1. Why didn't the company acknowledge receipt of my application materials?
2. Why didn't the company respond quickly to tell me if I'll be interviewed or not?
3. Why didn't the company contact me for an interview?
All very valid questions. And in a perfect world we would all receive prompt replies to our job applications with a box of chocolates hand delivered to us the next day. But let's be clear on one thing. The recruitment process was not designed to build your self-esteem or quench your ego's thirst. It was designed by the company to hire the best (or most available) applicant. Of course, one could argue (and rightfully so), that a company's recruitment process should be designed to make sure that even rejected applicants are treated with a modicum of dignity and respect. After all, one could argue that rejected candidates are still viable consumers of the company's products or services; as well as potential brand advocates.
Confession #1: Recruiters DO NOT care about your job-search anxiety.
A harsh, but true confession. But if you really think about it, why should they care? They don't even know you! It's like asking Mick Jaggger to personally answer your fanmail. Sorry, not gonna happen. You'll be lucky to receive a copy of an autographed photo of him if he has a good public relations office. And your average company definitely doesn't treat their job applicants like rockstar fans. Your average company does not place any value on contacting every applicant that applies to a job. They only place a value on contacting the ones they want to interview! Your job-search is on your own timetable, not the company's. They didn't open a recruitment process just for you.
One of the reasons for the disappointment job-seekers feel is that many don't understand what the recruitment process is about. Let's break down what "recruitment" is - and what it isn't. According to businessdictionary.com, recruitment is the process of identifying and hiring the best-qualified candidate (from within or outside of an organization) for a job vacancy, in a most timely and cost effective manner. Definitions for recruitment will vary but from my own personal experience in recruiting and from talking with other recruiters this definition is very accurate.
Now, let's talk about what "recruitment" is not. Recruitment is not a hard science. Nor is it a liberal art. To my knowledge, there is no Newton's Law of Recruitment. There is no formula that exists where you can plug in the characteristics of a potential employee and predict their work success with 100% accuracy. Universities don't offer Bachelors or Master's degrees in Recruitment. So I'm pretty sure you won't meet anyone who tells you that he has just completed his Doctoral degree in Recruitment. And you definitely don't need a professional license to be a recruiter. In reality, the recruiter can be anyone, and no one.
What does all this mean? Well, it means that there is a lot of variance in recruitment practices from person to person, company to company, industry to industry, country to country, etc. Some people have extensive training and experience in recruitment while others don't. Some people involved in the recruitment process have various university degrees and work experience while others hold no degrees or special training at all. Some companies have dedicated recruiters and defined processes while many others have no recruiters at all - not to mention processes! When you submit your résumé online to a job posting or send an unsolicited résumé by email, then there is no way for you to verify who is going to actually read it - if anyone!
Confession #2: Recruiters DO NOT read every résumé they receive.
But surely you already knew that, right? Surely you didn't think a recruiter's favorite hobby was to kick back in his favorite chair and read your résumé line by line like a best-selling novel. I know it's harsh, but believe me it is true. What recruiters like to do is "scan" résumés in as little time as possible to see if anything is there worth following up on. Recruiters are in constant search for "The One" - the candidate whose résumé is the proverbial needle in a haystack. Every recruiter has his own "scanning" style but I can guarantee you that for the experienced recruiters it's less than 20 seconds! So if you have a poorly written résumé, you actually would be better off if a non-experienced recruiter received it.
In this three-part blog series, I promise to reveal the hidden - and often misunderstood - lifestyle of the professional recruiter. It's not as glamorous as lifestyles of the rich and famous and you won't envy the recruiter's professional lifestyle in any way. Hopefully after reading the entire series of confessions you will be better prepared to conduct your job search campaign. But before I write the next blog in this series, I'll leave you with one more little confession...
Confession #3: Recruiters' lives DO NOT revolve around the job posting you applied to.
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