Extraordinary Observations

Auto-posted while I am in Philadelphia for Independence Day.

Maybe I'm lucky that I didn't graduate in May like I should have. There are plenty of people from my university who are now two months out of college and still unfortunately unemployed. I think they all understand how tough it is right now. There are a lot of people chasing a few jobs. But it's what happens as they chase those jobs that has caught my attention recently.

Consider this simple question: where do you want to work? Depending on your field, the answers will vary; but if you named a company that does business with customers, it is likely that you are one of their customers.

So when you apply for a job, you might not expect to get hired or even to land an interview. But it seems reasonable to expect a little courtesy and respect. A call or personalized email to let you know that you aren't a fit for the position.. even a few encouraging words might not help. People hate getting blown off. They hate not knowing what is going on and feeling completely out of control in situations. An easy way for a company to piss off some of its best customers is to neglect its job applicants. This seems painfully obvious. And yet, my peers tell me that it is exactly what is happening at many of the places they are applying.

Yes, I know, companies are getting bombarded with applications; recruiters are being overwhelmed and overworked; slowing business is crushing the economy as it is. I'm no expert in human resources, but it seems like now is a particularly bad time to do anything that might turn more customers away from a business. Why don't some get it?