I was lucky enough to secure employment relatively quickly after returning home.
But I am also aware, reading the blogs of other VSO returnees, that not everyone has been so lucky.
I said it while I was initially floundering, but it is a shame that the experience of working overseas and volunteering isn’t more highly valued by employers. It says a great deal, I believe, about our little island mindset.
But without exception, the biggest complaint of all of us, is that HR departments no longer reply to unsuccesful applicants.
Apply for a job and you can find yourself waiting around for weeks before it eventually sinks in that you haven’t made the short list. This is not an on-spec request for employment I am talking about - this is an application for an advertised post.
Just when did this become common practice? Every business now, it appears, behaves this way.
Surely the least an organisation can do is to let people know that they won’t be called for interview. Sure, it’s good to save paperwork but that is what email is for, isn’t it?
Either way, it sucks. If there is any worse feeling than a rejection letter it’s the slow creeping feeling that you didn’t make the grade (but the desperate hope that perhaps there’s just been a delay).
It is a horrible situation and an awful way to treat anyone.
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November 15, 2007 at 5:04 pm
minxlj
I think it’s also terribly rude to ‘assume’ someone knows your decision. However, in the interests of saving paper, I’d be happy with a polite ’sorry’ note via email.
Re: previous jobs I haven’t gotten, it’s been about 50/50 with companies sending out rejection letters, and others not bothering. One reason they take their time in sending them out is for first and subsequent choices…if their first choice applicant actually turns down the job offer, they don’t want to have already told the others that it’s a ‘no’. They keep it quiet, and if they need to bring in a 2nd choice, they can then offer them the job without them knowing they were 2nd choice.
It doesn’t take 2 minutes for HR to send out rejection emails, and I think it’s in the interest of good manners! But that’s another thing that seems to be in sharp decline these days…
November 15, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Pete
Gawd, if I had a red cent for every stupid HR peon who happened to have put me through a similar situation… namely Sage, Sitel, Subway, and Twenty4 Help, but also a bunch of other companies in the area. I’d be less grudging if the people who interviewed me weren’t obviously stupid, but “thems the breaks”, as they say.
November 16, 2007 at 9:18 am
ourman
Thanks for the comments all. The whole job process isn’t fun. Not so bad if you’ve already got a job but hellish if you are unemployed (or even under employed). Not knowing where your cash is going to come from is a horrible position to be in. Usually savings are being diminished and, instead, are being replaced with debts.
I am not sure people realise the stress involved and how it can really knock your confidence - not to mention your bank account.
My own job horror story: way back I was head hunted by Newcastle United to do their PR. My dream job. They approached me, offered me decent cash and a car. Not to mention “traveling with the team” - and in those days that meant European trips.
I agreed. They said they just had to “rubber stamp it with the board”.
I went back to my old job. Biding my time before I put in my letter of resignation.
Then days, then weeks started to go by. I swear I was checking my email every two minutes and checking my message at home every 10.
Then it was a month and still nothing. I called but was fobbed off.
Eventually, several weeks later I was informed that they’d had a change of heart. They hadn’t got around to dealing with my appointment and the person who had been doing my job temporarily had done okay. They thought they’d give her a shot.
I was left devastated and with bridges to build with my current employer - where I’d slackened off somewhat. I was left with a written warning and yet another reason to be p*ssed off at the Toon.
November 16, 2007 at 11:42 am
Bob Piper
Doing PR for Newcastle FC is a dream job? A bloody impossible one I would call it!
As for HR, sadly most of them are only interested in resources, not humans.
November 16, 2007 at 2:46 pm
ourman
In those days yes - though I have high hopes for the new crowd. Even if all their shirt sleeves mateyness is just PR bluster well at least they care enough to bother with it.
God knows when the team will be any good though but at least it seems a lot more professional now behind the scenes.