An answer would have been nice (job hunting)

The BBQ Pit
1

So, about four weeks ago, I went on a job interview. I thought it went pretty well. At the end I asked the interviewer what the time frame was (he hoped to have a decision on a candidate within a week or so). Of course, I followed up with a thank you note.

The next week I called to find out where I stood and what I could do to help further my application. I got the interviewer’s voice mail and left a message. After a few days of no answer, I sent an email. Still no reply. In the intervening three weeks, I left a few more messages (all polite) and emails hoping to find out what the story with the position is. I have yet to hear anything.

I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that I didn’t get the job. That’s OK. But I would have appreciated an answer. A return message. Any of the following would have sufficed:

“Sorry, Zev, but we found a candidate with better skills.”
“Sorry, Zev, but we didn’t think you would be a good fit for the company.”
“Sorry, Zev, but the person who was leaving decided to stay on after all.”
“Sorry, Zev, but you’re ugly and you smell funny.”
“Sorry, Zev, but we’re going out of business.”
“Sorry, Zev, but since we might be 25th cousins 8 times removed, I can’t hire you for fear of being accused of nepotism.”

Any of those would have been nice, but I didn’t get anything. I would think that common courtesy demands at least a response to my inquiries. Would it have been so difficult to hit “Reply” and type two lines when one of my emails showed up? Beleive it or not, this bothers me more than the fact that I didn’t get the job.

Zev Steinhardt

2

I hear ya, buddy. I’m in the job hunt right now, and I’ve had a few interviews. Luckily, I’ve only had one pull this one me. Pissed me off. I called, left messages, and email. Nothing. Nevermind the fact that during the interview, they were asking questions on how to fix things that they were having problems with. Anyway…

3

The same thing happened to me last year. Now, I have professional dealings with the individual every once in a while. Don’t think that his behavior then doesn’t affect my feelings about him now. Granted, I wanted the job, but I kept pestering him long after it was obvious that I didn’t get it, just out of principle.

4

The exact same thing happened to me in my job hunt two years ago. I secured two job interviews within a week of starting my job search. Both interviews went extremely well, I thought. I walked out of both interviews with my head in the clouds, actually worrying how I would choose between them. I remember thinking to myself, “This job-hunting isn’t so hard!”

Then…nothing. I left polite voice-mails and follow-up e-mails on a weekly basis for about a month. I never heard anything from either company again.

I did hear about a year later that my grad school advisor, who had referred me one of the interviewers (a senior vice president in his company), actually chewed the guy out for his treatment of me. The vice president had apparently asked my advisor for another job candidate, and my advisor told him that he had better treat this prospect better than he did me, or it was the last prospect he would get from him.

5

I’ve been on both sides of the fence.

On one hand, I hear ya. It’s annoying and rude to blow someone off who spent much time and hope invested.

On the other hand…

  • Usually extremely busy and a rush to get work done. Taking time to talk/write is one of the first items on the ‘to do’ list to be sacrificed.

  • If you talk with them, it will bring up questions of ‘why not?’ This takes up more time but, more importantly, opens yourself up to the possibility of ‘bad things’. Say the wrong thing or if the person THINKS you said the wrong thing…time/headache/worse can happen to you. So, many people and even businesses will not do/not allow them to contact these people.

  • If the person calls in, many times they will say the position is still being filled even when the person was hired weeks ago just to avoid the one above.

  • Many people don’t like to hurt other people/do not like conflicts and so ‘do them a favor’ by not telling them the position is filled. {Think girl you asked out that wants nothing to do with you but doesn’t want to ‘hurt your feelings’ so you get a huge runaround, false hope and frustration}. In reality they are doing you more harm then good.

  • Giving a specific reason for the person not being hired just invites arguments and reasoning that it is invalid. The person hiring has already hired for the position and doesn’t want to get into an argument. Also, like mentioned before it can open you up to possible harm or hassle.

  • You never know if the person you actually hired will show up (it happens that they don’t a bit more often than you would think…they still have people calling them and a better offer could come along) and that uncertainty carries through the first couple of months. I have had people leave after 6-8 weeks because they are still being contacted. If this happens, it is many times better to go back to the previous applicants and claim ‘slowness’ than restart the process.

  • Sometimes companies move VERY slowly. I’ve seen applicants hanging for 2+ months and, after hired, were sure the above happened…but the company was really just that slow. Sometimes they are just trying to time the hire to fit.
    In reality, do not expect crap from anyone. Sometimes you can call them up and preface that you will not argue or hold grudge but really want to know why you didn’t get the position – 9 times out of 10 you will get the normal BS but sometimes the person will be honest.

