Surface Ripples

The Recruitment Nightmare (For All)

I provide training to students in CV writing and interviewing. Of the common complaints they have is that they don't hear from recruiters after sending in their application.  To be fair, recruiters have also complained that candidates “ghost” them at interviews (don’t show up and don’t provide a reason)…

My answer to candidates is twofold: 

• Were you making a “speculative” application or
• Were you responding to a job advert?

In the case of speculative applications, my feeling is that, depending on its size, it’s a 50-50 chance as to whether the organisation replies quickly or not at all.  After all, this is an unsolicited application. However, when someone is responding to a specific advertisement for a specific job, it should be common courtesy to reply one way or the other.  Here’s where the problem starts.  Recruiters are becoming overwhelmed with the number of applications received, even for a specific job after posting a specific job advertisement.  We may see phrases such as “only successful applicants will be informed”.  My suggestion to anyone who does this is to specify a time by which applicants can expect to be informed (and therefore, by extension, the date after which unsuccessful applicants can consider their application “unsuccessful ”).

Even where one is making a speculative application, the recipient should treat it with a degree of professionalism. After all they’re being complimented by someone thinking that they are worth applying to!  You also never know, if you “ghost” that applicant today, tomorrow they may be in a position where they can refer business to you and will remember how unprofessionally they were treated when they applied. Fate can be a fickle mistress!

How does your organisation respond to job applications?  If, when posting a job advertisement, it states that “only successful applicants will be notified”, does it say by when this will happen? 

The third situation I’ve encountered with my trainees is that they make an application and then some three months later are called for interview!  It’s at this point that they should seriously be considering whether they shouldn’t have chased their application any earlier.  In some markets recruiters may not react, favourably to this kind of “pushing”.  Unfortunately each market has its own peculiar culture and each organisation is different. 

My conclusions:

Recruiters: if you aren’t going to respond to every applicant, at least give a date by which everyone can expect to have heard one way or the other. 

Jobhunters: if no date is given for when you should have received a response, diarise to chase (say) a week after the deadline and, if you hear nothing, a week after that and a week after that. After three chasers, consider your application “unsuccessful” and move on. 

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  

Labels: Career, Selling

posted by William Martin @ 10:14