He’s just not that into you – the hiring manager, that is

“I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting.”  – Mary

We feel for you, Drew.

We’ve all been there – refreshing your email every 10 minutes and compulsively looking at your phone hoping that person will call. That special someone that seems to be offering it all – amazing benefits, great work/life balance, 401k match – wait, back up. Yes, I’m talking about your potential employer.

Here’s the scenario – Your browsing craigslist. Or maybe Twitter. You read the job description and you heart starts to swell. This sounds way too good to be true. You scroll down quickly to the qualifications. You are completely, 100% the perfect person for that job. You are a match made in heaven. Or at least, that’s what you tell yourself.

Whether you make it to the first, second, or final interview – it all goes the same. You check your email. You check your spam – just in case. You refresh and refresh your blackberry and wonder when it’s too soon to send a follow up email or phone call. Eventually, you give up, and daydream what that wedding (I mean, career shift) would have been like.

Here’s the difference – with dating, how much effort do we put in? Do we spend hours tweaking our resumes, writing cover letters, and sweating it out? Either way, it’s that same pang of rejection, wondering what we did wrong, and what could have been. What’s with hiring reps who pull the one-night (interview) stands? Is all this new technology making communication any better, or is it just driving us crazier? The national unemployment rate is up to 9.4% – that’s almost 10% of the population dealing with this kind of rejection. I wonder if Xanax sales are up…

I have taken the liberty of creating a Code of Etiquette. Recruiters, please follow the code to keep job seekers happy.

1. You will confirm receipt of resume/cover letter/application

2. You will post a closing date for this job so we know when to stop sweating it out

3. If the position has been filled,  you will remove the posting from your web site/e-mail us to let us know

4. If upon reading our resume or interviewing us, if you have no intention of hiring us, let us know. We’re big kids.

5. You will get back to us in a timely manner after an interview – at least provide a status update.

If you have anything else to add, please feel free. And recruiters, I’m sure you have a list out there for job seekers, too.

HR and Social Networking: Sounds like a personal problem…

A recent ERE article – Pandora’s Box: Appreciating the Challenges of Social Networking - is interesting to me. Here’s a little excerpt:

“For example, an employer may view more negatively photos of an African American male, beer in hand, hanging out at a bar than photos of a Caucasian male, also with beer in hand, hanging out at a rock ‘n roll bar. In such a situation, was it really the public evidence of drinking or intoxication that disqualified the individual? How many current employees would be disqualified from employment if never getting publicly intoxicated — or even drinking in public — was a job requirement?”

Obviously, this seems to be implying a recruiter’s potential unlawful discrimation. Obviously there would be no way to track back unless you can read the recruiter’s mind, which is where the issue comes into play.

Social networking sites have caused huge legal issues in HR – it seems like any recruiter who might reject a candidate for  “being too Christian” or having too many activities listed on their Facebook page is not the kind of recruiter you want working for you. So what is causing the problem? Is it really the social networks that are causing this, or is it the people behind it?