Help us Eliminate the #1 frustration in the hiring experience

I caught up with one of my best friends earlier this week, he’s been looking for the next step in his career since the start-up he worked for ran out of money. He called me, super frustrated, to vent about his latest job-hunting experience. Here’s what happened.

A while ago, he spotted his dream job at his dream company. He got some advice from friends on how to best position himself for the job, took two hours out of his Sunday to update his resume and applied. And then the waiting game began… and carried on… and on! That was 6 weeks ago and, despite multiple follow-ups,

he still hasn’t heard back.

Sadly, I think we’ve all been there. It’s the classic ‘black box’ experience and by far the most frustrating aspect of the hiring process at many companies.

My main reason for getting into the recruiting space was to address these frustrations that millions of job seekers continue to experience. We want to bring real disruption to a space that’s in desperate need of disruption. I’ve said it before: at J&J, we’re on a mission to reinvent recruiting. And we’re passionate about it!

So, you’ll understand why I’m incredibly excited to share that we’ve just taken a huge step forward in our mission. Because today marks the launch of a new digital experience aimed at bringing much more transparency to every job seeker in the U.S. (It’s just the U.S. for now, as a pilot.)

Hopefully, this new experience will make our candidates feel more satisfied and respected – even if they don’t get the job.

 Shine is the result of a great deal of planning and work from our recruiting team here at J&J and an awesome collaboration with the teams at Jibe and The Muse (thank you! Joe Essenfeld & Kathryn Minshew).

Back when we were first developing the idea of a new candidate experience, we asked over 100,000 actual candidates what their biggest frustrations were with our hiring process. Over and over again, candidates told us that they hate the lack of control, the feeling of confusion and the way in which the process often feels so impersonal and ‘transactional’. They told us they want transparency, progress updates, helpful content and real-time support—and that’s exactly what we’re hoping to introduce with Shine.

We’re going to be more open, more honest and more available

The Shine platform allows candidates to check up on the progress of their application, get information on what to expect next and browse content relevant to the hiring stage they’re at. Such as videos and articles offering advice on answering tricky interview questions, how to negotiate a job offer or how to resign from their current employer.

Some of the content is provided via our partnership with The Muse, an awesome career resource. Their content sits alongside behind-the-scenes insights and tips from J&J employees who have recently been through our application process themselves and can provide ‘insider info’.

The candidates we spoke to during our research also told us they want recruiters to be more available and engaged. So, we created a Twitter handle, @JNJShine, which is constantly monitored by the Talent Acquisition team. Candidates can ask questions or get recruitment advice whenever they want it.

We get excited when someone chooses to pursue a career with J&J and we want our hiring process to reflect that positivity. And even though we have nearly one million applications a year, we think it’s really important that our candidates feel like the experience works for them at a personal level.

As always with a new venture, we know it’s unlikely that the platform will be perfect (at least not immediately!). And I’d love to get your feedback so we can continue to improve. Drop me a line on LinkedIn, Twitter or via email at sgehrin@its.jnj.com and let me know what you think.