Pipelining is a popular practice among companies to continuously identify, attract, and recruit potential candidates for future job openings. While this process may seem like a convenient way to fill open positions quickly, it can have a negative impact on candidates and, in my opinion, it should be carefully regulated, because it seems to be a deceptive practice in certain circumstances. It really isn't fair to give hope to so many people, especially in this economy, and then leave them in the dark.
Being contacted for job openings, going through extensive interviewing and testing and then not being actually hired can impact a candidate's confidence, self-esteem and well-being. But it can also have a negative impact on the companies who use this technique - sooner or later people will start catching on to their trick and the confidence in those companies will also drop. They will no longer be perceived as reliable entities.
Nowadays there are websites like Glassdoor and Indeed (and local websites in most countries) where candidates and employees rate and assess the companies. This can damage the company's reputation. Also, candidates who have a negative experience with a company due to pipelining are less likely to apply for future job openings with that company. This can shrink the company's candidate pool and limit their ability to find qualified candidates for open positions.
Personally, I don't see the logic of this process - even if you do find worthwhile candidates, they probably won't be available in a few years when you do have job openings that fit their skills. Good candidates get hired fast by other companies, and they are usually given good enough salaries and bonuses to stay there. And if you do have enough money to hire anyone you want, why not headhunt them at the right moment, or save their LinkedIn profile, but don't fake an entire recruitment process, wasting people's time.
A friend of mine was pipelined by a tech company 10 years ago. They ghosted him after the so-called recruitment process. But a few months ago, they called out of the blue to ask him if he was still interested in a position with their company. When he asked why they hadn't contacted him sooner, the recruiter paused and said: 'Better late than never!' True story!
Pipelining can be confusing for candidates as they may not know the status of their application or what the company's expectations are. Thus, candidates may be left feeling uncertain and unsure about their future. They spend time, effort and even money preparing for interviews, writing cover letters, and tailoring their resumes for a specific job opening. However, when a company pipelines candidates, this time, effort and money can be wasted as the job opening may never materialize.
Candidates who are pipelined may miss out on other job opportunities because they believe they are close to securing a job with the company. This can cause them to hold off on actively seeking other jobs, which can result in missed opportunities to advance their careers. This actually happened to me when I was younger - I turned down a good job opportunity because I was so sure I would get the one I was being pipelined for (alas, little did I know that the company in whose 'door' I was so desperately trying to get my foot had no plans of hiring anyone at that moment, they just needed a pool of potential candidates with a specific skill set). This made me miss an important opportunity to advance my career, while causing me financial loss along the way, not to mention feelings of disappointment and frustration.
Being contacted for job openings, going through extensive interviewing and testing and then not being actually hired can impact a candidate's confidence, self-esteem and well-being. But it can also have a negative impact on the companies who use this technique - sooner or later people will start catching on to their trick and the confidence in those companies will also drop. They will no longer be perceived as reliable entities.
Nowadays there are websites like Glassdoor and Indeed (and local websites in most countries) where candidates and employees rate and assess the companies. This can damage the company's reputation. Also, candidates who have a negative experience with a company due to pipelining are less likely to apply for future job openings with that company. This can shrink the company's candidate pool and limit their ability to find qualified candidates for open positions.
Pipelining requires companies to invest time and resources in identifying, attracting, and recruiting candidates for positions that may not be immediately available. This can increase the company's recruitment costs and may not result in any immediate benefit. Pipelining can cause companies to miss out on other qualified candidates who may not have been in the pipeline, but could be a better fit for the job opening. By focusing on a small pool of pipelined candidates, companies may be limiting their options and missing out on the opportunity to find the best candidate for the job.
Pipelining can also lead to legal risks if candidates believe that they were unfairly treated or if the company's recruitment practices violate anti-discrimination laws. In some countries, they can even get sued if they caused the candidate to miss a real employment opportunity, thus causing him financial loss. This is why it is important for companies to be transparent and fair in their recruitment practices, and to avoid unnecessarily holding candidates in a state of limbo.
Personally, I don't see the logic of this process - even if you do find worthwhile candidates, they probably won't be available in a few years when you do have job openings that fit their skills. Good candidates get hired fast by other companies, and they are usually given good enough salaries and bonuses to stay there. And if you do have enough money to hire anyone you want, why not headhunt them at the right moment, or save their LinkedIn profile, but don't fake an entire recruitment process, wasting people's time.
A friend of mine was pipelined by a tech company 10 years ago. They ghosted him after the so-called recruitment process. But a few months ago, they called out of the blue to ask him if he was still interested in a position with their company. When he asked why they hadn't contacted him sooner, the recruiter paused and said: 'Better late than never!' True story!
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