Huff Post: “10 Reasons They Haven’t Contacted You After a Job Interview”
By Kurt Schmidt In Blog, News On April 23, 2014
Huffington Post contributor Susan P. Joyce’s recent column “10 Reasons They Haven’t Contacted You After a Job Interview” is a good reminder of something I have to deal with myself and something I have to remind my candidates of regularly: Hiring Manager time is different than Job Seeker time. What does that mean?
First off, I’m not going to go through every reason, though some are worth repeating – particularly the first one which advises not stopping your job search while you’re waiting. This is really important and in fact, the best way to make the waiting-for-feedback time. I do it myself to pass the time and increase my odds – as well, I know that by creating more opportunities I also enhance my odds and strengthen my negotiating position.
More importantly, without speaking directly about it, all 10 of Susan’s “reasons” are ways to get job seekers to think about the other side of the equation. Throughout the book I suggest to people that their job searches are not really about them, that to be successful, they need to develop empathy and really consider their potential hiring managers’ timing, goals and needs.
In addition to finding help, hiring managers have to do their own jobs. Job seekers, and corporate headhunters like me, are only doing one thing – looking for jobs – and we are spending all of our time on it. We’re moving a lot faster than they are and our expectations can get out of sync with the reality if we’re not careful.
Susan’s 10 reasons article is helpful, though to be honest, 3 of her reasons have to do with people missing from the process, so it’s really only 7 reasons. Even so, it’s a decent starting point for getting job seekers to manage their expectations.
Empathy and a good understanding of the total hiring process is much more important though. Job seekers who think like hiring managers have a much better chance of getting through the process without becoming impatient and making mistakes.
