To wonder if recruitment and manners no longer go hand in hand?

[chezbot]

Interviewed 2 weeks ago, have still heard nothing.

Do you not even get a rejection these days?

I had interviews last year at huge companies - JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank and a couple more - never heard back after second interviews! I rang and emailed HR to chase up and they never replied or picked up.

It’s happened to me sooooo many times now that I resolve to never use those companies.

I agree, if I've taken the time out to attend a job interview, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to hear back..Most applications are online and it takes two seconds to upload the word "rejection". It's very unprofessional to hear nothing,.I don't believe anybody is too busy to carry out this simple task.

I recently attended a job interview where the person interviewing looked shell shocked when I approached her and shook her hand and introduced myself.She didn't even rise from her seat.

Yep, I’ve had interviews where the interviewers didn’t get up to shake my hand or show any interest!

I think it's rude not to contact unsuccessful appliants. I do a lot of recruitment as part of my job. Some posts have loads of applicants (in the hundreds), in which case unsuccessful candidates get a standard 'thank you for your interest in post x, sorry you have not been successful on this occasion, due to volume of applications we are unable to provide feedback...' type of email. When people make it through to interview, or for posts where there's only a handful of applicants, we offer feedback. As a pp said, it doesn't take long to send a standard email.

What was the closing date for applications, OP? It can take us a week or more to sift through if there are hundreds of applicants, so might it be that they're still working on the shortlisting?

I worked in in-house recruitment until recently. I would always call to let an applicant know the outcome (or email if they hadn't got through to interview stage). If for some reason the decision was taking a while, I would call to explain. Apart from the fact it's good manners, I'd want to know if they had any other offers or interviews.

There were a few instances where we rejected a candidate but hired them at a later date so it pays to be professional and keep in touch.

I was recently made redundant so have been applying for endless jobs/going for interviews. I was shocked at the level of rudeness from some companies.
I went for an interview at a big high street store for an HR role and the manager kept stopping to send texts. No explanation, just kept picking up his phone and texting.
I had a first interview at one place who said they wanted to invite me in for a second interview, 6 weeks later and after a lot of chasing they still hadn’t set a date.
One application I did I saw the job readvertised a few weeks later, so I contacted the hiring manager about my previous application. She replied saying I hadn’t been successful and previous applicants need not apply. I wonder when she would’ve let me know if I hadn’t chased it!
Countless applications I’ve just received no response. My colleague also went for a final interview at a food retailer and they never got back to him. It’s been over 5 weeks and he’s chased it several times and they still have never given him an answer.

Does seem to be the norm now more often than not. I know the volume of applications can be huge, but I thought that big companies in particular would have processes in place even just to send the standard rejection email.

Thanks very much for your replies. I'm much less disheartened than I was an hour or so ago

I recently read a job description which stated that recruitment personnel must be people-persons to the core. I have to say, in 12 mths of job-hunting I haven't met too many recruitment types fitting that description Rude? Yes. Disorganised? Yes. People-persons? Not so much. It's terrible PR - the absolute lack of thought and basic manners demonstrated by the recruitment teams of a number of big companies has certainly tainted my opinions of those companies.

I do a lot of recruitment. I always call unsuccessful interviewees, but we don't notify the other unsuccessful applicants. We receive lots of poor applications which are from people who do not meet any of the mandatory requirements, I wonder if it is to meet job centre requirements for job applications.

As our processes are anonymous until we finalise the shortlist for interview we can't provide any useful individualised feedback to paper candidates.

I do offer candid but constructive feedback for interviewees if the candidates want it.

Recruitment is a bit of a thankless task, takes ages and needs lots of input if you want to do it right, but that is hard when work is so busy. I'd much rather be on the applicant end than the recruiter end

Went for an interview three weeks ago. No word. Saw job advertised again today. Emailed recruitment lead saying I found it very unprofessional. Phone call an hour or so later offering me the job

I work for a large employer but will always phone interviewees whether successful or otherwise. I generally also give feedback on interview performance too.
It's massively time consuming but I feel really strongly that most candidates getting through to interview stage will have spent hours on preparation so we owe them that much.

