Anyone looking for a new gig knows that lonely and confusing feeling. The one which you’ve done all you can to get the attention of anyone who can hire you. You’ve emailed. You’ve called. You’ve emailed again. You’re waiting by your cell phone, trying every Jedi mind trick you know to get it to ring. Mine involve a lot of scrunched-up facial expressions and hand motions, to no avail. Must consult Master Yoda on that one.
Basically, you’ve found yourself in the limbo world of radio silence, and you don’t know what to do next. Lord knows you need that job, but all you’ll settle for is a fucking phone call or email saying “Hi. We got your message and you [got the job/didn't get the job/we're not deciding anything till the boss gets back]. Something. Anything.
No one sets out to be a stalker. It’s just too time consuming and far too creepy. And the cheerier you sound, the creepier it is. I bet if I listened every one of my follow-up voice mails, anyone would conclude that I’m a bumbling idiot or a serial killer. Because behind the breezy, casual “hey, I was just seeing if you looked at my work and made a decision yet” is “will you people just hire me already? Don Draper is not going to magically appear and write banner ads for salad dressing. So clear off a desk and brew a pot of heavily caffienated coffee. I’m coming over!” Nope, can’t do that. That’s why there are security desks and large men behind them.
Has sending brief but cordial rejection letters gone the way of the Gulf Coast sea turtle (ooh, too soon?)? They were all the rage when we were fresh out of portfolio school. Friends of mine used to post them on a wall of the house they rented. The jist of them all was:
Dear____,
Thank you for your interest in ____ agency.
Unfortunately, (lame excuse here).
We wish you luck in your endeavors.
Signed,
someone’s actual name.
As trite as that is, at least it was a response. The crazy thing is that nowadays it takes a fraction of the time to bang out an email. No envelope. No stamp. No mail carrier. And yet, so few places do such a simple act.
We’re all big boys and girls. We can handle the rejection. If we can’t, why the hell would we want to work in advertising, a business, in which more often than not, you hear the word “no”?
So all your follow-up emails and voice mails just go down a black hole, I guess. Just digital bits and bytes gone forever, sucked into a galactic vortex. That is, until some ad or project you worked on goes viral, wins an award, or gets the attention of some very desperate creative director needs a warm body right now to bang out ideas that were due three days ago.
Hey, sometimes you take what you can get.
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12 Comments
What’s the surest way to improve the caliber of your agency and your work? -
Recruiting, nurturing, and retaining talent.
What’s the lowest priority at the majority of shops? -
Recruiting, nurturing, and retaining talent.
And we wonder why this business is in the state it’s in.
Good post. I have been on both sides of this equation and neither is any fun.
You’ve nailed the applicant’s side, but here would be my take on the hiring side: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I would get so busy that weeks would pass, even months, in what seemed like days. I would be aware that there were people I needed to get back to, but every time I sat down to write or call, another fire would start and I’d be off. Knowing there were resumes I needed to respond to ate at me constantly, and though I had the best of intentions, I confess, my lack of action sucked.
This isn’t an excuse, just an explanation.
Oh, besides, the news was almost always bad and who wants to convey bad news?
Jeff
There was one time I rec’d a response from a position I was more than qualified for that was worse than not hearing anything: the rejection letter came as an attachment. The file was called “PFO.pdf”
For the inexperienced: “PFO” = Please f**k off.
All professionalism has left corporate America. I don’t care that people like Jeff above are too busy to offer the common courtesy of a call back or rejection letter. Such courtesy should be job 1. Put all the other shit aside.
Worse, is when one spends hours at a job interview meeting with several people and all that, and then even still never hears another word about the job one way or the other. Just a black hole response. That is rude and unprofessional and happens all the time. Only a bunch of dicks do this sort of thing.
Yep, you nailed it! So many interviews, so few (if any) responses. Couple of my favorite things have been A) knowing it was down to me and one other person, and even then not getting any response despite multiple rounds of interviews (all followed up with actual handwritten thank you notes), and B) receiving a profanity-laced email that was obviously intended from one recruiter to the other at the large computer company saying they’d hired someone else (but didn’t realize they’d hit REPLY ALL) only to be followed up with an apology email 5 minutes later. AWESOME!
“Just a black hole response. That is rude and unprofessional and happens all the time. Only a bunch of dicks do this sort of thing.”
We all understand the huge number of applicants vs. the small number of openings. But –
I think agencies are being REALLY shortsighted with their lack of professionalism.
Things shake around VERY FAST in this business, and the random ad peep you have a quick interaction with in 2010 may be a hot, desirable talent by 2012. As an agency, don’t you want to be on that person’s good side? It only takes 10 seconds to send a nice email that says “no openings at this time.”
Brad great post and I think it comes down to hiring managers, HR, or whomever find it easier to just not respond rather than deliver thoughtful and constructive feedback. I’ve asked for detailed feedback even after being told they’ve moved on with another candidate because I truly want to know where I’m coming up short. And this is a company where I have personal contacts. No response.
I think our society has embraced personal communications powered by advances in technology (and rightfully so) but to the detriment of the personal and human connection that is a fundamental necessity for working in groups.
Hoping it shifts back but after searching for 2 months and going through 15 opps only a few have closed the loop so to them I say thank you. Gotta go keep tilling the dead soil here in Boston. Good luck to all!
I think that a rejection letter/email is common courtesy when you’ve interviewed someone but not just for sending in a resume. I’ve pored over hundreds of resumes before for a position we were hiring for. Most were not qualified and to send out a rejection letter to each and every one of them would have taken forever.
We interviewed 8 people and each received a response from us. I think that’s fair.
While trying to enter the industry for the first time. I rarely received a response from anyone. I would email, then I would follow up with another email, and then a phone call, and then another email. It once took 2 and a half years for someone to respond. I know it sucks, but if you stick with it, someone will get back to you eventually.
After the actual interviews, I would do the same thing except, in addition, I would write a hand written note to each and every person that I met with, in hopes that someone would remember me.
If you are enthusiastic, you are considered creepy or a stalker, but who wouldn’t be enthusiastic about pursuing their dreams?
I have a job now, but go on interviews just to see what other companies are like. When they call to schedule a second interview or offer me a job, I blow them off with zero response. It’s a two-way street. One that I enjoy.
@I Have A Job.
Wow, man. That’s straight up gangsta.
So if someone receives 1000′s of resumes for a position that is clearly defined but most of the inquiries don’t match up, I guess I could never sleep and respond to each one. However, I choose to respond to the candidates that match the description (in the same ballpark at least) and have followed the directions of application.
There are 2 sides to each story. I wish I could respond to each and every inquiry but due to sheer volume (esp. now), it’s IMPOSSIBLE.
I hope in your next job you have to recruit and staff all day long, you might empathize a little for the position a recruiter is in when most applicants miss the mark by a mile.