When the Candidate asks..."Why didn't you call me?

Some days, don't you wish you could just say it out loud? When the company business is hopping, and things get hyper busy, time becomes a rare commodity. Time is golden. One day, I had one of those candidates that was extremely persistant (I have caller ID, they really did call 4-5 times in one day), and it took alot of energy not to respond in a fashion that would have probably cause trouble with my boss. Let me share the scenario:

The Candidate: "Why didn't you call me"? "I applied to your position, I followed up with three phone calls, an email, and I still haven't heard word from anyone." “The least you can do is call me...”

Me: At this point, is there really an answer I can give that won't get me fired? I have about 30 seconds or my schedule is off for the rest of the day. I am tempted.

In my imagination this is what I would say: " Well, candidate, let’s take a look at my day. I have 10 different hiring managers who all believe their opening should come first, and I have 45 interviews to schedule, two new job descriptions to write, an offer to negotiate, and about 200 new resumes to review, including yours. I will get through reading all 200 resumes. Yes, I really did scan through them all. I forward to the hiring manager the top 20 out of that group, and wait to get some feedback. They decided they want to speak with about six of those. (That part alone could take days, by the way) Unless you made that top six, you are probably not going to hear from me, at least not directly. You might get one of those generic emails from the Applicant Tracking system generated when your resume was turned down, or not selected for that particular role. At the pace I am going, if I actually called the other 194 resumes that were not selected at this point, I would have to work the next seven hours straight, just getting on the phone, or typing an email.

"This is a picture of a typical day, in the typical life of a corporate recruiter. This is just a snapshot. Now, let's do a little more math. Now, imagine if you will I am also working on 30 other positions with anywhere from 20 to 200 resumes to read per posting”.

"You wondered why I didn't call you back. I tell you this, "If you are selected to move forward and there is an interest in your resume at that time, I will most certainly be calling you." Otherwise, in my world, on any given day, you are right; I did not or probably will not be calling you back”.

Instead, I just simply have to say, "Thank you for your interest. I see that the manager has decided to pursue other candidates at this time..."

What would you say?

Comment by Tiffany Branch on March 28, 2013 at 10:03am: If someone emails me directly, I will acknowledge the resume. However, any resumes that are in the ATS, I use the ATS templates to send "thanks but no thanks" or "let's talk" emails. With one click, I can send "no thank you's" to hundreds of applicants at once.

Comment by Tiffany Branch on March 28, 2013 at 10:15am: @Daren, that may be true in some corporate orgs but not all. I would never present 20 resumes to a manager and very rarely do I rely on applicants from the ATS. Let's not turn this into a corp vs agency thing. There are different challenges on each side. As a corp recruiter, I always focus on presenting the BEST regardless of where I sourced the candidate.

Comment by Jennifer Clanton on March 28, 2013 at 10:39am: This is the number one complaint from candidates, no matter which side of the desk you're on. Given the huge amount of communication devices available, I find it totally unaaceptable to not acknowledge a candidate for any reason. Sure, nobody enjoys saying the hard things.

If I was still in corporate I would be sure an auto acknowledgement was sent to every resume that comes in via the website, short and sweet, thanks for your interest we have received your resume and are reviewing it. You will be contacted within a week, yada yada. THEN have the resume deposited in recruiter mailboxes with a rotation. (depending on how many there are) if it is and has been just me, I calendar w/alarm at least 5 a day to do a courtesy screen and give immediate feedback, make suggestions and set expectations.

If I say I'm going to call, I do. I may not have any new news, but I keep my side up. I find doing this candidates call when they say they will. If I'm stuck in mtg, etc. I send text or mail and say when I will call and apologize for the unforeseen. If I've promised an update, I do that via mail, text, LinkedIn, or a call.

If you have an employee referral program, that is sacred---everybody gets called. Including the referring employee. If they don't fit, they don't fit. Have the respect and decency to say so. It's amazing how many referrals I have gotten simply by letting people know the situation is not a fit for them.

many of these people are still part of my network, the rewards are huge. The consequences of not treating other people right are also huge. Nobody knows for sure who anybody else knows and what degree of seperation exists between you and them.

I tell candidates they will always know as much as I know and I mean it. Actions back it up.

Comment by Jacob S. Madsen on March 28, 2013 at 10:46am: @Jennifer Welcome to the what I term 10% club , the recruiter who understand and take her role seriously, who cares and who follows up and does what any good and professional recruiter should always do. You are (sadly) a rarity, but should be lauded for you actions and not least mind-set. I salute you :)

Comment by KKenner on March 28, 2013 at 11:03am: @ Jody...you are right...candidates do it all the time. Most of they time, they don't even see it. They are just desparately searching, and hoping, and well, we all know...it sucks looking for a new position.

Comment by KKenner on March 28, 2013 at 11:16am: @Darin, and @Tiffany, and...Lucky me, I don't work in that company any more, where Darin is correct, we weren't really recruiting, we were administrators. @ Tiffany, I agree. Our job is to make sure the Hiring Manager has the best/top candidates for their opening. 2-4 is best, depending on the role, how many layers of interviews, etc. For example, when doing a confidential search for a VP role, that job was never even posted. That was a real search, and when we went through the process, I narrowed down to 4, and before we even got to the CEO level , we narrowed it down to 2. Thank goodness I have moved on from the chaos.

And seriously when you work for big companies that have well known brand names, you don't have to do alot of networking, searching, cold calling, warming up, building a pipeline, because once it's known a job is open, people line up trying to get it, just because of the name of the organization.

@Tiffany, at that particular organization, the managers were expected to look at the top 5% of the resumes, then let us know which ones to screen, interview and vet for their role. We would then take those 5-8 people, and do just that. The manager would then only interview the top 2 or 3. It was the company protocol for those particular positions. It was a different method then our other positions, where we would hunt, search, screen, interview, then present the best. Again...just a window of a moment, not a practice! These were sales people.

Back to my original post, I think it bears a repeat, it was just a moment of busy, not a practice, when a very persistant candidate caught me without my recruiter suit on sort to speak.

Wow...some great posts. Agree with all, in that canidates need attention, they deserve a good experience.