Annoyed by colleague who is over keen on opportunity

[Flowerdews]

I work in a very big department in IT and my team is growing, so as a result I am hiring 3 new roles. The roles are not yet advertised but they will be, soon. One colleague from another department, who does remotely related things as what we are looking for in these new roles, was approaching me and tried selling himself.

So I did what the standard process required, I told him to wait for the job to be advertised then he could apply like everyone else . But he emailed a few more times and basically told me he has been talking to my colleague and letting them know his intention , and again told me how good he is.
TBH, I am pretty annoyed by this. We hire a couple of time each year and I have never seen this situation. I mean , what does he think he can gain by keep chasing me ?
I am seriously thinking I should have a word with his manager. Our teams do have some work together and I would like to keep a good working relationship.
I would like to hear from ONLY those of you who has been a hiring manager , what are your thoughts on this.

Yeh, I thought this was standard...

How annoying is it really? A couple of emails saying he is keen.

At the end of the day he's got to formally apply and interview and you can form a proper opinion of him then.

I would like to hear from ONLY those of you who has been a hiring manager

😂😂😂

Well his behavior now is an indicator of his behavior if)when he is in the role.
He's pushy, doesn't give up easily. Can be good points.
On the flip side, maybe he can't read a room.

He cannot take instruction and does he do what he likes on his own agenda even though he was told otherwise.
He's harassing his future boss and he's too thick to notice that. Does he lack self awareness?
He's inadvertently doing an interview with you already!
Email him again firmly short and sweet and no frills.
'As I said, please wait til the post is advertised. All candidates will get a fair chance to apply'.

@Flowerdews your "hiring manager tone" has enough red flags to decorate a carnival! Hopefully he'll realise this soon.

This will be the next post on Twitter. Mumsnet Madness "ONLY hiring managers can reply". Or it'll be all over LinkedIn. 😂

Wow. That’s just horrible, why are you making these assumptions about this poor man, good god.

Meh.

Just say ‘Great. Look forward to your application’.

If he keeps emailing ignore it.

Don’t get bent out of shape about it. Enthusiastic staff are better than the opposite.

Personally I get annoying but no I would not feel like you need roto go to his manager, I am sure there will be some extra blame from some posters because he is male seems to be a thing but I don't feel he needs to be told off like aschool boy over this

He is enthusiastic and that seems lacking these days even though it may seem a little OTT

Ex hiring manager here.

You've had a call and he didn't even ask what the role was.

When he applies, he won't meet that requirement if he hasn't ever done research. Although you he may have done this in a different life, sometimes things come out at interview that you never thought people could do.

I've had successful results with people who just want a different job, when we've chatted about the role, they have seen that it isn't actually something they wanted to do so it wouldn't be a good move for them.

I'd probably, once the job was out, email him and tell him it is out but in order to meet fair and effective recruitment requirements, he needs to let the process play out as you will not be able to discuss the role with him outside of the process.

I've hired a few people.

In general we don't make it known that opportunities are coming up (mostly because of the HR red tape in getting it through!) but I don't have any problem at all with people approaching me to show they are keen and find out more. I've had a few speculative approaches too, also don't mind them.

The emailing a few times is a little over the top I agree. Is he quite young, where is he based? In my experience hiring in IT (though it was a different branch from yours), it was the young guys based in India who would be like a dog with a bone because they were very ambitious and had high expectations.

I wouldn't say anything to his manager but I would just keep any replies to a short "I'll look forward to receiving your application in due course" or something. If you want to be kind maybe gently point out to him that he's not approaching this the best way, especially if he is young and inexperienced, but that's up to you.

I am a hiring manager, my advice is to stop being on such a controlling power trip about who you “let” communicate with you! ONLY people who have gone through the job ad, not people who are keen and enthusiastic?ONLY hiring managers? Like the other low-lives have no useful perspectives to add? I wouldn’t want to work for you, you sound very controlling.

I'm a hiring manager for senior and very sought after positions and I actually enjoy spending time speaking to our staff teams about upcoming roles and supporting their development. Ive had approaches from very junior staff and it has been a good opportunity for me to do some informal mentoring with employees who are keen to develop and progress. Our organisation needs to develop people and has good levels of staff engagement & retention and confidence in the executive team. If he had approached me I would have offered a 10 min chat about his goals and. career ambitions and told him a little bit about the upcoming role and what the likely competencies were - if he's no where near a fit then it would be how to get there, other opportunities etc

I think your attitude sounds elitist and standoffish - yeah he sounds like his approach has been awkward and overbearing but you have hardly role
modelled an approachable response as a hiring manager.

Yes I read this as a low level inexperienced supervisor who doesn’t understand how to manage people, how to get the best out of people or even what makes a good manager. The fact she’s got to ask on mumsnet on how to handle it and if she can complain about him says everything there is to know.

certainly more training is required.

Op I’d urge you to think of your lack of professionalism and lack of ability to manage fairly normal events and even the fact you need to ask randoms on mumsnet how to do part of your job and look for appropriate training,,,leadership, supervisory, collaboration, conflict management, there are many you could benefit from.

I’d also urge you to try to have a mentor in your organisation who can help guide you on how to appropriately manage different situations in a non emotional reactive manner .

I mean this genuinely, but the eager employee is not the issue, you are.

As a hiring manager, I think it normal for people to contact the manager about job opportunities. I also think it is normal for people to contact people on the team about jobs to see what the job/manager is like, especially if they are connected.

Not a hiring manager, just a general person who's opinion won't matter to you .

Scroll on

I'm a hiring manger in an IT company where everyone is a scientist.
An IT Specialist is a different thing.

Nevertheless, I digress, I love proactivity. We are taught to not be proactive and certainly in the UK, though it is becoming more common in the younger, it is frowned upon. People need to learn to sell themselves. On LinkedIn if I'm advertising and someone actually messages me with a reasonable CV I commit to interviewing them myself. I like it and it should be encouraged. My hiring work is hard enough. Currently I have at least a handful of people I've taken on with the gumption to do that.
You sound jaded.
Send an email as suggested unthread. Thank him and say your looking forward to viewing his application.

You're

I don't think you can stipulate who replies to you on Mumsnet?

But as a hiring manager I guess I'm entitled to post on your thread.

Sounds like he's not doing himself any favours but you hardly sound like a peach to work for either

Honestly, your approach sounds rigid and unproductive.

I put out an internal call recently for some project work (secondment-type arrangement). Various people knew it would come out before it did and contacted me. I took them out for a coffee and a chat! It helped enormously as 1-2 clearly were not suitable and a F2F chat was a good way to manage their expectations and/or coach them on other likely opportunities. Others were better suited. We had a really strong shortlist in the end, plus the process brought to my attention someone quite junior but with real potential I'd not have known about otherwise. So I've got her mentally filed next time something comes up.

That's how these things work in organisations which are keen to develop their people.

Plus, do you know he doesn't have the qualifications? I mean, do you know he doesn't have a doctoral qualification in comp sci and might be looking to move back over?

I would have said he's being a but much. But your op seems like you've got an attitude problem so maybe just leave it as the likely hood is you're overreacting. It's also perfectly normal for internal candidates to do abit of research and self promoting.

Is this person younger OP? My experience is that some younger people seem to be more direct and more keen to seen to be proactive than perhaps older people are. I am sometimes surprised by this but also admire their enthusiasm and willingness to put themselves out there.

I think you sound quite new to this op - get a bit longer in the tooth and enthusiasm will be something you might start to appreciate.