk about

why are you forgetting about an interview?

Yeah, but agreed.

I'm going to make up an excuse if I

actually forgot about the interview, like a dumb dumb.

I'm for sure making a better excuse than that. Yeah.

And you've got to be super apologetic, and you've

got to be super like, I'm so sorry because

I think and don't do it again. Don't do it again.

And that's I mean, I I know you and I

could both talk about this with so many regards to

situations that we're in sales meetings, talking to candidates, talking

to clients, whatever it is, it is so fucking rude

if we schedule time with you and you don't show

up, like, nothing pisses me off more.

And you don't even tell anybody.

You're just like you don't show up to it.

So not that you said, hey, I'm not

going to be able to make it.

You just didn't show up to the call.

And then if you let them know

after the fact, it's still rude.

Like, hey, I'm so sorry I had XYZ come up.

It doesn't matter because either way, we've blocked

off that time to talk to you that

we couldn't use for something else.

So it's like wasted time.

And when you're as busy as we are in

back to back meetings, it puts such a bad

taste in my mouth versus somebody canceling on me.

If you cancel on me and you give me a reason,

all good, and I can reallocate that time to something else.

But if you just don't show up,

you're kind of like dead to me.

Okay, so we're putting out this big thing.

Service announcement here.

You will be dead to Taylor if you do not show up.

Yeah, if you're a no show. Bye.

Don't message me again with any kind of bullshit.

If you let me know beforehand, even if what?

If it's at the time.

Okay, so I had somebody let me know at the time.

Just last week, it was a meeting, like kind of a

team meeting that not internal, but somebody was going to be

on it with us externally, and they are going to be

presenting to us and they let us know.

I think it was either 1 minute before the

meeting was actually about to start and with the

reason that they were letting us know, if you're

out sick, you're out sick that whole day. Right?

So why wouldn't you make sure at the beginning

of the day that you notify everybody for all

the meetings that you have that you're out sick?

It's professionalism 101.

I feel like you got to let everybody

know so that's even a worse look.

Like if you're pitching something to us and then you

let us know 1 minute before the meeting is supposed

to start, that's the same thing as not showing up.

Because we can't use that

meeting time for anything else.

Yeah, I guess it depends on are you in sales meetings?

What is it?

I will say on the opposite side, when certain

people, certain people don't show up to a meeting,

I'm like, sweet, I get time back, but totally.

Am I going to rebook that call? Probably not.

And it all depends on what it is.

Yeah, I don't know.

I was just going to say caveat.

If it's an emergency, like if it's an

emergency, something, God forbid, someone got in a

car accident and something, you're going to get

a lot more understanding out of me, which

is also probably if we're being real here.

That could be a good lie.

So just know if you're ever talking to

me, maybe that's the lie you should use,

because I'm going to believe it.

I'm going to give you sympathy.

I'm going to have empathy.

But yeah, I feel like unless it's an emergency

situation, you have to let people know beforehand.

You cannot just and then forgetting about it.

I do agree with this person that put this video up.

That's just not an excuse. Forgetting.

You can you have to say something else.

You can't just say, I forgot. Yeah.

I personally hate when someone's like,

it's not on my calendar. Actually.

I can see you accepted, so it is that's silly. Yeah.

So if you're going to lie, make a good one, for sure.

And I will say, on a side note, if

ever calling into work, you have the shits easy.

Yeah.

No one's going to ask questions.

There no one's asking you any

questions or for any information.

Get well soon.

See you later.

Okay, so then this next one, I feel like

this is common sense for everybody these days.

And it's just because of all

the different laws around this. It is what it is.

But never give your exact salary.

Always add a few extra thousand dollars.

Yeah.

That's the negotiation. Right.

And so I think on the other side,

recruiters have to always know that as well.

That look, just because they told me they need

150, that doesn't really actually mean they needed 150.

That could mean actually they needed 140.

But we're going to do what we can, and we're

going to meet in the middle and hopefully everyone's happy.

See, and my approach to this, when I read this, I

was like, whenever I would give a salary amount, I always

think about it, like and I always asked it as a

recruiter, what salary would you need for this role?

Because you can't ask them

what they're currently making anymore.

So what would your salary

expectations be for this role?

