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NEWS & VIEWS
– EDITORIAL
Objectivity.
Commentary by Chuck McClellan
“THE HURRY UP AND WAIT”
Some of you are very familiar with Tesar Reynes as it is a search
firm that has been
involved in marketing in this town for over
twenty years. Very often when someone is at an ad agency or in a
senior level marketing position the name Tesar Reynes will come up
on their referral list.
I’ve been in the executive search business for close to ten years
and with this firm for almost eight of them. As you navigate
through this website and understand that we have formed a company,
McClellan Tesar Reynes, my company, with Bob Tesar and Tony Reynes
as my partners. Think of it as a re-branding of a well known
name.
One of the unique opportunities of this company is it will allow
me to communicate with you from time to time. As we talk to
clients and candidates on a routine basis we are often asked for
advice, consul, or our opinion about the industry, trends, hiring
questions and career question as well. One of the first subjects,
I’d like to cover in this forum is the dreaded…
“After
the Interview Silence”. We have another saying for this
and it’s the “The Hurry Up And Wait”. It is probably one
of the most frustrating experiences that candidates have after an
interview with a potential employer. It’s frustrating for us
executive search professionals, because guess what…we get it
too! Very often we get calls from candidates looking for
answers and decisions for interviews that we have arranged for
them and in many cases we have not been told as well.
Now, in defense of employers, many of which are our clients there
are a variety of reasons for the silent routine.
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The interview process is ongoing and they have not reached a
decision.
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Employers receive thousands of resumes and
today’s environment of not responding to candidates has become
routine.
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They have an offer outstanding to their first
choice and would prefer not to notify others until the position
is filled.
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They have made another selection and just
plain do not want to tell you.
I
can’t justify the last point and I firmly believe that if an
employer goes through the time and expense of bringing a candidate
in for an interview, it should be common courtesy to give
respective candidates an answer. Too often people like to give
good news, but bad news is somehow harder to dole out.
Carol Kleinman covered this subject in her article in the Chicago
Tribune dated December 8, 2005 and she suggests several things job
seekers can do to get through the unreturned phone calls, emails
and letters.
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Ask the
potential employer how to follow up at the end of the job
interview.
-
Follow up
promptly within 24 hours with a letter. It gives you another
chance to build your value.
-
She’s
also suggests, and I like this one, that you talk to someone you
know that may know executives at the company. Maybe they can
put in the good word for you.
Some employers are overwhelmed with applicants and do not have the
manpower to respond to everybody. However, for employers I must
say this, you should look at the recruiting process like dating.
If you do not respond to these candidates, they form an opinion
about your company based on their experience.
I
often have to tell candidates that if you have not heard from me,
chances are I have not heard from them. The only difference; I
will call you back to tell you that I do not have an answer. It’s
ok to be persistent, but you do not want to be a pest.
There are times in this business when no answer is the answer, if
you get what I mean. Sometimes it’s ok to be the best back up
candidate that you can be and accept rejection gracefully and move
on. |
