Looking for Work?

Have you ever looked for a job? Have you looked 2 – 10 – 20 times? 100 times? Has your application ever been responded to?

On LinkedIn, where I’ve been connected for years, I found  an article by Lou Adler, CEO of a recruitment place. Adler’s 25 June 2014 article was titled “Why Responding to a Job Posting is a Waste of Time”. I felt my hairs rising as I read this. He said the following points for the video he had made: 

• Recruiters find people for jobs, not jobs for people
• A person who is referred to a recruiter from a trusted source is 20X more likely to be considered than someone who responded to a job posting
• A person whose resume or LinkedIn profile is found via a Google search is 5X more likely to be considered than someone who applies directly to a job posting
• If you’re not a perfect match on skills and experiences, your resume is unlikely to even be read

Lou Adler, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have any feeling for people who are looking for work. We are told "how" to look for a job, "how" to apply for one, "how" to never apply when the position hasn’t been advertised. We're told that recruiters simply trash resumes which are sent in without an application. Or even with an application. We're told that people who are referred are much more likely than any person who simply applies.

I don't think Adler knows much about "ordinary" people who look for work.

According to an article in Flexjobs back in 2013, apparently "… not responding to job applications has become a growing trend among companies." They had asked hirers to complete a survey and came up with reasons why hirers never responded except to the successful person. Some of these are:

• Providing feedback has legal and liability implications 
• Candidates don’t always commit “obvious” mistakes 
• Individual hiring managers often need team approval 
• Employers prefer hiring someone they know or who comes recommended 
• Recruiters may be strapped for time  
• Hiring decisions are made based on intangibles

These excuses are bordering bad. There is nothing given in the employer or recruiter responses which cover actually giving responses. I read some of the comments to the Flexjobs survey – even coming in this year! - and they are all against the laziness and stupid survey responses of the hirers who never respond to applicants.

I don’t think any recruiters know much about “ordinary” people who look for work.

I have never met up with “legal and liability implications” if a hirer wrote back simply with a “thank you for your application but you are not successful” sort of response.

If any applicant had any “obvious” mistakes, that would probably have negated them from consideration. Hirers should have written back along the lines of “thank you for your application but you are not successful”.

Team approval would never have taken time from the response to those who didn’t make the job. A short email like “thank you for your application but you are not successful” could definitely have been sent.

Employers who have employed someone they know or who was recommended doesn’t ever seem to pass the advertising, but if they have discovered this person after they have advertised, they should certainly sent the unsuccessful a short email, like “thank you for your application but you are not successful”.

Hiring decisions might be made on “intangibles”, but if every unsuccessful applicant doesn’t meet these advantages, they should simply receive a short email to tell them “thank you for your application but you are not successful”.

The survey response in the Flexjobs survey which riled me the most was “recruiters may be strapped for time”. I don’t believe that any person ever has no time. All this reflects to me is the growth of unemployed people who, eventually, become so frustrated that they will or can stop applying for the maybe 40 positions they are supposed to, through their work with a Job Provider for Newstart. The recruiters who claim they have no time to respond to applicants means – to me – that their company employee numbers are far too low for how many they should be employing. Perhaps they should be employing an applicant for any other possible role… perhaps that person could write emails every day if that’s what their company is about!

In my previous job I’d been in for 7 years, I’d taken over the response to all applicants with an email because no-one else in this company would have done it. My role was different than writing these sort of emails, but I must’ve been the only employee who believed that responding to every applicant was essential. Every applicant was recorded in a simple Excel spreadsheet which had their name and their email address, from which they could very easily be included in an email merge. The email was a brief sentence which said along the line that they weren’t successful. This would not ever take too much time, but, I believed, was essential. I never needed to know the applicants, I simply had their email address and their name. Why would this part of a role be dumped? Were managers expected to do this?

Two years ago I’d been in hospital and had “severe disability” on the medical report after my brain aneurysm surgery and stroke. For my previous employment I’d had a Graduate Diploma of OHS, but after the hospital I felt I couldn’t use that any more. It’s taken me nearly two years to recover to where I believe I could work, even if just short hours. I sent off applications to work advertised on Seek. No response. I sent off letters to agencies and told them about why I was looking for short hours. No response. I added in the name and contact number of a lovely mentor who is the branch manager of a city bank. No response. I have written to different non-profit organisations or individuals who have advertised roles I could certainly do. No response!

I read more comments following the Flexjob article. There are 167 on their page; many have told how they were dumped without any sort of response. So many of them say just what I believe. On 17 January 2015 one person, BK, said “I think this lazy HR practice will continue for many us in the job market until employment laws are rewritten to require employers to respond.” Such a good comment from BK – and absolutely nothing from the HR people! 

I will still be fighting in that direction. I am looking for work.