4 ms·

Why is it unrealistic to expect a company to respond to each and every resume? I can understand a "personalized" response to be unrealistic. But at least a sim

Why is it unrealistic to expect a company to respond to each and every resume? I can understand a "personalized" response to be unrealistic. But at least a simple automatic e-mail saying "Thank you for applying, regretfully the position is now filled" or anything indicating "don't wait for an answer" should be the norm. Especially with a lot of large companies indicating that an answer could take up to 2 months.

alecdibble 14y ago
This. All it takes is an auto-responding filter. It is one of the shittiest feelings to send a resume to a company and get no response. I've done it many times, and I have had many no-responses. The feeling never got less shitty.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
There are tons of reasons. I'm not trying to be rude but, IMO, not being able to see some of the reasons implies to me that you haven't done much interviewing/hiring. The most likely reason is to stay "in charge" of your interviewing process. If Johnny sends in a resume and he is unqualified, what do you say? "Thanks, Johnny, but you are not a fit for our organization. Best of luck!" Form letter. Awesome - that makes someone feel better? Okay... Anyway, here's the problem: Johnny writes back and asks, "What is it that I could have done differently?" Do you respond? If you do, what do you say when he writes back yet again (and again and again)? "Scott - this is the kind of guy you want to hire! He's persistent!" Oh really? So that's all it takes to get the job you are hiring for - persistence? Of course not. "But you can take a guy like that and train him - he'll be great, I bet!" Will he? What's your proof? He's already shown you that he's trying to punch above his weight and that he's okay with that. He's already shown you that he's kind of a PIA. What makes you so optimistic about his ability to learn? The point is that there are lots of reasons that employers don't continue the dialog, but this is a major one. No company wants to pay someone $25,000-$100,000 a year to reply to the Johnnys of the world ad infinitum. And as for companies getting interns to reply, that's just ridiculous IMO. What CEO wants interns to be in charge of replying to job applicants? That's awful. At BEST you can train them not to *#$& up a form letter.
- tjic 14y ago
  > The most likely reason is to stay "in charge" of your interviewing process. If Johnny sends in a resume and he is unqualified, what do you say? When I'm hiring, I respond to each and every resume. 99% of them get a canned "Thanks for applying. Unfortunately, it's not a match, but we wish you the best of luck." Is that so hard? My personal answer? No. It's not. You're programmers. Write a macro. Then tap the key. > No company wants to pay someone $25,000-$100,000 a year to reply to the Johnnys of the world ad infinitum. First, this is ludicrous; even if you're sending thousands or tens of thousands of these letters, you can have a process that doesn't cost but a penny or two more than REVIEWING the email in the first place does. Second, any company that can't design good processes that work well and cheaply isn't a place where I want to work.
  - ScottWhigham 14y ago
    > Is that so hard? Yes, actually. To say that it isn't implies that either (a) you aren't doing much hiring, or (b) that the number of applicants you get is very small. For an admin position, we might get 150 applications. Of those, less than 50% will have met the stated job requirements/pre-reqs. Even if I were to automate it, how much time have I spent automating it? Maintaining it? And for each person, there's certainly a few seconds/minutes of "Let me make sure I get the name right..." And that's just one position. It is hard to do what you're saying, unless (a) you aren't doing much hiring, or (b) that the number of applicants you get are very small.
    - malachismith 14y ago
      So in other words you're saying that your time is so incredibly valuable that you should be made exempt from the generally acceptable standards of behavior? (I've spent 20+ years in the tech biz. I've probably hired a few hundred people myself. I've never been "too busy" to live up to the bare minimum professional standards of behavior. To me this smells less like being too busy - and more like being too arrogant.)
    - xtracto 14y ago
      Time to hire a recruiter. His/Her job would be to be a point of contact, responding to candidates and filtering them, even with the help of talenbuddy or the likes.
mdlthree 14y ago
I have been looking for a job in manufacturing and business operations for a few years now while finishing an MS of Industrial Engineering. If I was only allowed 1 response from the prospective employer, it would be the anonymous credentials of the man/woman who did get the job. There is a learning opportunity for me to align my expectations and my credentials to the jobs I applied to. If I could identify that major road block, I could fix it. I could apply to fewer positions knowing what was appropriate or not. Everyone else could too and there would be less resume traffic overall.
- cyber 14y ago
  Unfortunately, it's also a learning experience of those padding their resumes. If all it took was to apply, there would definitely be an opportunity for a data market: I would create submissions for the sole purpose of getting the credential response. From there I could build a map of what the industry is hiring. With that I can sell resume coaching services. (Amongst other data sales.)
  - notahacker 14y ago
    It's also a legal minefield. There are a lot of people who'll feel they might have been unfairly overlooked in favour of the candidate with the [arguably] inferior resume due to sexism/racism etc, when actually the arguably inferior candidate came recommended/cheap/first.
amorphid 14y ago
It's not. I founded a recruiting company around the idea that everyone should hear back. It was time consuming though. Before we automated some of the rejection functionality, it was many hours per week for an employee to reject applications one at a time.

