Some Hosts Were Not Satisfied With Candidates
What Happened: From September-December 2023, Mountaintop interviewed candidates for seven host led fellowships across six hosts in five countries. Out of these positions, hosts were satisfied with candidates for five of these placements and selected five Fellows without an issue. For another placement, one of the hosts decided to extend the recruitment period to find a better fit for their placement. And for the last placement, the host did not think there was a good fit for their placement and decided to postpone recruiting for a Fellow until the following year. In this case, the host was immediately refunded 100% of the cost of the fellowship as promised in the host contract.
In both of the cases of the hosts who did not immediately select a Fellow, they shared that they had expected candidates to have more experience and qualifications than a bulk of the candidate pool.
How Mountaintop Responded: Given the success in the recruitment process with 1,877 applications in its first cycle, Mountaintop recognizes that the main problem is not recruitment but clear communication with hosts to establish expectations on both sides. Mountaintop has revised its host materials and meeting protocols to communicate more clearly to hosts that the program is looking for emerging leaders from the host country, and that in general they will not be mid or senior level leaders. Hosts are now asked to provide a much higher level of detail of the responsibilities, qualifications, and ideal candidate profile when crafting their fellowship profiles. Mountaintop will also spend more time talking with hosts during the host application process before confirmation to ensure that everyone is on the same page and Mountaintop knows who to be recruiting.
Mountaintop's Learning and Commitment: Mountaintop has learned that hosts are looking for extremely diverse types of Fellows, and what Mountaintop may be looking for may significantly differ from what the host wants. Mountaintop is committed to recruiting in a much more targeted way going forward while doing a better job of communicating realistic expectations for hosts.