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Concluding the interview process

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-09-10 16:11:59 - Graham Ellis

One of the most delightful parts of my job (though it's very rare) is to get in touch with people and say "yes - please do come and work for/with us" - and I'm doing some of that this afternoon. One of the toughest parts is getting in touch with candidates who we've seen, but then decided that they won't be joining our team. Some of those are good - VERY good - but not for us, and I know how tough it is looking for work sometimes and finding the role that fits; I feel for each of them.

Should I include, in each "sorry" letter, a summary of why? I've thought long and hard - whilst I would want to know, people may also consider it to be a bit of a kick in the teeth to have it laid out; I really don't want to do that to these good people - so I'm making my letter short and fairly standard - but if any of them should email me back (graham@wellho.net) because they want to learn for future applications, I feel that it's the least I can do to give them pointers as to why they didn't fit out particular roles.

I'm looking forward - over the next week or two - to introducing you to [names to be added ;-) ] who will be broadening our team this autumn. I've got a bounce in my step - and I'm almost as excited about it as the first (to whom I've already spoken) was when I made the call.



Footnote - Added Sunday, 12th September

I've heard back from two of the candidates for whom there wasn't a place - i.e. to whom I had to send rejection letters.

One wrote:

"Thankyou so much for messing me about"

and the other said

"That is the nicest rejection letter (email) I have ever had! Thanks for letting me know so quickly. It was great meeting you!"

So much of it is a matter of perception, I think. Everyone was treated / interviewed in the same way - told the same thing about what the job was, and given the same timescales for decisions. And those timescales were stuck to. I'm sorry if interviewing someone to see how they would fit in and coming to the conclusion that they're not "tops" for the current role is "wasting their time" - it's an hour of my time, but not "wasted" as far as I'm concerned.

I'm keeping (with permission) some of the likely candidates' details so that if we have further requirements I can get back to them. Can you guess which of the ones I've quoted above would get a strong second chance, and which has placed herself onto the "not over my dead body" pile?