Lately, I have been reading a lot of blog post where employers lash out on prospective employees for submitting their resumes the wrong way, or sending a cover letter with spelling mistakes etc. I do agree with the blog post I just lined to. Some of the mistakes listed there are just not acceptable, and I feel like the employer is entitled to dismiss resumes on that basis. However, sometimes employers act in a bad way as well.
I would like to take a second and question the approach of some employers, and kind of tell them that it is time they step their game up as well, it is not just job seekers that are doing things the wrong way.
I am currently actively looking for a job, and I have had some pretty awful experiences, and I am going to share one of them with you. I will not be mentioning any names or things like that, but I will try to provide you with enough information so you can understand what I am saying.
On a Monday a few weeks ago I was scheduled for an interview in New York City at 10.30 in the morning. I decided to drive down the night before to my girl friends house outside of the city, a 5 hour trip one way, and then I took the train into the city in the morning. I show up at the office of the interview 8 minutes early (10.22am), and this is where the awesomeness begins. At 10.30 there is no sign of the HR person that is going to interview me. At 10.47 the receptionist tells me that the person is running a little late, and I think to myself “no big deal, that is understandable.” However, after waiting another 20 minutes I start getting a little frustrated, and then finally the person shows up. By this time I have waited 51 minutes (the 8 minutes early not included), and the HR person doesn’t even apologize for being late. We walk to this person’s office and the interview is nothing special, just a regular interview. After the interview is over we decide that I will reach out to this person at the end of the week to figure out what the next step is going to be, which is something I personally hate, but that is a different topic.
Anyway, this is where the story gets really good. At the end of the week (Friday afternoon) I decide to give this HR person a call to figure out what will happen now, or if they have decided to go with someone else, you know the drill. I call, and I reach a voice mail – no big deal, I just leave a message and the company will call me back and let me know their decision. Well, they didn’t call me back at all on Friday. On Monday I call again, twice, and end up leaving two voice mails. I decide not to call on Tuesday or Wednesday to give this person a fair chance to call me back. Nothing. Thursday rolls around and I call again, and again I reach this person’s voice mail – leave another message. On Friday I still haven’t been able to get in touch with this person so I decide to send an email. It has now been 9 days since I last tried to contact this person, and they haven’t gotten back to me at all.
I realize that I probably didn’t get the job, and that is ok. However, I think it is really low by an HR person to cop out like that and avoid someone for over a week. Why are you an HR person if you don’t have the balls (excuse my language) to tell someone “Sorry, not this time”?
Let me ask you, if this person was to call you up tomorrow and offer you the job, would you take it?
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