In a comment received on my last blog Remaining
Flexible in the Hunt I was asked: “Is silence the new black? What's a girl
to make of it when a job prospect or contact goes silent after a promising
connection?”
The comment echoed stories of fellow job seekers and my personal
experience. Example: an interview that felt very encouraging to me ended with,
“We will call you by the end of next week.” Then…silence. I waited till the
beginning of the week after to write a upbeat email asking where they were in
their selection process. Silence. I waited again to send one more email
inquiring if the position had been filled.
You guessed it…silence.
An article* from Forbes quoted a 2013 CareerBuilder survey
stating that among 3,991 employees, 60% said they’ve experienced this (no
response) as a job candidate. The article went on to quote HR expert Steve Kane. “This should
never happen at a sophisticated, progressive employer. Obviously, if someone is
going through the effort of preparing for an interview, they deserve some idea
of their likelihood of receiving an offer.”
My appeal to employers is this - we understand you are very
busy, but any response, even a stock one, is better than nothing at all. If your
comment may be a little negative, we will learn from that and prepare for our
next interview. If we are pricing
ourselves out of the competition that, too, is invaluable to know. When there
is no-response, we feel diminished. The
job search journey is hard enough without at least being acknowledged when you
make it as far as the interview process.
I also admit we applicants need to be thick-skinned in our
employment hunt. It can be a brutal
process and your self-esteem takes hit. My tip this month is to give you tools
to keep you on top of your response to the response process. Google offers Boomerang, a free, downloadable addendum
to Gmail that will remind you when to send follow-ups to perspective employers.
Boomerang lets you to set a time limit, say a week, and will return your email
to you as a reminder if you do not get a response in that period.
For the part where you just need to feel better and move on
with dignity, I suggest signing on to receive daily or weekly messages from Mike
Dooley at TUT. His Notes from the
Universe have given me a surprising lift just when I needed it. Of course a visit with a good friend or family
member can also do wonders.
Yours in responsiveness, Susan