I do also hear horror stories (through work) of the way some organisations treat their interview candidates. I think it speaks volumes about how they will treat you as part of their workforce!

I think most firms do offer you at least a rejection email if you have interviewed. I'd say it's about 50:50 if you get a form rejection after a standard application, but I do appreciate this.

Last autumn, I interviewed with a large animal charity. It was a specialised role, and they knew I was traveling a long distance to interview (I would have relocated for the job) and they didn't bother to get back to me. I did contact the charity and after two weeks, and essentially they were "keeping me in reserve" in case their first choice didn't work out. At this stage, I told them I wasn't interested in the role, and it would put me off applying for jobs with them in the future.

I also went for an interview recently where a group of candidates were called in for a time slot between 10-1. I assumed it would be a group interview, but no, after a short group tour, we were all interviewed individually by two interviewers, so I spent more time waiting around than being interviewed. I guess this is more efficient for the company, but it seemed really disrespectful of candidates time, as it would mean taking at least half a day off work. I was offered a role, but am in two minds as to whether to take it, as I think this could be representative of their general attitude to staff.

It rubs two ways. Candidates are far from perfect. I can't count the number of hours I've spent sitting in empty meeting rooms waiting for candidates who haven't bothered showing up. Even when we confirm each one by phone, we still get no shows. I'm baffled by it.

dontbesillyhenry Congratulations but that's ridiculous. Did you take it? Did you find out what happened, was it an error?

I think there can be a bit of power tripping going on. They know you want the job, you've sweated trying to give the perfect interview/presentation and are waiting by the phone for days to hear if you've got it or not. So why not get back to the unsuccessful candidates.

I got to second stage for a job last year and after keeping me in limbo for 10 days I finally plucked up the courage to email the hiring manager.. and got her out of office, she'd gone on holiday for 2 weeks!

Last year, I had 7, yes 7 interviews with one organisation. I also sat a psychometric test which took a good 2 hrs after interview number 5. Two of those interviews were with the COO. I never got a response after my 7th interview. Lucky escape.

A fuck they not give.

I can't imagine no showing for an interview without giving warning (e.g. if I'd been offered another job).

I do think a lot of companies have gotten lazy with recruiting, which may lead to them losing out on good candidates now we have (temporarily?) low unemployment.

That said, as long as a company acknowledge me after interview, I would understand them not wanting to give feedback, as I'm sure some people can become aggressive and try and argue the point.

I'm still waiting to hear from one job. It was 4 months ago.

Rainbow it's a very big organisation with many vacancies always on offer. They have a very slapdash attitude to their employees it would seem

I had an interview in early November, heard nothing until the first week of December (had pretty much written it off at that point) and I got the job.

It’s not over until you get the official no, can you email and ask if they’ve made a decision? Could be that they’re struggling to decide or the person with the final say might have been on leave. No harm in asking.

I once interviewed with the in-house recruiter at a large bank for a relatively senior position. I then met the head of department. After which I was told I was the preferred candidate but needed to meet the colleague I'd be working closely with. After the third meeting I came out thinking I wouldn't get the job because we didn't gel. However, I was gobsmacked that I still didn't even get the courtesy of a short email. So rude.

And yes, candidate can be appalling too. I've been shocked at times. There's still no excuse.

Yes, it's rude. I don't think it's just recruiters though. It seems so many companies nowadays think it's ok not to reply. I've lost count of the number of queries I've made to various organisations over the last few years and not got a response. Anyway, regarding recruitment, there's been many jobs I've applied for and not heard back from, but if you get to the interview stage then they absolutely should let you know either way. Seems to be the way society's heading though...

I think its an Ego issue drives me mad - so rude when people put time and effort in to do decent applications and they can't even respond. I appreciate busy working environments but really it takes less than a minute to do an email. And the long time impact of not - people slagging them off and not applying in the future etc, Crazy