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An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

blog.landing.jobs

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Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#51

Post by eli »

People I actually interview will be informed if they aren't hired, of course, but I don't generally email people I don't interview. I guess I could start adding all the email addresses of people I don't hire to a list and then sending them a generic message once a hire is made, but I'm not sure it's realistic to expect the hiring manager at a startup to respond to every single applicant. If you send me an email asking for an update or advice, I'll usually try to provide a useful answer.

That said, I feel bad. If anyone has recommendations for candidate tracking software/services that would make it easier for me to make this happen, I'd be interested.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#52

Post by peteboyd »

binxbolling wrote: post #42
peteboyd wrote: post #40

We are hiring right now for a new bookkeeper, actually they start Monday, so we just finalized the hiring. We regularly post ads for designers, developers and content writers too. Probably every other month I am reviewing resumes, so I have a bit of experience in responding to applicants. Typically any given job posting gets around 50 to 100 resumes depending on the category. It takes time to read through everything.…

Just curious, but what ATS are you using that makes sending 50 canned replies tedious?

Every resume just comes into Outlook as a single email and then sorted into a folder based on the subject (hence our need to follow directions). A bit old-school, but it works.

So we would need to reply individually to every single email (i.e. hit reply and cut-paste). 50 emails would probably be 15 minutes of work, but I would rather not waste that time.

The main point is that some of the resumes we get are completely off topic. I wish I could showcase some examples, but alas that would probably get us into trouble. Why should we waste the time in responding to auto posters, people who just attach a resume with no cover letter, or misspell subject lines?

I think our new system would solve all of this, just need time to code it this summer.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#53

Post by rbanffy »

imroot wrote: post #45

RedHat was the worst when it came to this. In 2007, I interviewed for a professional services position within RedHat. I had a phone screen and then three or four weeks would go by, and then the recruiter would ask me for another phone screen. It eventually ended up with a stay in Chicago for an in-person...series of phone calls and one face-to-face interview. Another six months(!) went by before they called me to ask…

Happened to me. By the time company A managed to get me through the second interview, I was receiving a phone call from the CEO congratulating me for my excellent interview cycle with company B. And, while I'm sure company A would be interesting, I loved my time at company B.

And yes, they'll both remain anonymous.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#54

Post by notdanariely »

joshka wrote: post #37
x5n1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

too meta man, too meta.

Great superhero/villian name! Meta Man never solves the problem at hand. Instead he/she/it/they obliquely solve the generalized case. Meta Man Sees a mugger stealing cash from a victim, works on legislation to make BitCoin the default for all transactions.

You just made me spit coffee all over my keyboard, thanks for the chuckle!

First, however, MetaMan will need to end the Hollywood accounting practice so better superhero movies can be made... about him!

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#55

Post by peteboyd »

drauh wrote: post #47
peteboyd wrote: post #40

We are hiring right now for a new bookkeeper, actually they start Monday, so we just finalized the hiring. We regularly post ads for designers, developers and content writers too. Probably every other month I am reviewing resumes, so I have a bit of experience in responding to applicants. Typically any given job posting gets around 50 to 100 resumes depending on the category. It takes time to read through everything.…

FWIW, I have, in the past, applied for jobs at colleges and other research institutions which all have their own resume input system. All different from each other, of course, so it takes 30--45 minutes to completely fill one in. Yes, they have a semi-smart parser that will take a .DOC or a .PDF and pull out the relevant info, but they are more often wrong than right, so it's easier to just manually key in every fiel…

Good point. I think we were going to keep it super simple.

Name, Email, Question 1 - Cover Letter, Question 2 - Some question pertaining the job, and PDF attachment (only PDFs - we hate getting Word docs and other file attachments)

This way we could automate our subject line, track the emails, and the two questions would hopefully weed out some lower end applications.

We may need a CAPTCHA too, to keep out spam.

[Edited for commas as the list did not format correctly]

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#56

Post by jeffool »

Isn't that the norm?

