In my excursions in Minnesota, I saw a truck with a company name that must be shared! It belonged to a plumbing company named Veit and Co. I’m not actually sure how that name is pronounced, but my brain interpreted it as “Wait” which made it a very funny name for a plumbing company.
I am noticing that people are finding this category of this blog. Please, if you’re enoying the names you see here, please feel free to email me and share ones you come across in your journeys. I’ll post them here and credit them to you!
Posted by Rebecca as Naming at 3:19 PM EDT
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I have recently returned from a summer in the pleasant state of Minnesota where I was working as a camp counselor. The night I came home, I discovered that I had a message from a gentleman requesting an interview with me. I have no job currently, so this might have been great news. However, interacting with this gentleman has been a strong study in how to not conduct a hiring process.
Let’s start with the part that truly boggled my mind. The job in question? I applied for it in May. After not hearing back, I just assumed that they had decided to go with someone else and continued on with my life. I had actually completely forgotten that I’d even applied for the job when I was given the message. While I am currently available, I am moving out of the state in a few weeks. I have explained the situation to my roommates and they are willing to let me move at the end of the year if this job actually materializes, but I’m completely surprised that this company thinks it is appropriate to contact their top choices three months after the position closed.
A big part of the problem in this, and a very common one in San Antonio, is that the company never communicated where they were in the search. I had no idea that the search had been postponed, and consequently had forgotten everything about the job. Many companies locally also never contact perspective employees to let them know when a position is filled, so I had no reason to hold any hope for an interview. Typically, a lack of call means you were passed over. When I called to set up my interview, it took me an hour just to get through to his voicemail. Several hours later, while we were eating dinner, he called back and expected me to have time to talk with him. (He had also told my mother how critical it was that he reach me because he was being pressured to hire someone immediately. My interview is eight days from now.)
My interview will apparently be a panel interview and I’ve already been told that I’m expected to run it.
At this point, he is lucky I’m agreeing to go through with this interview at all. One thing employers need to remember is that while the candidate needs to be mindful of how they present themself, the point of contact person also needs to be similarly mindful. A company can lose its top choice candidate by being inconsiderate in its practices. By not being timely in returning calls or emails, by not giving the candidate the courtesy of a status update, the company runs the risk of making the candidate feel unwanted.
If you are someone in the position to do the interviewing and hiring for your company, please extend the same courtesies to your candidates that you expect them to show you. Just as you would reject a candidate for poor manners, a candidate is completely within their rights to reject your company for poor etiquette.
Oh, and the point of contact? He’s the executive director for the branch. I’ve already lost a great deal of confidence in him.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 3:16 PM EDT
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