To be completely pissed off with Employers who...

[rushrushrush]

treat their candidates with such blatant bloody disregard and disrespect!?

My poor dh has had two interviews this week. First employer says "we will contact you on Wednesday to let you know if you will go through for a second interview". DO THEY CONTACT HIM? NO, THEY DON'T -STILL NOTHING!!

Interview Number 2 - yesterday afternoon concluded with the words - "we are very positive. I will call you this afternoon to arrange your second interview for early next week". DID THEY RING OR EMAIL? NOT THEY BLOODY DIDN'T.

Poor dh. We are DESPERATE for him to get a job and I mean DESPERATE. If he doesn't get one in the next 2 months, we will most likely lose our house.

Do employers really care so little for their candidates -it's just thoughtless and rude imo. I imagine we will have another hideous weekend without knowing either way and they may be bothered to contact him sometime next week. Sometimes a "no" is better than NOTHING.

I'm livid.....

Went to two interviews recently, unsuccessful in both jobs, I asked for feedback on why I wasn't successful and got ignored!

Surely telling me why I didn't get it would be good?

What I try to remember when recruiting is that each applicant is also a potential customer. I was treated very badly by a company when I first graduated and I have held it against them ever since. In fact, they tried to sell my company some equipment 15 years later and I chose not to buy from them because of it.

If you take a retail company as an example, not only are they annoying the the candidate, but that candidate will tell others how badly they were treated. It just isn't good business sense to piss off your customers.

Fabby they should of told you, it would then help you in your next interview. May be you went unshaven and scruffy looking or just had bad breath. These are the types of things that some employers find hard to relay to their candidates.

What do hyou do Fabby?

Agree YANBU because he wasn't just sending in an application or CV, he actually attended an interview and they gave an idea of timelines for the next stage! Absolutely unprofessional, I think. I'd give them until Monday at most and then chase them with a polite email.

"I sent out about 80-100 CV's and often was never contacted"
You didn't say what time scale this was over, but it doesn't sound as if you'd given each application/CV submission the attention it needed - in my organisation we're currently recruiting two low end roles and 1 higher end (top of middle management, basically a regional manager) - it's amazing how many people are submitting such obviously scattershot applications! For many jobs, esp. the higher end ones, firing off an email with an attachment just isn't going to cut the mustard in the hope one "sticks".

Really, I've only been part of the interviewing process at my company for 3 years (and it's not part of my main job - i'm basically there on 2nd interviews as one of the team rather than part of HR) and it's amazing to see how many more applications we're getting, and how much more rutheless some of our HR dept are being due to the massive amounts of applications we're getting. That's why a non-scattershot approach is more important than ever.

Hell, I was sitting in a meeting last week where a candidate's use of font was enough to get him chucked into the "no" pile (!) because the stack of CVs was so high and the meeting room was booked for max of 2 hours. Absolutely crazy, but what can companies do with limited resources and the fact that it's an employer's market right now?

frgr, sounds like your company needs to use a recruitment consultancy to dwindle down the applications and find your top 5 candidates. Save you a lot of time and money.

MrSpoc, I agree 110%. but our head is so picky about who gets recruited (it's a case of, if you can do the job, fab, but if he doesn't tkae a shine to you then no matter how good you are you ain't getting hired) that it makes it hard to convince them to try and outsource some of this stuff. utterly stupid, imho.

I understand. All my positions that I recruit for are based on Company Fit, Personality etc. Its not too hard to find the skills when you can contact competitors etc but personality is tricky. They could save time using a consultanct to source the best five then decide on fit after that.

I recently interviewed with a company over a 6 week period, had 5 interviews, met 15 people, 5 of whom I met at least twice. Then they turned round and said they'd introduced on a blanket ban on recruiting anyone with less than double my experience. That kind of thing sucks, was struggling to get other interviews as the agencies didn't want to send me as they thought I'd be offered the other job. Two different hiring managers told me 'off the record' I was going to be offered a job. Nothing.

