I think this falls into a broader class of behaviors I’d call aspirational inclusiveness.
I do think shifting the relative weight from welcoming to clear is good. But I’d frame it as a “yes and” kind of shift. The encouragement message should be followed up with a dose of hard numbers.
Something I’ve appreciated from a few applications is the hiring manager’s initial guess for how the process will turn out. Something like “Stage 1 has X people and our very tentative guess is future stages will go like this”.
Scenarios can also substitute in areas where numbers may be misleading or hard to obtain. I’ve gotten this from mentors before, like here’s what could happen if your new job goes great. Here’s what could happen if your new job goes badly. Here’s the stuff you can control and here’s the stuff you can’t control.
Something I’ve tried to practice in my advice is giving some ballpark number and reference class. I tell someone they should consider skilling up in hard area or pursuing competitive field, then I tell them I expect success in <5% of people I give the advice to, and then say you may still want to do it because of certain reasons
Yes, it’s all very noisy. But numbers seem far far better than expecting applicants to read between the lines on what a heartwarming message is supposed to mean, especially early-career folks who would understandably assign a high probability of success with it
I think this falls into a broader class of behaviors I’d call aspirational inclusiveness.
I do think shifting the relative weight from welcoming to clear is good. But I’d frame it as a “yes and” kind of shift. The encouragement message should be followed up with a dose of hard numbers.
Something I’ve appreciated from a few applications is the hiring manager’s initial guess for how the process will turn out. Something like “Stage 1 has X people and our very tentative guess is future stages will go like this”.
Scenarios can also substitute in areas where numbers may be misleading or hard to obtain. I’ve gotten this from mentors before, like here’s what could happen if your new job goes great. Here’s what could happen if your new job goes badly. Here’s the stuff you can control and here’s the stuff you can’t control.
Something I’ve tried to practice in my advice is giving some ballpark number and reference class. I tell someone they should consider skilling up in hard area or pursuing competitive field, then I tell them I expect success in <5% of people I give the advice to, and then say you may still want to do it because of certain reasons
Yes, it’s all very noisy. But numbers seem far far better than expecting applicants to read between the lines on what a heartwarming message is supposed to mean, especially early-career folks who would understandably assign a high probability of success with it
Oh I like this phrase a lot