Five years ago, when I ws last looking for a job, I would receive polite “FU” letters from employers where I didn’t make the cut. You know “Thanks for applying, we received applicants from many well-qualified candidates, we chose someone that better suited our needs, good luck with your job search, blah blah blah.”
This time, applying for two to three jobs a week since I was laid off in April, I’ve been getting nothing back; it’s as if my resume, cover letter and portfolio are hitting the shredder as soon as they open the envelope. I’ve applied for god-knows-how-many jobs, and gotten zero rejection letters.
Do employers even bother to send rejection letters to applicants anymore? My job hunting experience is starting to feel like the online dating scene a while back; nobody ever responds.
Not in my experience over the last 3 years. I once went through two phone interviews and a group interview, then heard nothing back from anyone. No response to repeated voicemails left with the recruiter either.
They’re rare, but they do happen. I applied to lots of summer jobs last year, and received one rejection letter (from the National Archives and Records Administration).
I’ve been looking for full time work since last Nov. I have applied to probably 150 positions and the ONLY one I got a letter from was the one I interviewed with. All the others simply ignore you.
(Minor hijack) What the hell is up with the job market in central FL? Dammit, I’ve got a two college degrees, a decent work history, and a flexible schedule, why can’t I get a damn interview!
My brief stint of applying for jobs with the city was reasonably refreshing in this regard. After I’d turned in my application, they sent a little form card that said the application met the minimum qualifications, but if I didn’t hear back for an interview in a couple weeks I could assume I wouldn’t be called.
It’s understandable enough when the position is a heavily contested one. If 50 people apply but you only want to interview 5, it’s not really worth your time to send a rejection to all 45 others.
Plus, I’m sure some hiring managers don’t want to burn bridges unnecessarily, which a rejection letter would do. Back in college, I applied for a job with the planetarium and never heard back, so I ended up taking another job. Two, three months later I got a call from the planetarium asking if I was still interested.
Damn, I’m closer to Acid Lamp in the number of positions I’ve applied for since the beginning of January. If I apply for less than 5 a week, I feel really depressed about my lack of effort or the lack of job opps out there.
My experience is that about one in 12-15 bothers to send the FU letter for an application, and of the interviews I’ve had, it runs about 40% sending a follow-up.
That’s a shame. I can understand not responding to random applications and resumes, but if an employer is soliciting applications for open positions, they should respond to them.
If the company doesn’t have an actual HR department, you can pretty much forget about ever hearing from them unless someone wants to interview you.
If the company has an HR department you may get a polite, automated no thank you email (in some cases an actual letter) for your application, and will probably get some sort of response after you interview.
But I’ve gone through a number of interviews where I’ve never heard from the company, to the point where my phone calls weren’t even returned.
Yeah, I can take a hint, but there’s something to be said for simple poiteness.
Why don’t companies call back after an interview? I can understand no communication for having just sent in your resume, but after the interview should at least warrant an email, if not a phone call (much prefered!). You’ve gone to their office, you’ve met them and talked to them. It’s just rude to not send some sort of communication afterwards! I had two interviews this year where they said “we’ll make a decision within the week and let you know”… the first was in February and the second in April and I’m still waiting (actually, no… I got another job!)
They do in some places - where I work, for example.
I just got a new one that I’ve never seen here. They advertise positions internally, and if they don’t get enough applicants they go external. However, I INTERVIEWED internally and now it’s going external. I’ve never seen that before and it really hurt my feelings. (I mean, I’m sure it’s for some numbers-related bureaucratic nonsense, but really!)
Maybe he’s being more selective in what he applies for? I know that’s what I’m doing because I don’t want to waste my time (minor) and emotional energy (not minor) in tweaking my resume to fit a job for which I’m overqualified. I wish I could find five potential jobs a week that were even close to my skill set and experience. Yesterday’s Monster offerings included two entry level positions only nominally in my field and a job a step above entry level nowhere near my field.
As far as the rejection letters/emails go, at this point I assume I won’t hear anything. I’d rather just go ahead and figure it was a writing exercise than put in the emotional energy hoping for it to work out. Right now I’ve got a weird one where as soon as you apply online, you get an auto-generated response that says if you don’t hear anything in five business days, you don’t meet their requirements. Fair enough, except that I then got another form email from them two weeks later saying they would be reviewing resumes this week and if they were interested they would contact me. So who knows.
You are absolutely right. However, it gets very expensive to do that. I put an ad on Craigslist for a file clerk and had 88 resumes faxed. I simply don’t have the staff to respond to all those applicants.
However, if you actually come in for an interview and don’t make the cut, I think in that case not getting a response is very rude.
It’s happened to me. Not only is it rude, it makes me think that I was fortunate enough not to have been hired by that company in the first place. You interview, what 6 people and can’t send a Dear John letter to 5? Very unprofessional.
What’s the etiquette these days for following up, either post-interview or after sending out a resume and cover letter? I haven’t had to do this in ages (the last 2 times I was job-hunting, I got offers so quickly I didn’t need to follow up; the last time, they called me on my cell phone on the way home from the interview to make an offer), and I realize I’m both extremely lucky to have been in that position and in a very small niche field. But my boyfriend is job-hunting and not getting many nibbles, let alone interviews (though he has gotten some rejection e-mails). My instinct is to follow up if you haven’t had any news a couple of weeks after the interview, unless they’ve told you something specific about when the decision will be made. Other opinions?
IMHO it’s a cost of doing business, just like placing the ad. They don’t need individually typed letters with a signature. A couple hours work over the space of a week – as we’ve seen here, applicants would appreciate it. Hell, send me the resumes, some envelopes and stamps and I’ll do it for you.
I find it extremely rude. Long gone are the days of filling out an application in person, and since every. Bloody. Thing. Is done at some damn website and whisked away into the aether never to be heard from again, it isn’t too much to ask for a form e-mail that lets you know that you didn’t meet the criteria.
That’s been the biggest stumbling block for me. Everything is done on a centralized website. If you call to get the name or number of someone in HR, they won’t give it to you. If you manage to FIND hr, they just shunt you out the door saying," We have your online application, if we need you we’ll CALL you, Mr. Lamp. no need to keep checking up."
Hell, with a two-sentence e-mail template, it would take about 20 seconds per applicant for anyone with half a brain to send out a simple update e-mail.
