Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I understand it is now acceptable to operate an HR department like a black hole for resume's. The infuriating and inconsiderate part is when an HR person or an interviewer states "I will get back to you" and they do not. Completely unprofessional and actually a point I have made with more than one organization, as I eliminated them from places I would work.
In academia, there's usually a manageable number of applications for tenure-track positions in my husband's field -- by manageable, I mean less than 100, because the field is narrow at the top.
However, I'm still shocked at the institutions that review your application, put you through a telephone interview, pay hundreds to fly you and your spouse to the university, wine and dine you, spend a day and a half interviewing with other members of the department, observe you teaching a class . . . and then, NOTHING. No "we picked someone else, sorry", no "the position didn't get funded," etc. Just a black hole. You don't get a response to a follow-up email or phone call, and a few months later, if you are keeping tabs, you discover that they are announcing a welcome to Joe Smith to the faculty . . .
You see these people at conventions, at convocations, at regional meetings . . . so it's not as though they are going to be able to ignore you. What is so damn hard about a nice, brief letter, "Thank you for your interest, we enjoyed meeting you and discussing your research and teaching goals. However, we regret to inform you that we have chosen someone else whose teaching philosophy more closely mirrors our institutional goals. We wish you the best in your job search." It's just closure -- you can scratch it off the list and move on.
I was adamant in our office when we received 250 applications from a Craigslist advertisement that each one had to be acknowledged. The office manager went through them, picked out 15 likely ones for telephone interviews, and we sent the other 230 a brief, kind email, "Thank you for your interest and your application for the position of _____; unfortunately, your qualifications and experience does not qualify you for further action at this time. Please accept our best wishes on your employment search." I was shocked at how many of them wrote back to thank us for at least letting them know we had gotten their resume' and acknowledged it.
-People coming to an interview with the intention of tearing people apart then patting themselves on the back for it with self-delusion for saving the company from a bad hire.
-HR psychobabble type interview nonsense. I'll talk about chemistry all day long and how I can add value to the company but a few minutes of behavioral interviewing or other types of HR BS and I want to shoot myself.
-People jerking you around for their own amusement or subjecting you to whatever quackery is vogue that week in the HR circles. This includes assigning me irrelevant essays like I am a third grader, those quack psychometric exams, interviewing gimmicks, head shrinking you at an interview etc.
-The salary game. I demand to know your salary history. Our offer is now current + 10% no matter what the market rate or was budgeted for the position. It has turned into that gameshow the Price is Right. Name the highest salary without going over or you get lowballed or rejected. Finding out after 3 interview we will offer you $15 per hour.
-Lack of feedback, never hearing back after an interview
-The bigotries like refusing to hire the unemployed, grilling people over gaps, overqualified, too old, ever been fired in your entire life etc
-Temp agencies. The lowball, offer no benefits, lie, burn your references, use you for leads or to meet their contact quota, most of the companies that hire through them suck to work for, this fake temp-to-hire [only 27% of these so called TTH jobs ever turn perm].
-Insane and over-specific must haves in job requirements. Must have experience testing for polyaromatic hydrocarbons in groundwater using Agilent Chemstation MSD E.02.02 build 426 on a 7890GC-7000 QQQ on a Thursday.
-References anyone can find someone (or pay someone) to say nice things, any decent person isn't going to secretely badmouth someone behind their back, most bad references reflect the character flaws of the person giving the reference rather than the subject.
You can fill out thousands of applications and not a single one of them will call you. When you go to an interview, the manager would rather lie to your face and tell you they will 'let you know' if they decide to move forward with hiring you instead of telling you straight up 'no'. Basically wasting your time, and money.
Decades ago all these problems within the hiring process were unheard of. You HAD to be upfront with people. There was no other option. If you did this kind of stuff, eventually it would spread around and you would be shamed for it. The whole lack-of-follow-up thing is a sickness within our society. It started when the internet and computers started to go mainstream, which was the mid 2000's. Makes people irresponsible and feel tough when they can hide behind a keyboard or computer screen, instead of facing the music.
It appears today's HR managers have no respect for prospective employees. They tell you a specific date they will call; then don't. Then they give you a revised date; and miss that, too. Then when they finally call you, they expect you to jump through hoops for them.
I figure if a prospective employer treats me like that when they're trying to "woo" me, it's only going to get worse once you get in the job. I've told a couple of guys that pulled this on me, "Thanks, but no thanks." And they couldn't figure out why I wouldn't be interested.
The best way to look at it is.....if they have no problem with lying to your face about hearing back about the job, how do you think they would feel about you as an employee? The scary thing is that this isn't just with jobs. It's just in general. People would rather just brush you off, then give the truth. It's a sickness.
Websites that are not good when it comes to finding positions, or show openings in other states and cities. I also hate when you go to interviews and you have the qualifications and experience, yet the tard interviewing you thinks you are not "a match".
I like websites that have a clear career link, shows openings in your area after specifying state, city or zip code. the there is either an application or an email to send one's resume.
I hate websites where you have to call and ask where and how to apply.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
