What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#1

Post by kjackson » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:41 PM UTC

I have applied to a few places in the Valley, as have many of my friends. And I hear nothing but horror stories in terms of how rude recruiters and hiring managers are.

I'm not talking about simply not hiring me or my friends. I'm happy with not getting a job I interviewed for, no one owes anyone a job. And I'm not talking about getting template rejection letters, or "Thanks for contacting us, we'll keep your resume on file." Those are great.

I'm talking about emailing candidates about scheduling phone interviews and then not responding back to emails. Not calling them when they have a scheduled phone interview. Bringing people to onsite interviews, and then not contacting people back to give them the results, or responding to emails asking about the results of the onsite interview.

I assume that no contact means a rejection, but what happened to common decency and not leaving people hanging?

I've found that the hiring process has gotten ruder and ruder over the course of time, where hiring managers feel no need to tell interviewees that they were rejected. It's appalling.

I expect it from headhunters, but internal recruiters for the company are doing themselves no service. And this pertains not just to startups, but big companies as well. Startlingly, Google has improved drastically in this department, but all the other companies are simply terrible.

Have other people experienced this as well?

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#2

Post by d3fun » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:52 PM UTC

Yes! the last interview I had with a very well known company lasted 3 months from the first mail from recruiter to his last email. It went weeks in between phone interviews to schedule the next one and often involving me to send few mails to ask for feedback. And for onsite he forgot about sending a confirmation mail and it took several mails to arrange a onsite interview which took 3-4 weeks of delay . And its not that I did poorly in interviews and they have to think twice for next interview and often my interviewers gave me their email to contact incase of any delay. And this is not one off experience there are few more companies and recruiters who doesn't respond for days until I send a mail. I do interview candidates for my team we often try to get feedback on the same day or next day so we can decide upon to hire or at least update candidate on the status.

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#3

Post by steve8918 » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:07 PM UTC

One time this girl I was dating interviewed at the company I worked for. Even though I kept asking the hiring manager to let us know how she did, he would always say "oh yeah, let me get the feedback" and he never did. After a couple of weeks I gave up, because either he was too lazy to bother responding, or he was too afraid to break bad news, both which aren't admirable qualities.

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#4

Post by stray » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:10 PM UTC

Same as it ever was.

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#5

Post by shoham » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:24 PM UTC

This is true with Rite Aids in Pittsburgh as well!

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#6

Post by henry501 » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:52 PM UTC

Honestly, it's just another symptom of the depersonalization in the employment market. As long as there is a surplus of qualified* workers, then there is little reason to treat people humanely.

*for values of qualified from "keyword-rich resume" and up.

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#7

Post by sdfadfs » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:53 PM UTC

Interesting. I'm curious what types of technology the jobs you are applying for are using. Being a ruby developer in London is much the opposite experience. People bending over backwards to contact you and more job offers than candidates. I've never had anything other than very quick feedback, and feedback 100% of the time. The worst was around a 1 month delay.

It seems as though people's courtesy levels are proportional to the demand for skills. I guess more people want to work in the Valley than in London. You also hear horror stories about the video games industry.

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#8

Post by AngeloAnolin » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:57 PM UTC

Lots of companies think that a human/humane reply to the outcome of the hiring process is another additional cost which simply needs to be automated as much as possible. The thinking borders on "if this person is not going to be hired anyway, why spend time and cost informing him/her. Probably best to just let him/her take the cue that no reply means rejection."

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#9

Post by brudgers » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 7:27 PM UTC

AngeloAnolin wrote: post #8

Lots of companies think that a human/humane reply to the outcome of the hiring process is another additional cost which simply needs to be automated as much as possible. The thinking borders on "if this person is not going to be hired anyway, why spend time and cost informing him/her. Probably best to just let him/her take the cue that no reply means rejection."

The other piece of the puzzle is that companies often interview based on projected or possible needs, e.g. next quarter's potential staff increase or in preparation for the acceptance of a proposal. Therefore, an actual decision about "the position" may be months off when the project is a go or may never occur should the project be cancelled.

I will add that companies also will interview people simply out of a general interest in the candidate, a relationship with the recruiter, or because they are someone's girlfriend even when there is no intent of hiring the person anytime soon.

Re: What happened to common decency in the hiring process?

#10

Post by ConceptJunkie » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 7:57 PM UTC

It has gotten a lot worse over the years. I think part of the problem has to do with HR taking over the hiring process whereas traditionally the actual managers that the candidate would work for would have a much more active role in the process. The problem with HR departments is that they are, in my experience, completely unqualified to do hiring and often act more effectively to keep good candidates away rather than get them face time with prospective employers. The whole hiring process has devolved in so many ways, but then management in general is becoming a lost art. As a society, we are collectively losing our ability to organize and manage ourselves.