I personally contacted everyone that made it past the first interview into the second that didn’t get the job…but that was me.

6

This happened to me once. I had an interview for a news producer position at a television station in Charleston.

I called about a week later, and got the “We’re still reviewing candidates, but you’re on the list.”

The next day, I got a letter telling me I didn’t get the job.

The letter was dated the day before I placed my phone call to check on my status.

7

I had been looking for a new job, up until September 2003.

I was disgusted at the fact that no matter whom I applied to, I didn’t get ONE answer. Forget interview. WTF? I thought to myself.

This included a new IKEA that went up near my home. I applied for many positions, including the job of putting the furniture together, for displays. Putting IKEA furniture together, as a job??? Masochistic to say the least. But I wasn’t picky. I am formally trained not only an interior designer, but an interior decorator as well. Besides this, I’ve worked in a bank for many years, as well as a casino. Can we say “Customer Service”? I even applied for the IKEA position of standing by the door and giving out their free catalogs. How much experience does that take? Nothing. I only received their confirmation of my application. Nothing more.

Last week, I get a letter (dated Feb16th, 2004), basically saying the following:

Thank you for applying for the position as Customs Officer Dorval. We received your application in 2002. On Dec.13th 2003, our Prime Minister changed our system, therefore we now take interior applications only. Thank you for applying. We encourage you to continue searching for a job at www.govjobs.ca.

If I wasn’t so thrilled by actually getting a letter that my application was received, I’d be insulted. ** I applied in 2002**. At the END of 2003, the modus operandi was changed. In FEB 04, the let me know that they are no longer considering my application.

Well thank you very much. I was holding my breath. I was waiting for your response from the application I made TWO YEARS AGO! Assholes. But thanks for responding, I guess. :rolleyes:

8

Urgh. As I type, I am sitting next to the phone, WILLING it to ring to find out about a job I interviewed for last week. I KNOW that this place has checked at least two of my references, and the interview went really well. At the time, they told me they’d make a decision within a week, and it’s just over that timeframe now. I am SO impatient!

To make matters worse, one of my references called me IMMEDIATELY after speaking with this place, and essentially congratulated me on the new job, which I don’t yet know whether I really have or not!. So I got all excited, and it’s now been two days since then, and not a word from the company. I know it hasn’t been that long, but everything tied together, and I just don’t know what the delay is!

I think I’ll call them tomorrow.

I had applied to work at my former place of employment back in January, and went through an interview and everything. Prior to leaving back in August to return to school, my supervisor, his manager, and the VP of the department all told me there’d be a job waiting for me when I graduated. Another Supervisor told me he’d like to have me in his group. So I went in to the interview, assuming it was just a formality. Three and a half weeks later, I called my former supervisor and asked what was happening, and he told me that they’d already hired someone else instead. Since the manager and VP both left the company in November, I am 99% SURE that the two supervisor’s opinions and decisions to hire me were trumped by the new VP, who by all accounts is not a pleasant man to work for. I am still bitter. The person they hired has “more experience” in the sense that he has a PhD, BUT he has no actual lab experience in the industry. A co-worker friend of mine was ranting on the phone just last night about how incompetent this guy actually is (though that was possibly to make me feel better!)

Upon reading the above paragraph, it sounds really petty, but all things considered, I think I wasn’t treated fairly by them. Unfortunately, I loved the work and my co-workers, and I have notified the HR person to keep me in mind for any future openings.

But frankly, I’d rather get the job that I am now waiting on! Ring, phone, RING!

9

CheekyMonkey, if you think that’s bad, wait until you hear this–I’m still waiting to hear from the Canadian government for a job I applied to in 1984! Needless to say, I’m not holding my breath.

Zev, I agree. Some kind of response or reply is, IMHO, required. I don’t care how busy the person is, it is only good manners to respond somehow. And that goes doubly when it is necessary to say “thanks but we’re not proceeding further” to a candidate who has come in for an interview.

Just as a side note–I was going through some of my files the other day, and came across a bunch of letters from companies I had once applied to for a job. They were form letters, and each contained the usual platitudes (“We reviewed you application and resume with interest. However…”). But each was addressed to me personally, and each was on company letterhead. They didn’t contain the news I was hoping for, but at least I knew where I stood.