I interviewed at another firm, the second person I met seemed to really like me, he even asked me when I could start, and as it looked like I was going to get the above job whether I would be prepared to accept an offer for them and wait a month to start. I said for the right offer, from the right firm I would definitely consider accepting a job to be started in a month. Everything seemed very positive. The next day the agency who sent me rang and said they didn't want me as I'd not done 'X' (X being something easy that I clearly had the skills to learn, the average 12 year old should be able to do it if shown how, that's how easy it was).

I hate it when they say you'll hear by a certain date and you don't. I interviewed somewhere 16 days ago, the agency said if it went well they might even make me an offer that day, or at least try and do a second interview that day. The interview feedback so far is positive but no news on whether I've got a second interview or not... so much for 'we'll let you know by close of play today'. Grr.

why doesnt he contact them

rushrushrush - think DH should phone and chase this up.

Mintymoo - I had a similar experience. I was offered a job, went in for training, saw confidential papers, and then they changed their mind and went for someone junior ie cheaper. I sympathise with you and hope we all find something soon

Well, here's an update!

He emailed both employers with a polite "I am still interested and looking forward to hearing from you" kind of email.

Employer 1 finally emailed back about 10 mins ago - he (who was going to definitely give him a second interview) "has forwarded your CV to one of our partners who will be deciding if who he wants to second interview on Monday"....this is NOT what he was told yesterday when this guy said he'd definitely get a second interview....which I think is bloody shoddy.

Employer 2 - STILL NO RESPONSE....

MrSpoc - he's a Financial Controller...

Nightmare.... not sure where we go from here
as neither sound promising do they?

It's all ways been like that you can apply for a hundred jobs and you might get ten replies if you are lucky.

One thing they tell people at the Job Centre is to ask for feedback on failed interviews so you know where you went wrong so can improve for next time (well thats what they used to say), fat chance of that, most of the time they don't even remember your name let alone what job you applied for if you contact them and ask, I've never had any feedback other then the generic thing about others had better/more experience.

I really wouldn't mind if they hadn't raised his expectations of getting a 2nd interview in the first place!! It's just plain thoughtless. He was all excited about a second interview and now it looks doubtful reading between the lines. And here we go for another weekend of feeling very down and worried. If they ever find themselves in our situation, then these people would know how it feels....it's frankly soul-destroying!

I know some interviewers are just crap, but is it possible your DH overinterpreted or even misinterpreted what they said? Not so much the " we'll tell you on such and such a date" - that's pretty obvious they fell down on that one. But on how positive they were about him?

I can easily imagine asking all the candidates at interview "when could you start"; for that to be interpreted as "we want you" is really wishful thinking on the candidate's part, IMO.

On the topic of feedback: I've had recent experience of being asked for it by unsuccessful candidates. It really helps if you don't stress how shocked you were that you didn't get it, or that you felt you were perfect for the job (and ergo that I am a fool). Even expressing severe disappointment comes across as trying to guilt the interviewer. Say thanks for the opportunity breezily, and ask straightforwardly - and understand that some jobs are so pressured that your interviewer may not have time. And also don't assume you were crap either and even need feedback - sometimes the whole field is outstanding, and it simply comes down to one or two small things that you can do nothing about.

Dh has a new job as an Ops Manager. He was applying for 3 months at Chrsitmas. Some things thta were done to him were truely shocking. Too true, what an employers market it is. candidates are two-a-penny, so lets treat them as such, shall we? yeah right ! Disgusting.
And since then he has hired 3 people, e.g. a warehouse manager, and he has teated all candidates with the respect that he, himself did not receive.