Now, somebody could be at given the job, that maybe they're

a passive candidate, what somebody reached out to them about, okay,

my expectations of my salary to do that job, which could

differ from the one that I'm in or to make a

move or to start all over and prove yourself again like

you know you need to do.

I want 150 for that.

I feel like you can still do this and just

be very honest, because nobody has to validate salaries anymore.

And that's not something like that's not a benchmark

that anybody can use anymore, your current salary.

So I think you can answer that question honestly.

Like, what are your salary expectations for this role?

And it's okay if that's higher

than the one that you're in. Yeah.

And honestly, I wish the candidates were educated more

on this because it's also not just for this

role, it's for the stage of the company.

How big is the company?

How much funding do they have? Are we profitable?

There's just so much that goes into that

that I don't think candidates think about.

And again, they're looking out for number one and

you have to but then I think on the

other side, candidates and they have to understand the

company has to look out for themselves as well.

And so it's like a joint thing.

And I don't want to tangent, but I know,

like we were talking about with the layoffs, it's

like, hey, if it's a shock to you, you

probably had your head down too much.

Yeah, well, and I think there's other things to

consider too, if you're going to get equity.

So if you're leaving maybe a more established corporation to

go to a startup, but maybe you're willing to take

a slight pay cut from where you're at because you're

going to get equity, you know what I mean?

I think there's different things.

It's the potential. Yeah.

And so I think for that salary, again, I

go back to what are your expectations for this

role with this company and it doesn't have to

match exactly where you're at with your current company.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I always get frustrated when I

have we normally work with startups, right?

So when an engineer is like, oh, well,

but I have this offer from Meta.

Good for you.

And if money is what this is what you're looking

for, then why are you even talking to this startup?

And it still obviously really upsets me.

It's like it's not apples to apples.

Completely different organizations at

completely different stage.

You're not going to join Meta for potential.

You're going to join a startup for potential.

So it's like, what, do you pick your poison?

Yeah, exactly.

And then the next one, she said, which I thought

this one was fucking hilarious when I listened to it.

Like, if you have a friend who works for the

company, don't mention their name because what if your friend

is a dumb ass and you don't even know it?

And I thought that was like hilarious and

so true because it's like not all referrals

are created equal, you know what I mean?

You could think your friend is the shit because they

can go out and drink like Frank the Tank and

pound ten shots, but does that mean that they're the

best software engineer and you want to attach any credibility

you may or may not have to them? Maybe not.

So I thought that one was really funny.

It's like, okay, your friend may not

have a stellar reputation in the company,

so maybe don't mention their name.

Yeah, well, I don't even

think there's anything to mention.

It's like if the person got you

this interview, then they know, right?

Otherwise it's like, yeah, just shut up.

Unless well, that happens to be

that they're the CEO then.

Sure, why not, right? For sure.

But I think some applications ask you that.

And so if you put

somebody's name without knowing right.

I think it's totally different what you're saying.

If somebody got you that interview,

then obviously you're associated with them.

But if it is just on the application portion

of it, putting somebody's name and not really knowing

their credibility within the organization, maybe don't do that.

Feel it out and save that to drop that little nugget

to drop in an interview if you feel like it's going

to help you out or it's important or it matters.

Yeah, for sure.

And then this one, we know this as

recruiters always ask why the position is open.

Common sense.

So is she trying to say that this is just what

she would say as a candidate, or she wouldn't say this?

No, she would say that from a

candidate perspective, these are things that she

would never admit to a recruiter.

But then it's like you always need

to know why the position is open.

I don't know.

I don't know if it's not advertised anywhere.

Like, this position is open because of XYZ left so

and so is having affair with so and so.

You don't get that level of context.

But I think it's a good nugget to always

ask why the position is open and make sure

you know why the position is open.

I think that's just a good piece of information.

Any other is it a backfill or is it a new role? Right.

And how long has it been open?

And I think that gives good insight into

why was it a really toxic work environment.

Okay, somebody was in this role for three months.

You just hired someone.

They were there for three months, they left.

I don't know.

I think there are signs to look out for that might

be a little bit sus, like, okay, maybe these are some

of those red flags that you should ask more questions about.

It could actually not be a reflection of

the company at all and just the individual,

but just like, dig in deeper.

And then if it's a new role, you definitely want to

ask more of like, hey, is my pathway set up?

