What would you do?

[shareacco]

I used to employed on a rolling yearly contract. Contract was not renewed after two years (around the time a lot of public services were experiencing financial cuts).

I stayed in the field but lower paid job for 2 years following redundancy. I'm currently a sahm to toddler twins following maternity leave.

Job I was made redundant for came up again and I phoned and asked if I should apply. Answer was a yes.

Was selected for interview but not successful. Was told to phone back on Thursday if I wanted feedback. Have phoned everyday since then and they are busy.

Would you still ask for feedback? Do I keep calling? I feel so in the dark. Thanks.

If you've called several times I think I'd leave it for now, they know you are there and waiting which is all you can do. Unfortunately not all businesses/recruiting managers are great about providing feedback, some that I've worked with refuse point blank to do it at all which isn't great for candidates.

If you still haven't heard by the end of the week and you have or can find an email address, I'd send a short polite email reminding them that you would appreciate feedback and it would be fine if they prefer to give written feedback rather than a phone call. I do a lot of recruiting and have taken to doing email feedback recently (with the offer of a follow up call) and I much prefer it (candidates have told me they do too). It gives me a chance to think through and express what I really want to say in a careful way and in my own time rather than being put on the spot, and where I have points for the candidate to improve on, I think it's easier for them to read and digest that in their own time too. I think a lot of people are nervous of putting things in writing though, or indeed of giving any feedback or any specific/constructive feedback anyway, to unsuccessful candidates, perhaps because of fear of repercussions/complaints? It's a shame as how else are you meant to improve?

Thank you for your reply. I think they just said call back on Thursday just to get me off the phone.

@shareacco is this a public sector vacancy? If so, definitely pursue it by highlighting you would expect their support to help you increase future chances of securing employment there.

PS organisations aren't obliged to provide feedback as to why someone doesn't make it through a CV sift, however in most cases they should give you proper constructive interview feedback on criteria you fell short on, and sometimes, they give tips on how to improve. If it's public sector they are meant to be supporting the U.K. economy including employment, filling vacancies etc, so you're not asking them for anything they aren't meant to give.

If it isn't public sector, then scrub the above, it's completely at the discretion of the company how they choose to manage this process. If they have more "supply than demand", unfortunately they take a cavalier attitude because they know there are limitless people to choose from.

If there is an email address you've been using during the interview process, you could drop them a line to give a few dates/times when someone could contact you, as you're keen to understand your ratings in each criteria (if it was a structure interview).

It's public sector.