alecdibble 14y ago

This. All it takes is an auto-responding filter. It is one of the shittiest feelings to send a resume to a company and get no response. I've done it many times, and I have had many no-responses. The feeling never got less shitty.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

There are tons of reasons. I'm not trying to be rude but, IMO, not being able to see some of the reasons implies to me that you haven't done much interviewing/hiring. The most likely reason is to stay "in charge" of your interviewing process. If Johnny sends in a resume and he is unqualified, what do you say? "Thanks, Johnny, but you are not a fit for our organization. Best of luck!" Form letter. Awesome - that makes someone feel better? Okay... Anyway, here's the problem: Johnny writes back and asks, "What is it that I could have done differently?" Do you respond? If you do, what do you say when he writes back yet again (and again and again)? "Scott - this is the kind of guy you want to hire! He's persistent!" Oh really? So that's all it takes to get the job you are hiring for - persistence? Of course not. "But you can take a guy like that and train him - he'll be great, I bet!" Will he? What's your proof? He's already shown you that he's trying to punch above his weight and that he's okay with that. He's already shown you that he's kind of a PIA. What makes you so optimistic about his ability to learn? The point is that there are lots of reasons that employers don't continue the dialog, but this is a major one. No company wants to pay someone $25,000-$100,000 a year to reply to the Johnnys of the world ad infinitum. And as for companies getting interns to reply, that's just ridiculous IMO. What CEO wants interns to be in charge of replying to job applicants? That's awful. At BEST you can train them not to *#$& up a form letter.

tjic 14y ago
> The most likely reason is to stay "in charge" of your interviewing process. If Johnny sends in a resume and he is unqualified, what do you say? When I'm hiring, I respond to each and every resume. 99% of them get a canned "Thanks for applying. Unfortunately, it's not a match, but we wish you the best of luck." Is that so hard? My personal answer? No. It's not. You're programmers. Write a macro. Then tap the key. > No company wants to pay someone $25,000-$100,000 a year to reply to the Johnnys of the world ad infinitum. First, this is ludicrous; even if you're sending thousands or tens of thousands of these letters, you can have a process that doesn't cost but a penny or two more than REVIEWING the email in the first place does. Second, any company that can't design good processes that work well and cheaply isn't a place where I want to work.
- ScottWhigham 14y ago
  > Is that so hard? Yes, actually. To say that it isn't implies that either (a) you aren't doing much hiring, or (b) that the number of applicants you get is very small. For an admin position, we might get 150 applications. Of those, less than 50% will have met the stated job requirements/pre-reqs. Even if I were to automate it, how much time have I spent automating it? Maintaining it? And for each person, there's certainly a few seconds/minutes of "Let me make sure I get the name right..." And that's just one position. It is hard to do what you're saying, unless (a) you aren't doing much hiring, or (b) that the number of applicants you get are very small.
  - malachismith 14y ago
    So in other words you're saying that your time is so incredibly valuable that you should be made exempt from the generally acceptable standards of behavior? (I've spent 20+ years in the tech biz. I've probably hired a few hundred people myself. I've never been "too busy" to live up to the bare minimum professional standards of behavior. To me this smells less like being too busy - and more like being too arrogant.)
  - xtracto 14y ago
    Time to hire a recruiter. His/Her job would be to be a point of contact, responding to candidates and filtering them, even with the help of talenbuddy or the likes.

mdlthree 14y ago

I have been looking for a job in manufacturing and business operations for a few years now while finishing an MS of Industrial Engineering. If I was only allowed 1 response from the prospective employer, it would be the anonymous credentials of the man/woman who did get the job. There is a learning opportunity for me to align my expectations and my credentials to the jobs I applied to. If I could identify that major road block, I could fix it. I could apply to fewer positions knowing what was appropriate or not. Everyone else could too and there would be less resume traffic overall.

cyber 14y ago
Unfortunately, it's also a learning experience of those padding their resumes. If all it took was to apply, there would definitely be an opportunity for a data market: I would create submissions for the sole purpose of getting the credential response. From there I could build a map of what the industry is hiring. With that I can sell resume coaching services. (Amongst other data sales.)
- notahacker 14y ago
  It's also a legal minefield. There are a lot of people who'll feel they might have been unfairly overlooked in favour of the candidate with the [arguably] inferior resume due to sexism/racism etc, when actually the arguably inferior candidate came recommended/cheap/first.

amorphid 14y ago

It's not. I founded a recruiting company around the idea that everyone should hear back. It was time consuming though. Before we automated some of the rejection functionality, it was many hours per week for an employee to reject applications one at a time.