Times have changed, of course, and while I can understand that a quick e-mail message would accomplish the same thing nowadays, I can’t understand why companies won’t even do that. “Too busy” has nothing to do with it, IMHO. If you have taken on the task of advertising, reviewing applications and resumes, interviewing candidates, and ultimately hiring one; then it would seem to me that you are obliged to finish the task by letting the unsuccessful candidates know.

10

Spoons, you’re so right about the personalization making a big difference. I recently interviewed for a job at the corporate HQ of a huge company. Got a form rejection letter that didn’t even have my name on it. Gee, thanks.

11

I considered starting a thread on this very subject about this time last year. About six weeks after starting my current job, I not only got a rejection letter from a job I’d interviewed for about a week before interviewing at the clinic (by this point, it had been over two months, and the guy said he’d be making a decision in a week or so), I got a letter from a job I’d applied and interviewed for in November (they’d said they were making a decision within two weeks), and I got no less than three calls from the temp agency I’d spent three months hounding for work–all within the same week.

Yes, I understand that people find it awkward to let you know they’ve decided to go with someone else. I also understand that you don’t really want to send out rejection letters until you’re sure that the new hire is going to work out. But when it’s that far beyond the timeframe you laid out for making a decision, people already know that they didn’t get the job, or that they’re your fall-back position. Treating someone as though they don’t realize this is just insulting.

12

In the HR offices that I have worked in, we had the following standards. If a person was interviewed, they were to be called once an offer has been made and accepted. They took the time and effort to come in for an interview, it is only right that they be given the same consideration. How unsuccessful applications were handled did vary considerably. One sent post cards to all applicants along with the procedure, there was a note that if you were not contacted within X days to assume that you will not be called. Another company waited until after the offer was made and accepted to contact all applicants.

It is not the most pleasant part of a recruiter’s job, but I do believe it is an important one. Each applicant is a potential customer, employee, or competitor and should be treated as such. There are a number of companies I will not have anything to do with simply because of how they treated me as an applicant.

13

Recruiters???

HR???

What are these things?

{must be nice}

Of course, not having these things has its advantages… :slight_smile:

14

Yeah, if a company thinks you are promising enough to interview, and you go to the trouble of getting dressed up and dragging your ass over there, then they owe you the courtesy of a phone call, a letter, or an email.

Unfortunately, they usually ignore this obligation for a very simple reason–because they can. Even in tight labor markets, there are usually more applicants than there are jobs, and once they’ve decided that you’re not the candidate they want, they have no further use for you. Assholes.

15

Huh? It is not even close to being right for an employer not to tell someone he or she got a job until making sure the new hire is going to work out. That could be months.

No one is that good in following up on resumes - we get too many. But once someone has interviewed it is another story. Even if a company is still interviewing, they should at least tell a candidate that he is in active consideration, assuming he is. I actually interviewed, and waited a long time before I heard - and in this case I actually got the job. (I had a headhunter helping, which made life easier.) It turns out this boss was an idiot, so I should have paid attention to the signs.

Part of the problem is the WalMartization of HR. When I first started hiring people, 20 years ago, we had 3 people in a 500 person center dedicated to recruiting. They did the paperwork, made the travel arrangements, and followed up. Today you’d be lucky to have one person, half time, doing this, so it gets stuck on hiring managers, who probably don’t have admins anymore. But we’re sure productive.

16

These are all BS excuses for a lack of professional courtesy.

20 years ago we tried to contact each and every candidate that took the time to send a resume. Today the multitude of responses received from an internet job posting make this impossible, but not following up with candidates that you invite in for an interview is classless.

17

Voyager, I didn’t say it was right, I said I understood their reluctance to burn bridges by sending out rejection letters. Unfortunately, the logic in such a position is seriously flawed. Applicants realize they’ve been rejected, whether you’ve sent the letters or not, so the bridge is already burned. Pretending that applicants don’t realize this is just insulting and counterproductive.

18

I’ve got that one beat!

I applied for an internal position within my company, and got a photocopied rejection form letter complete with bad grammar and a nebulous non-reason for the decision…

from my direct supervisor…

who I not only see and speak with every day, but with whom I had a one-on-one meeting scheduled for the next day!

19

Ironically I have gotten a rejection letter today for a job I DIDN’T apply for. I don’t know which is worse to be ignored by a company you applied to or to be such a bad candidate that they tell you your no good before you even try. I hate this job market., I think I’m going to give up shaving all together.

20

How about " We hired someone else for that manger’s position that you have 15 years experinece, a degree and paid $40.000 a year but we liked you a lot so we want to offer you an entry level position for $10.00 an hour."