My career history is journalism (producing TV news). The vast majority of jobs I apply for never reply. Not so much as an automated or form-letter "thank you". Even if they do reply, and we talk a couple of times, they stop replying when they go with someone else.

Back in March, on a lark, I applied to a few tech and game companies. Five days ago one of the game companies sent me a "thank you for applying, but we went with another candidate" email.

I sent her (the HR lady) a letter back thanking her for caring enough to bother. Erica is good people in my book. She's absolutely an outlier.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#57

Post by grayclhn »

peteboyd wrote: post #52
binxbolling wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, but what ATS are you using that makes sending 50 canned replies tedious?

Every resume just comes into Outlook as a single email and then sorted into a folder based on the subject (hence our need to follow directions). A bit old-school, but it works. So we would need to reply individually to every single email (i.e. hit reply and cut-paste). 50 emails would probably be 15 minutes of work, but I would rather not waste that time. The main point is that some of the resumes we get are complete…

I'm sure that this is something you've considered and chose not to do for a good reason, but it seems like using a different email address for each job posting would eliminate a lot of the problems caused by an incorrect subject line.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#58

Post by thedufer »

vdaniuk wrote: post #13
gkop wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is merely a convenient excuse for companies behaving inconsiderately. Since many companies in the U.S. do send rejection emails, it's clearly one of any number of other reasons why some companies neglect this basic courtesy. The silver lining is, you probably don't want to work for these companies anyway :)

>Since many companies in the U.S. do send rejection emails Are you able to provide any kind of data backing up that claim? I am strongly in the "don't hate the player, hate the game" camp on this issue. This is NOT a basic courtesy but a business process that requires a lot of resources to be at least somewhat meaningful. How long do you think it takes to write a rejection letter that provides useful, actionable data…

> How long do you think it takes to write a rejection letter that provides useful, actionable data for the potential candidate?

I see nothing in the post nor this thread that indicates that's what people are looking for. An obvious form letter would be just fine. The point is that a candidate wants to know that the process is over, instead of being left hanging.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#59

Post by pcbo »

Akkuma wrote: post #5

What is ironic is I had no reply on a job posting on landing.jobs after talking directly with landing.jobs too. I was able to leave feedback directly through the site that the company was unresponsive, but landing.jobs hasn't communicated since that feedback. Update: Proof http://imgur.com/m34rFUX

Hey, (Founder of Landing.jobs here)

I can't guarantee you'll get feedback from the employer but I can definitely make sure we'll always insist on your behalf, and that what I just did :)

Let me know if you don't hear back from them until the end of the week!

Pedro

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#60

Post by sdalfakj »

peteboyd wrote: post #40

We are hiring right now for a new bookkeeper, actually they start Monday, so we just finalized the hiring. We regularly post ads for designers, developers and content writers too. Probably every other month I am reviewing resumes, so I have a bit of experience in responding to applicants. Typically any given job posting gets around 50 to 100 resumes depending on the category. It takes time to read through everything.…

> Our biggest gripe is that at least 50% of the applicants never follow our instructions on how to apply correctly. We put very specific steps on how to apply and want it followed (i.e. subject line, cover letter, links to portfolio, PDF resume).

You need to consider the ROI for the applicant before saying "OMG follow instructions."

Too many of your fellow employers ignore applicants (ROI = none), even those they interviewed. No "we received the application," no "here's where you seem to lack," no "here's where you seem to be strong." Even introductory classes with 300-400 students in them provide more feedback to their constituents than employers to candidates.

Hence many of your applicants decrease their investment as much as possible.

I do not have 30-40 minutes to twist and turn words in order for them to fit to your specific job description to let you know that I know the shit out of [insert skill]. Not because I don't care about you but because I already assume, looking at previous experiences, that you don't care about me (both as a candidate and as an employee).

It is your job to accurately spot potential and current skills from a resume and respond to the applicant with a request for more information. (In situations where you do not have a separate HR department for recruitment, then do ask for all information outright, but don't be surprised and judgemental when you do not receive it. If the candidate is of interest, reply back and ask for more information again.)

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