Or is this just a project that

you may or may not continue?

Because those are super important questions.

Yeah, absolutely.

If you're not asking about that,

then you're missing an opportunity. For sure.

Okay, so what are any other things that you

would never admit to a recruiter as a candidate?

I don't think I would admit that I was fired.

I would spend something over there, like as long as

I had at least one referral from wherever I was

fired and they were high up enough or at least

appear, I wouldn't admit I was fired.

A reference? Yeah, reference. Sorry.

Do I say referral? Yeah.

I'm just thinking about that, like

what it has always required. What is it?

It's a manager and then a peer.

Because I know there's certain qualifications.

It can't just be anybody.

But the way I would spin it if I were a

candidate is I would say, I'm not going to give you

my manager because my manager doesn't know I'm looking.

That's how I would spin that.

So you would say you're still employed

there, even if you got fired? Yeah.

Or I would just say, yeah.

No, I would say I was still employed there.

Yeah, that's what I would do.

No, you're like, yes.

No, that's what I do.

That's what I would do.

See, and I feel like I'd do a version of that.

I would do what you said.

I'd know I'd have a reference from the company.

Regardless.

That's a whole nother thing.

If you don't have one person that can speak positively

on your behalf at an organization that you were fired

from, then you probably are the problem, bro.

It probably is.

But everybody should have at least one person appear,

somebody that could speak on their behalf, a team

lead or something like that, because sometimes you really

do just have difficult managers that are just like

nobody could work with them and we could save

these stories for another day.

But I've had some of the craziest shit

happen with managers, like the craziest stories that

you wouldn't think that would happen in, like,

Fortune 500 companies, and they do.

But I would probably say have somebody as a reference.

I wouldn't say that I was still

employed there if I wasn't, because what

if they try to verify your employment?

Yeah, well, I mean, I don't

think that really happens much anymore.

Which, I mean, remember when we sent in our W two S?

So funny to me.

I do remember, but I would definitely err

on the side of not really verifying it.

I would just be like, yeah, it's just time for me to

look around my manager and I don't see eye to eye.

But I don't think that when you

think back to recruiter intakes and stuff,

I'm not like, are you currently working?

That never seems to be a question.

Like, if you have it on the resume

and you don't have an end date, you

typically don't get asked that question.

Yeah, would I go out of my way

to say I'm employed and everything's fine?

No, I wouldn't go out of my way to

say that, but I definitely wouldn't go out of

my way to say that I'm not there.

Yeah, okay, I got fired.

That definitely goes back to your whole

thing about being a stinky cheese.

I feel like there's going to be a person yeah.

Nobody wants to employ someone that's been fired.

There's so many questions there, and everyone's just going

to err on the side of the company, which

is okay when you think about it.

Here's some controversy on this one is now, I for

sure know in California, if you have a felony, it

can't so and I don't know if that's it.

That's every state at this point, there's no

but, yeah, like, we believe in rehabilitation.

So if that's the case, then why would

we have to divulge that we got fired? Yeah.

And this could be this going into our broke

to Boss Tip, I feel like today the laws

are just so in favor of the candidate, like,

way more than they used to be, where there's

a level of secrecy that you're allowed to have.

And I think that that's like the broke to boss Tip.

There is a level of secrecy in your

job search that you are allowed to have,

and it could be at your discretion.

I do think from a candidate perspective, I'd probably

be more vague in the initial phone screen.

I don't think you have to give away

all your information, all your secrets, but you

are naturally, if they're a good recruiter, you're

going to develop a relationship with this recruiter.

And I do think the more information that you

can give them throughout the interview process, the better

it can serve you, and it can serve them

because the recruiter wants to get the fill.

They want to get you hired.

And so if there's any obstacles that are

going to come up that ultimately are going

to impact that, that impacts the recruiter too.

So I think you are allowed a certain amount of

secrecy, but also, I think as your relationship develops, you

should be more honest and divulging things like that.

If it could potentially come up.

Like, if you were fired and that could come

up, we got to talk about yeah, I told

you about the candidate that murdered somebody, right?

No.

And you represented them.

Oh, shut it. Okay.

We placed him before he became a murderer, and

he did get fired from his company, and the

company called, and they were good friends of mine,

and they were like, hey, he has anger issues.

