The Joys of Job Hunting

Just going to vent a little here on the “joys” of job hunting (tongue firmly in cheek on this) on this Labor Day.

I’ve been job hunting for a while and it is really not much fun.

At the end of June, I happened to find an ad on Indeed for a position that well in my opinion I would be perfect for.

So I set out to write my cover letter. I will say I’m not very good at these. I’m never sure how specific I should get on what I do since I have no idea who will read the letter. If you get really in depth on your previous jobs and this ends up on the desk of an HR person or a job site will they even know what you are talking about. What I usually do is come up with a letter and then send the letter along with a link to the job ad to a couple of friends and ask what do you think.

I did that for this particular ad and heard back from a couple of people. I then heard from a friend who had essentially rewritten the entire letter. It was  nothing short of brilliant (thanks Tom for you help with it).

Off I sent letter and resume via Indeed to potential job. A couple of days later I got an email back from the actual firm. The guy asked for samples and what my hourly rate was. I sent back some samples and what my rate was. (I went back and looked at the ad and at the very end of it, in smaller type no less, was the request for samples and hourly rate. I felt a little bad but it really was not all that easy to see.)

A few days later was another request for further samples to get an idea of the different types of layout I’ve used in the past. I sent them along and told him to let me know if he needed anything else. He emailed me back and said “we are evaluating candidates and I’ll be back in touch soon one way or the other.”

I thought OK maybe a couple of weeks and I’ll know.

Well the way I found out that I didn’t get the job was that all of a sudden the ad appeared back on Indeed as a sponsored ad no less so it was listed at the top of the jobs listings (I signed up for emails from Indeed with certain key words and I get daily emails with potential job listings). The ad ran for at least two to three weeks. I looked at it make sure it was the same ad. It was.

I get an email today (six weeks after being told they would be back in touch soon) saying unfortunately, the company (the email actually used the name of the company but I’ve removed it) has moved to the next step in their hiring process, and your application was not selected at this time. The email didn’t come from the guy I’d been emailing with the company. Instead it was a mass email from Indeed. I’m going to assume everyone who didn’t make the round got one of these.

My venting is if you promised someone that you would let them know one way or the other soon then that’s what you should do. How long would it have taken to write thanks but no thanks and sent it to me. And if you had no intention of letting me know (or the other people who applied for the job) simply don’t say that. Say thanks for sending me the information I requested and leave it at that. Or you could just not respond which is what most companies do these days.

So now I’m off to do something really “fun” I’m going to clean the carpets upstairs with my rug shampooer.

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend.