A reader writes:
I am currently in the running for a fantastic job at a dream company. I was approached about the job by a recruiter. The feedback from the first face-to-face interview was that I was the strongest candidate and the company decided not to proceed with any of the other external applicants and, instead, wanted to interview further external people for a pool of choice.
Besides external applicants, however, the recruiter discovered there were one or more internal applicants applying for the position. The role has been newly created in a completely restructured team, so it’s hard to say how directly the internal candidates are experienced and if they are a natural shoo-in, or if it’s a bit of a leap in position.
In your experience, do internal candidates have better chances? On the one hand, I can see they are far easier to onboard and are already familiar with all the internal processes and have existing relationships with staff. On the other hand, the manager hiring for the position is also relatively new and I wonder if fresh blood is more attractive and appealing, bringing new skills and levels of experience (particularly as I have worked for a direct competitor).
As a hiring manager, are you more likely to hire from within? Or is it a case by case basis?
It totally depends!
All things being equal, if I have a great internal candidate and an equally great external candidate, I’m usually going to go with the internal candidate. That’s partly because they know the other internal players already, know how things work in the organization, and will have a faster ramp-up period. But it’s more because they’re known quantities in a way an external candidate can never be. That great external candidate could end up not being so great once they’re on the job, or have trouble getting along with people, or form a duck club on the side, or who knows what. Whereas with my great internal candidate, I already know their work habits and how they operate; there’s far less chance of an unpleasant surprise. Plus, it’s good to promote from within — it’s a way to keep talented people around.
That’s not always true, of course. Sometimes there are specific reasons why an employer specifically wants to bring someone in from the outside, such as when they want someone with a completely fresh perspective or way of doing things. But much of the time, it makes sense to hire internally when you have someone great already on your staff.
However, being a known quantity can hurt internal candidates too. An employer is going to be far more familiar with their weaknesses than they will be with an external candidate. And an internal candidate who would look great an outside employer might have obstacles with their current employer who knows they monopolize meetings, are rude to admin staff, miss deadlines, suck at managing, or so forth. And those “known quantity” downsides don’t even need to be serious performance problems for them to negatively affect someone’s candidacy for a role. If I’m hiring for a role that requires a lot of initiative and strategic planning and I’ve seen an internal candidate needs significant hand-holding in those areas in the recent past, I’m going to have a lot of skepticism about hiring them from the outset. It doesn’t mean they’re terrible at their current job or they wouldn’t be good at something else. It just means that I’m going to believe what I’ve seen from working with them over anything I see on a resume or hear in an interview.
So it can work both ways.
From the outside, when you’re the external candidate, you’re better off not trying to guess at what the situation might be with internal candidates because you can never really know. They may have already decided none of the internal people are right for the job but are interviewing them anyway out of courtesy. Or they might think their strongest internal candidate is a stretch, and they’re hoping to find someone externally who’s a better match. Or yes, they might be highly likely to go with one of the internal people. You just can’t know, and you’ll only mess with your head trying to figure it out.
The best thing to do is the same thing you should always do when you’re interviewing: Assume there are other candidates, assume some of them are quite good, and don’t worry too much about what those specifics are.
(But then, if you do get hired and you know there were internal candidates who didn’t get the job, it can be smart to ask if there are any politics you’ll need to navigate around that, especially if you’ll be managing any of them.)
do internal candidates have a better chance at the job? was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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