Getting ahead by handling critical remarks well

August 28, 2008

Suzanne DeVries (suzanne@diamondstaffing.com) is the president and founder of Diamond Staffing Solutions, one of the jewelry industry’s leading placement firms. Diamond Staffing Solutions is an official American Gem Society sustaining member.

By Suzanne DeVries

Are you the kind of person who bristles at receiving less-than-glowing job feedback? Or do negative critiques of your work fuel your determination to succeed?

In my experience in job placement, candidates who view negative feedback as an chance; fit during the term of self-improvement tend to require being successful—in the hiring process and in their careers. Unfortunately, we in the hiring industry see too many thin-skinned candidates who take constructive criticism personally and refuse to give it credence. Although negative information undoubtedly stings the ego, candidates who are overly sensitive and handle in the identical state advice poorly only end up hurting themselves.

When researching the backgrounds of job candidates as part of our due sedulousness requirements, we sometimes find unflattering information. The way candidates correspond to this negative feedback is telling. It can be a good indicator of character, as well as a test of whether or not a candidate can rise to challenges, grant that they are ready to jump to the nearest career level and whether or not they would be a good fit for one of our clients’ companies. A job candidate’s response to constructive criticism can even make the resolution whether or not we move forward in the hiring process.

We have worked with numerous candidates who did not take well to unflattering information that we uncovered about them during our research. Instead of giving us a plausible explanation about the negative information when we shared it with them, they turned on us.

“My reputation is impeccable, regardless of your information,” and “You don’t perceive what you’re talking from one place to another” are typical responses from super-sensitive job-seekers. In turn, we immediately decide that we will not one longer work with these candidates.

Whereas they could have seen our queries into their backgrounds as a peril to turn a negative into a positive and use the information to improve themselves, they became incensed that we would imply their working records were smaller than perfect.

Whenever you are looking for a new position, it is momentous to take a close look at yourself, including your good and not-so-good qualities. After all, none of us is perfect. If you do not have the ability to look at yourself objectively, recognize your shortcomings and better upon them, you are pretty much stifling the career growth opportunities that may come your way.

This non-receptiveness to constructive criticism is not just limited to candidates. We have worked with some jewelry companies that appear to have the same blind spot. On occasion, our candidates have described negative experiences they have had by some of our corporate clients. These take in owners or hiring managers making a candidate wait external their office long after the interview was scheduled to begin, interviewers rushing through the interview, companies failing to inform a candidate that an interview has been canceled or rescheduled until the candidate arrives for the interview, owners or hiring managers passing off a candidate to any other person in the organization to conduct the interview because they are “too busy” (which usually means the candidate will have to return to meet with the boss) and similar issues.

When we bring up this kind of negative feedback, some companies get offended and give us a “How dare you question us!” attitude, while others thank us and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Ultimately, neither candidates nor companies can fix problems they do not know about. Wouldn’t you rather be informed of something negative concerning you or your business so that you could practice that information to improve your opportunities?

Suzanne DeVries (e-mail suzanne@diamondstaffing.com) is the president and founder of Diamond Staffing Solutions, one of the jewelry industry’s leading placement firms. Diamond Staffing Solutions is an official American Gem Society sustaining member.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the July 2008 print edition of National Jeweler.