I'm really sorry you are in this situation OP. There may be very reasonable explanations, interviewers being ill, the decision makers having to deal with urgent business, an offer being made to a first candidate with your DH in the wings. Sometimes the interviewers do talk rubbish and for that I apologise. If it's any consolation, my DH interviewed last summer - was left hanging for four weeks - accepted another job and then the first company came back and said we want to move to the next stage! Unfortunately it's life and it's irritating

To the person who suggested HR should be abolished as a profession I would like to set out a few points in defence and also to note that my department is cut to the bone and to respond to every applicant is something akin to fantasy. We can barely meet our service level agreements let alone provide the supportive service some employees think we are there for. Actually we are there to ensure that employees perform to the required standards and ensure that their contractual benefits are in line with the market against a background of employment law.

Last summer I cancelled seven days of annual leave (have two children) to ensure that five employees were redeployed rather than being made compulsorily redundant and got the regional union official involved in one case to ensure the person didn't end up losing their job due to ridiculous behaviour.

I have ensured an alcoholic has been supported and after 18 months that person has now turned the corner and could have been sacked.

I sat on a grievance until a director left to ensure a disciplinary allegation (set-up) was not brought against a member of staff.

I have ensured a lady with cancer has had her salary extended by two montsh to support her recovery and have ensured another lady in a similar situation was retired under permanent ill health so that she died in service and her beneficiaries receive three times her salary.

I have dealt with countless grievances and disciplinaries including defending cases at tribunal.

I have visited an employee at their home when they didn't report for work and I knew they had a very serious medical condition and this was unusual - their manager had forgotten they were having the day off!

I have received death threats.

I have worked stints of 12 hour days for weeks at a time.

I have been screamed at three times this week by people who are completely unreasonable and need to be either disciplined or taken through performance management.

I have had staff threaten suicide and have got them help in cases of genuine mental illness and domestic violence.

Occasionally, very occasionally somebody says thank you - the rest of the time people criticise.

FWIW I have brought the lap top home again this weekend to write up notes to cover my arse against people lying.l

My BIL had a similar experience WRT interviewing. He applied for a job, was told he would hear within a few days. It went to two weeks, by which time he'd given up hope of ever hearing back. They then invited him for a second interview, again told him he would hear back within a couple of days, and again left it until weeks (this time, three) later before they gave him a verdict. Luckily, he ended up being offered the job, but not before he'd been put through crap to get it. Employers are very unfair sometimes.

Well, guess what, he just got a response at 6pm from the second company saying he'd been unsuccessful.

So, dh now thinks that he's not going to get a second interview for the first one either and he thinks he should offer to work for them for a couple of weeks for free to show what he can do......do you think this is worth a punt or is it reeking of desperation.....which of course he is....... I do feel sure that if he could just get in the door, he'd show how bloody good he is - over 20 years with a previous employer until redundancy and really, he's bloody good at his job!!

I am now on 3 weeks waiting for a response for a job where they promised to give an outcome within the week. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't an afternoon (4 hours) assessment, they prided themselves on being a very personell minded company and wanted to treat applicants as they would like to be treated. They promised they would be in touch within a week, absolutely nothing. I am going to ask for feedback however I understand at the CV stage getting no response, once you have made the effort and took holiday, paid money for travel then a quick email should not be a hardship. It is purely politeness.

No I don't think he should go back somewhere he has already been turned down for and offer to work for free - they have appointed already and made up their. He might identify similar organisations and ask them though although there are problems with volunteering in this way in that there has been a case where it was decided volunteers, if they were doing something that was needed had to be paid the minimum wage.

I'm not sure where in the country you are but there ought to be good agencies who can help and interim work is certainly worth a try or even work that he considers is much lower than he is worth - he would at least be doing something and have something constructive to put on his CV. At a push many organisations are always looking for voluntary treasurers and this would at least keep his mind occupied.

We always have difficulty getting financial staff but we pay poorly and I know we don't have vacancies at present. Has he thought of diversifying a bit and applying for bursar type jobs.

OP, even Interim could be hard to find, even for an FC. Heard our new accountant telling someone that the market these days was one of the worst he had ever seen. Bottom has fallen out of accounts. I was told by agencies I would be lucky to get 70% of my current salary, in the marketplace today.
He has to take anything he can, within reason, at the moment.