Thursday 19 January 2012

Jobunting Joke

I'm angry, actually scrap that, I'm not angry, I'm fuming. I've been feeling like this since yesterday afternoon. The event which prompted this was my boyfriend finding out - via email - that he'd not got the job he'd interviewed for.

Pretty standard situation really when you apply for a job, you could get rejected or get told you haven't passed the interview stage. This I completely agree with, granted it's harder to accept when said person has been looking for work for the last few months, but still, it's life.

The thing that's annoyed me though even more than mentioned rejection is the way companies insist on treating people.

I felt the need to have a little moan as it's becoming a recurring theme amongst people I know and I don't think it's right. So rest assured this isn't just a 'woe is me' post to gather sympathy for me and moreso my man.

A friend of mine found her partner out of work for a long period of time, I can't remember if this was originally prompted by illness or redundancy, but either way it wasn't his fault. Now, he tried day in day out to apply for jobs, provide proof of his efforts and impress at interviews. Lucky for him, some will say, he even got interviews in the first place. This wasn't the problem, it was the false security created by the companies who interviewed him.

Over the last few months I've witnessed a host of selfish behaviour in job-hunting. Thankfully in my search for new employment I found something reasonably quickly, I wasn't out of work at the time and companies I interviewed with treated me fairly.

Well all bar one. On one occasion I met someone for just a talk, not a formal interview, just to go and find out more about what they do. However on meeting said person and talking for about two hours on a Friday night it resulted in him near enough offering me a job there and then, creating a position/drawing up a job spec on the spot and leaving me with reassurances of how good I was and he'd get a formalised spec/offer sent over.

Promises of high salary, responsibility and a generally fantastic opportunity were all on the cards. I was amazed and over the moon - all this from a 'talk' to discuss our industry.

As you can guess it was all too good to be true and the guy then proceeded to avoid contact and when we did speak backtrack on all he said. He was still trying to string me along when I accepted the job I'm at now.

Similarly, I've seen people go for test days on jobs, be given their own uniform, be added to the rota and be fed sentence upon sentence of reassurances on how perfect they are for the job. This is then followed by being hard to get hold of, being told decision dates have been extended and eventually a very much delayed 'sorry you haven't got the job'.

Now we all know companies are full of busy people and sometimes you don't hear back at all. I agree actually getting a response or a 'No' is quite an honour in this day and age.

At a previous job, before they finally hired a recruitment person, I used to be told not to worry about bothering to tell people if they were unsuccessful and to simply ignore that person's calls and emails. Nice.

However, what I think is much much worse is this sudden trend of giving candidates this false sense of hope. Misleading them - for some unknown reason - they have got the job and then after they've invested their time, effort and likely money (travel expenses etc), turning round and telling them No.

Where has this come from? And why are companies doing it?

So if you are involved in recruiting in some way, please do spare a thought for this people trying to get a job. They're not some lazy bum wanting to claim benefits and have an easy life. They have a host of skills and if you think they're over-qualified then surely that's up to them to decide when they originally saw the job ad?

This is people's livelihoods, futures and hopes you're messing with and not just simply a number to tot up your calculations or a name to cross through on your To Do list.

One day it could be you who is out of work and sitting the other side of that table.

2 comments:

  1. I once went on a job interview for a media company in Farringdon for an Office Assistant role (this is going back YEARS).. the woman kept me waiting in a room for 15 minutes, then when she finally came in, threw her papers down on the table and said "why the f*** do you wanna work here".. I was too gobsmacked to respond!!!
    Diana

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  2. Ha! That's certainly a unique approach...

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