And I was like, oh, okay, so told me a story, right?

And they're like, look, that's just between us, but I

want to let you know not to represent this candidate.

This might come back to bite you.

I was like, okay, whatever.

And then we found out that he ended up running over

his girlfriend with his car, and so he ends up calling

our office, and the person that was originally working with him

was like, I'm not taking that phone call.

And of course, me being me, I'm

like, I'll take this phone call.

I love murder.

What's going on?

I want to hear that.

Let me hear the tea.

So the way he said this, he was like,

yeah, this is at the end of the call. Yeah.

So just so you know, I had a situation

in my life that may affect my job search.

I go, what was it?

He goes, you can Google me.

And that was it.

And I knew the story right?

Before talking to him, but I was

like, wow, so talk about being vague. All right.

And yeah, he never went to jail, by the way. Wow.

Yeah, no, it's a pretty crazy story, and that's

a whole nother thing, because if you're Googleable and

your offense is Googleable, that just is going to

come from a company doing their research on your

social footprint to find that out.

You know what I mean?

It's wild, and it's just crazy that this is

what I was just saying, going to the secrecy

that candidates can have because of the different laws.

And I mean, like, look, I've been in business under

724, so do I want someone to tell me that

they were fired so I can make my own judgments?

Yeah, of course.

But do I know that if someone tells me

they're fired, my biases creep in like, nobody's business?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay.

Let me ask you this.

As you're working with a candidate, if it

doesn't come out in the first interview that

you're having your initial phone screen with them

because their resume says present, their LinkedIn says

present, they didn't update it, but they were

actually fired, and they get through their first

round of interview with the hiring managers.

You're talking to them in between, how's it going?

Coaching them up, and then it comes out that they

got fired, then how are you going to feel going

back to your biases and all of that?

How are you going to feel after you find

out you've gotten to know them a little bit,

but they weren't upfront with you about it?

How are you going to feel?

Yeah, I think that that's the empathy in me.

I think I would ask them.

I'd be like, hey, I really wish you

would have told me that you were fired,

because we could have gotten ahead of this.

But I also understand that shit.

That's a biggie explain it to me. What happened?

I think I would be more concerned

do you have references from this company? Got it.

And to your point, if they had

zero, then yeah, there's a problem.

Okay, well, I want us to do a whole nother

episode on things because you've just got me thinking, like,

a whole nother episode on things that would be, like,

deal breakers for us to work, because although I feel

like there are certain offenses that I know, for me,

call it biases, whatever, I don't give a shit.

I would absolutely not work with somebody client or

candidate if they were charged with certain things.

And we could talk about that.

I think that's really interesting based on we could talk

about that versus the laws and what the laws say.

And then also, I think it's a great idea to talk about,

too, how to get in front of some of that stuff.

Like, you brought up a great point.

Well, if you were fired, if you told me

I could help you get in front of this

with the client that we're pitching you to.

So I think that's something that we

should talk about for our listeners.

How could they pitch that

if there's this fire situation?

They weren't charged with felonies

or anything like that.

They're just fired for whatever reasons,

but there's no charges involved.

How would you spin that to a client?

I think that's a really good episode.

I'm going to write that down.

Oh, so you want to do a Spin Doctor episode? I like it.

Yeah, I can spin that shit all day long.

I love that.

Depending on what it is.

Yeah.

Well, just in the Millionaire Recruiter program, we

have a whole doc that's called Spin Doctor.

And I role play them through it and I

say, hey, when this happens, how do you feel

and how can you spin this in a positive?

It's all negative shit.

Literally all negative shit. How do you spin this?

Positively.

And there's sometimes where they're looking at

me like deer in the headlights.

And they're like, you can't, brianna like, you can't.

I'm like, here we go.

I got a new one for Know.

But yeah, you got to get good at OOH.

That's going to be a good episode. All right, guys.

Y'all stay y'all make sure y'all check us out.

Make sure you stay listening.

Stay hanging on.

It's gonna get better from here.

But yeah, it only goes up.

It only goes up.

Subscribe, we'll see you next week. Comment.

We're talking over each other.

We're, like, having two different conversations. I know.

Subscribe comment like, let us know

what you want to hear.

As always, we love hearing from our listeners.

And thanks, y'all.

We'll see you next week. Thanks. Bye.