John Dolan: If you sit a job interview, the least you deserve is a prompt reply

Say hello warmly. Look into their eyes. Smile. Shake their hands firmly. Sit down and lean forward slightly in your chair. And, begin...

“So, why do you want this job?”

“Um, ah, splutter, wh-wh-why do I, um...”

Is there any situation more stressful and downright unnatural in life than a job interview?

I mean, I get it. How else is an employer going to appoint a person to a role in their organisation, when they have had more than one applicant? Draw straws?

Job interviews are a necessary evil - but an evil nonetheless for those on the wrong side of the table!

Sure, some people are naturals at them, but for every confident, bubbly personality who can reel off pearlers like “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them”, there are perhaps ten others who fake it and stumble blindly through the inquisition, despite perhaps being just as suitable for the role as the goody-two-shoes.

However, one thing I’m sure we can all agree on, is that if someone takes the time and trouble to attend a job interview, the least they deserve is a prompt response as to whether they actually passed the audition.

But in this day and age, I’m afraid such a basic courtesy on behalf of an employer seems to be in short supply.

My teenage son recently attended an interview for a part-time job at a large organisation. He made himself presentable, and I drove him down to the place, trying to coach him on some of the possible questions and offer advice.

Half an hour later, he emerged quite happy with the experience. He had answered all the questions and felt he had done fine. “They said they would know their decision by the end of next week,” he said.

That was a month ago. We heard not a jot since.

My son has pointed out that the fact they said they would know their decision by the end of the following week didn’t actually suggest they would let him know the answer.

But that seems a cop-out to me.

Since when did it become normal for any employer, no matter how large or small, to not even deliver a basic ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to a failed candidate?

It would never have happened back in the day, that’s for sure.

When I was leaving school, and still unsure of what I wanted to do, I wrote maybe a dozen letters to large companies in my home town in England looking for a job, any job. They weren’t even actively recruiting at the time. Unemployment was sky-high, and thousands were looking for work.

Even so, I got prompt replies back from all those companies turning me down, while some went the extra mile, and offered sound advice and tips for someone in my position.

None of them left me hanging.

Back then, if you went to the extra trouble of actually sitting a job interview, you would have been sent a letter or phoned quickly to put you out of your misery.

These days, it appears misery is good.

And it’s an odd state of affairs, because we live in an age where most larger companies have HR (human resources) industries that are dedicated to caring for the workforce and to recruitment.

This may partly be down to the ease these days with which a person can apply for a role.

Years ago, you had to answer a recruitment advert with a handwritten letter, buy a stamp and envelope, and post it out, eagerly awaiting a reply with your interview date.

Today, people can bounce their CVs out on websites such as LinkedIn and carpet-bomb prospective employers, and perhaps that feeds into an attitude of ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’.

But I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse.

And a simple stock answer - yes or no - is all that most people need.

Sure, some candidates might want to seek advice on why their interview failed, which shows initiative, but it’s not a company’s job to be their personal advisor and offer feedback. That could be time-consuming, and risk offending the applicant, even incurring a charge of discrimination.

This is another attitude imported to our business sphere from the U.S, where writs can fly very easily in the recruitment world.

All that aside, if a person takes out maybe three or four hours of their day to prepare and attend an interview with your company, and endures all the stresses that such an interrogation involves, a simple response to their application is not too much to ask.

There is even a corporate phrase for this ‘ghosting’ of interviewees - ‘no-reply culture’.

The concerning aspect for the guilty company is that candidates failing to get closure can come away with a negative attitude to that organisation and feel disrespected by it.

Maybe the customer care departments in these big businesses need to have a word in the ear of the HR team down the corridor!

I’ve been at both ends of the interview table several times in my career, and still, if I had an important interview tomorrow, I could be thrown by such a basic and obvious question as ‘What qualities do you think you could bring to this role?’

That’s before you get to those occasional curve-ball questions that can throw even the best-prepared candidates.

Like, “Can you provide me with an example of a time when you confronted a stressful situation and made it better?”

Me: “Yes, trying to feed the kids breakfast this morning. I made it better by giving them all a clip around the ear!”

Cue lots of ticking and crossing of various boxes by the interview panel. I never know if that is a good thing!

Back in the UK many years ago, I was interviewing a few people with my editor when one lady came in who broke every single rule in the book. She arrived ten minutes late, failed to apologise, and was prickly and abrasive. She slagged off every employer she had worked for, and admitted that didn’t put her in a good light, but so what!

When she left, the editor turned to me and said: “She won’t get the job, which is a shame, as she’d give a few people round here a good kick up the arse!”

Another boss judged candidates on first impression by noting how shiny their shoes were.

Then there was a friend of mine in the UK who listed working on a dog magazine on his CV, and was quizzed about it by an interview panel.

“I basically write doggy-style articles for it,” he explained in a fluster. He swore it was only the next day that it dawned on him he had uttered perhaps the worst double entendre of all time. He is still scarlet now.

That was one candidate who really didn’t need to wait for the rejection letter.