Before I start this letter I want to mention that this is not to say that all recruiters and hiring managers are the same. I have met some wonderful people throughout my career that went out of their way to help me as a candidate, however, unfortunately, there are many out there who give such a bad reputation to recruiters in general.
Having said that, my letter is to the latter:
Dear Recruiters and Hiring Managers,
When you invite a candidate for an interview, most times the candidate puts a great deal of effort and sometimes money into preparing for the job interview.
While I know that as a recruiter or hiring manager, you have loads of work and no candidate expects a reply to a job application, however, every candidate expects feedback after a job interview.
Have some respect and decency and get back to the candidates that you have interviewed, as some of them might be in financial distress and put all their hopes in that job interview.
As the hiring party in the recruitment process, you represent the company that you are hiring for and the message that you are sending by not getting back to candidates that you’ve met, is that the company is unprofessional with little to no respect for the people working there.
As a friendly advice, make the effort to send an email or make the phone call to inform the unsuccessful candidates that you have chosen another candidate so that they can move along.
Trust me, it will go a long way and your company will have a good reputation.
Besides, you never know when you yourself might be looking for another job and I’m sure you want to be treated with respect and professionalism.
All the best.
After working for 12 years in the corporate world, I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences in regards to the recruitment processes, as I mentioned earlier.
This is the main reason why I have decided to start this blog in order to hopefully spread awareness that most times, the recruitment process is very flawed.
I’m hoping to help job seekers understand that the power is eventually in their hands and, as a job seeker or even employee, you have rights as well, not only obligations. This goes the other way around, as companies have obligations as well, not only rights.
When both companies and job seekers or employees will start acting as such, the employment and recruitment world will be a fair and happy place. Until then, we will just have to settle for high employee turnover and bad company culture that is so prevalent nowadays.
And until then, I’ll leave you with some of the worst experiences I have personally encountered with recruiters and hiring managers.
With an international company that was recruiting people from all continents, I have been through 4 rounds of interviews before being offered the job. That is ok, as some positions require in-depth screening of candidates. By accepting the job offer, I was expected to go to a foreign country for a month for training. We were a group of 24 people recruited from all over the world, only to find out when we got there, that actually that will be a selective training, meaning that not everybody will actually get a job at the end of the month. Thankfully I did get the job, however, I had colleagues coming from other continents that quit their job and sold their cars or other belongings for a new start, just to be sent back home after 4 weeks. That is absolutely awful.
A company that I have applied to, mentioned the package in the job ad. I have interviewed with them and although I fit all the requirements and actually had more experience than they have requested, I was offered 50% of what they initially said they are going to offer. I somehow managed to negotiate to 75% and accepted the job, only to find out, when I was assigned my desk, that the girl that I was replacing, had the same salary that was initially offered in the ad, one year prior to me joining the company. She left her contract in the drawer. That is ok as well, however, when I looked her up on LinkedIn, I found out that she was younger than me and I had 5 years more experience than she had.
Another company contacted me for a position in Marketing, which seemed interesting. I went to the interview with the owner herself and she quite liked me. I found out throughout the interview that actually she is looking for someone to take care of Marketing, Operations and Business Development so 3 completely different roles in 1. That is fine as well, as I had experience with all, however, she wanted to offer me not even what was considered a good salary for one of the hats, such as Marketing. I told her what my salary expectations are for such a role, given the responsibilities and her answer was the I can accept her offer and after 6 months she will increase my salary, which would have still been (with the increase) at 50% of what I was asking. I told her that unfortunately, life doesn’t work like this and if I were to be a client of hers, she wouldn’t sell me her product at 30% of the price and if I am happy about it, then 6 months later I will give her a bit more. I thanked her for her time and left. She called me again the next day but I declined politely.
Bottom line is that employment and recruitment are a two-way street. Both parties need to make a decision and both parties have power.
The sooner everyone understands this, the sooner things will get better and people will be happy with their jobs and companies will become more successful because they don’t need to hire new people every 6 months.
I enjoyed reading your article. Thanks for sharing this! It is sad but the reality we live in.
Thank you, Brenda 🙂
I applaud you for shining a light on the deplorable activities of hiring companies and recruiters. You correctly mention that they act horribly because they ” wield their power” over desperate job seekers. As a freelance writer, who creates resumes and cover letters for my clients, I wholeheartedly agree it is cruel not to notify job prospects if they are not selected and to not communicate all the details of a position or opportunity, prior to people making life altering decisions. Excellent post sharing truths that to be said
Thank you for this, unfortunately most of the people that need to read this will never see it.
I recently left a leadership position after 20 years. I have spent 4 months applying and interviewing for a new position. Less than 2% of the people I meet with ever reach out to tell me that I did not get the position.
When I was in the position of hiring I not only replied back to everyone I interviewed, I also sent a brief email to every applicant that sent in an application explaining that they did not meet the minimum requirements….
A quick email is not only kind, but professional and representative of the type of leader or company they are.