Be kind to super heroes job appliquants 

## Be kind to super heroes job appliquants

Recently, a very dear friend of mine shared with me that she had been laid off from a senior managerial position after 7 years of hard work in a very prestigious financial corporation. I did not pick up on the matter at that time, but thought a lot about it. I realised that the main reason I was an entrepreneur is that I was not strong and courageous enough to apply for a job, let alone face a layoff.

- I do clearly remember this - job-fair day - after party in San Francisco way back when in 1998. We were a bunch of young MBA graduates meeting together to debrief our interviews around a drink. I had had a terrible afternoon trying to show the best of me to those dot-com companies HRs, one after the other. During those interviews, time would simply freeze for me. From high-up, out of my own body, I could observe myself speaking to those people who obviously showed little interest in my monologue.

- I felt snobbed, humiliated, as I would hand to them my carefully crafted resumé that might have as well be read as: "I am desperate, lost and scared! Do you love me? Am I worth being hired by anybody?".

A couple of crackers and a sip of wine later, I took my stack of resumés and tore it off publicly, swearing to my classmates that I would never go through the finding a job nightmare ever again. It just did not make sense to me. Instead of selling myself, I would go ahead and sell products and services.

I kept my word, and created my first consulting firm @vidax.com , then moved on to create some more companies in Ukraine, and hire 100++ people over the years.

For each interview at @Vidax.com or @seosamba.com or @seotoaster.com , I remembered to be kind, curious, interested in the person more than the resumé. I also made sure that anybody I was NOT hiring would leave my office proud of themselves, filled with dignity and hope.

I hired people whose only experience were in construction jobs, but had studied #IT at home for the past year. Some people were going through such hardship, that they did not have the means for proper hygiene. I made the scared ones laugh, and I made the shies and timids talk. I always hired for what people could become if given the chance to be themselves.

To all of them, I remembered to be kind. Each time.

My friend is in her 50s, and of course, another layer of anxiety comes with age as people who interview you are often younger than you. How to present yourself? How to fit in this younger workforce when starting at a new company?

So, to all my colleagues being in charge of hiring, I say: Remember to be kind, and if you do not hire, send people away, filled with hope and dignity, so that they are armed for the next interview.

Maybe I am projecting my own worries on her, and every employees situation. Let me know in your comments if what I write here makes sense, and if you are one of the people I hired, I would be pleased to read about your experience.