Yes, they would judge you on your appearance. If you dress according to what you expect the dress code to be, you are demonstrating that you understand the nature of the business, you are planning accordingly, and most importantly, you are being respectful of the expected protocol. It is a courtesy that is both appreciated an expected if you want to make a good impression.
Likewise, if I ran a fetish shop and you showed up in a suit and tie, I’d think I would have preferred the S&M outfit. If I worked on a muddy industrial site, and you dressed to the nines, showing up in patent leather, open-toed shoes and a dress that is not safe for a work site, you’re going to leave me with an impression that’s not nearly as good as if you’d showed up in jeans and steel-toed boots.
Personally, if your skills fit the position, that’s what’s most important to me. But if there are two people who are equally skilled, I’ll go with the one who has demonstrated a level of professionalism that meets the expectations of the job (whether those expectations are suit-and-tie or steel-toed boots).
If your e-mail address contains language that is unacceptable in the business milieu for which you are applying, then you probably shouldn’t be using it to solicit a job.
E.g./ If a potential (corporate) employer asked “what is your e-mail address?” and I answered “suck_me_hard” I would not expect a call back.
I don’t think we’re in disagreement. I’m sure you would rather be told you didn’t get the job and then get the surprize later. But a hiring manager would rather you were sitting by the phone waiting desparately for an offer, any offer, when they called you with one. And that’s more likely to be the case if he doesn’t tell you explicitely that you didn’t get the job. Sorry, nothing personal.
Well, we ran an ad Sunday. Took applications Monday and Tuesday. Called four candidates late Tuesday. Interviewed the three who responded to our calls on Wednesday. Hired one today and notified the other two. Told all callers following up on their applications that the job has been filled and that, if they’d like, we’ll keep the applications on file for a year and they should call us with any updates during that time.
So my angst is over, just so long as Carol shows up on Monday!
Which is fine and perfectly within their rights but very unprofessional. Then again, if a company has such practices, I can picture the same manager being canned one day with no notice and then being desperate to find a job.
One story about burning bridges I remember clearly: A recruiter calls a higher up tech guy to see if he is interested in a new job. The tech guy basically gives the recruiter some attitude and gets off the phone. Week later the tech guy loses his job and comes begging the recruiter for a job who promptly throws his paperwork in the trash.
Isn’t that one great? I wasted a couple of days sitting around to not miss phone calls, and go in for interviews, and then got told what a great addition I’d make to the staff, half a step short of hiring me on the spot. To never hear from them again. When I called to ask about it, they told me they’d just shifted someone from another position over, and had apparently intended to do so from the start, they just had to advertise the position anyway for some half-baked reason.
I’ve seen this happen when certain positions get a government grant of some kind. They know exactly who they intend to put in the position, but they are required to make the position open to the public any qualified candidate to fulfill some criteria of the grant. So they still go through the motions even though they already know who they want to hire.
I’ve always found it weird when companies call you back months later. A few years ago, I sent in a resume for an advertised position. Never heard back. Over seven months later they contacted me for an interview. By then I had been working at my present job for six months and I had moved out of town. I had to politely decline the offer for an interview.
I’m guessing the person they hired didn’t work out, so they were going through the other 7-8 months-past applicants rather than paying for a new job ad. Granted the economy was rather bad at the time, but really, by then I barely remembered who they were.
Yeah, a lot of companies have to open the position to outsiders even when they have an insider they want to hire. Luckily, in many cases (such as at a certain airline I could name), if they want to do that they will make the job specs so specific that they basically only fit one person: the person they wanted anyway.
Trick is, it’s still very hard to spot the difference when you’re a job seeker.
I wonder how a two letter ccTLD would go over on a job application? My personal email address ends with .uk instead of the conventional .com. Would that be an issue? I don’t live in the UK; the email addy was a gift from a British friend who owns a .co.uk mailserver.
You bring me in for three interviews, one with the head of HR. Things seems to be going very well indeed. I’m savoring the sweet, sweet prospect of handing in my two-weeks notice at my current job. Then you ignore me for a month, not returning voice mail or e-mail. Then when I finally get in touch with you, not your precious voice mail, you tell me, “You’re very qualified for the position we advertised for. However, we’ve decided to re-define that position completely. No, we don’t have a description of the new position, and we won’t start advertising for that for a couple months. You’ll have to re-apply then.”
Fuck you very much, buddy. It must be nice to be able to dick around interviewing people for a job that won’t ever exist.
