Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Thanks for the rejection

I'm not being sarcastic at all when I wrote that title.   I got a rejection email today, and it got me thinking about how courteous a timely rejection email is.

I've been involved in the hiring of 12 people so far at my company in the past few years: 6 for my direct group, and 6 for other groups. We have committee-based hiring at my company, so in essence, I've chaired 6 committees and served as a regular member on 6. These positions ranged from techs to higher level scingineers with salaries ranging from $50k to $150k.

We get around ~200 applications for any given position, the recruiter narrows it down to ~30 for us and we start narrowing down further. At this point, we phone interview between 5 and 10 of them. We invite between 3 and 6 for on-sites. 

Once I've talked with a candidate, even on the phone, there's a more personal connection. The person has my email; knows my name. So if they don't move on to the next stage of hiring after an interview, I kindly call or email them with a message saying that they're no longer being considered. An automated email will suffice for those that didn't even make the first cut, but someone that takes time out of their life to interview with me over the phone or come out to my lab deserves the common decency of a rejection email. It allows them to stop thinking about it and move on. Ripping off the Band-Aid, if you will. 

I have much more kind thoughts from a company/school that tells me ASAP that they don't want me, rather than not hearing from someone too chicken to tell someone on their short-list they didn't make the next cut. It's common courtesy.   I do it even though I'm just as busy (if not more busy...at least from my conversations with my old advisors) than most academics. With 10 candidates to email it should take no more than an hour. Even if it means I'm typing from home. But maybe I'm the only one that believes in this courtesy.

For those paying attention to the count, I've accepted a couple more phone interviews and I'm waiting to hear back.

Outright Rejections (their loss): 11/29
Phone/Skype interviews offered: 14
Phone/Skype interviews accepted: 8
1st campus visits offered: 5
1st campus visits accepted: 2 (although I'm still waiting to hear back after I accepted)
2nd campus visits offered: 0
2nd campus visits accepted: 0
Offers: 0

2 comments:

  1. I agree. It seems like good manners. I understand that you can't tell me why, because there may be legal issues, but to not even let us know at all after we have interviewed with you is just douchey.

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  2. Xylademiqz mentioned in a post on her blog how you should talk with everyone, regardless of how seemingly unimportant, just to be nice. I think many people, as they move up ladders, lose sight of what it's like to be on the hunt for jobs and they also lose some of their manners. I don't know if karma will ever strike these people back, but karma really should get off her butt and do something to these people.

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