Why I don't bother

reehsetin

dpassmore wrote: »

It is also likely that many HR departments will have had their manpower reduced and their workload increased and replying to hundreds of letters is a labour intensive, costly and in my opinion anyway, a pointless exercise.

Would have thought HR departments would have heard of things like mail merge or a bog standard email with all of the rejected persons email addresses in Bcc
Something is definitely better than nothing.

jdturk

moggylover wrote: »

That really is a complete joke of a response! I worked in personell at ICI some 35 years ago and even then we sometimes got 200 applications for a single job. We only had typewriters in those days, but we still managed to reply to every single one of those! It meant using a standard letter run off (rather painstakingly actually) on a Gestetner and then filling in the individual details and sending them off.

With the advent of computers this would take a few hours, not days, for competent staff. However, I'm perfectly certain that you will find other excuses for your ignorance and arrogance in ignoring the applications you get:D

More fool you then for replying to each one, what a waste of man power, did you not have something better to be doing with your time then?

I agree it could take hours to do for a member of staff that does it on a regular basis but for one that doesn't do it that often responding to a large quantity of CV's is a waste of time and effort and they have better thing to be doing with their time

Thanks for the snipe at the end, I'm only giving my view and if it disagrees with yours then so be it.

EDITED: Also most companies do not have large HR departments etc so as said before replying to job applications is not a common thing hence why it may take longer than someone that works in 'Personell'

maysmummy

I have to weigh in and say that I think I'm a nice sort of manager but in my organisaton, HR don't do the replying for you and we regularly get 200+ applications for jobs. Many people who apply either haven't read the job spec or are applying for some other reasons as they don't have the 'essential' list, never mind the 'desirable'. An application under those circumstances doesn't warrant a personal reply IMHO

It says on our website that if you haven't heard within 4 weeks, assume your application was unsuccessful

dickydonkin

reehsetin wrote: »

Would have thought HR departments would have heard of things like mail merge or a bog standard email with all of the rejected persons email addresses in Bcc
Something is definitely better than nothing.

But the result is exactly that - Nothing!

If you have not been selected for interview, what is the point of informing you along with the other hundreds of unsuccessful applicants the fact that your application will not be progressed? - it is a futile exercise.

It is like entering a competition - would you expect a response from the promoter to every entrant who has made a lot of effort to win a competition and who subsequently does not win a prize?

Of course not.

You just keep entering other competitions until you are lucky - a bit like job seeking really!

It may annoy some people, but it really just does not bother me!

WeakHeart

It makes like so much easier for people when ads or automated responses to applications say 'if you have not heard by X then please assume you have not been successful' or even 'only successful people will be contacted'. With so many online ads costing nothing so no reason not to include something like this.

What really can't be excused is when people have been interviewed, told they will hear back and never hear anything more. Sadly I've read too many times on this forum that this is not unusual.

jdturk

WeakHeart wrote: »

It makes like so much easier for people when ads or automated responses to applications say 'if you have not heard by X then please assume you have not been successful' or even 'only successful people will be contacted'. With so many online ads costing nothing so no reason not to include something like this.
Agree
What really can't be excused is when people have been interviewed, told they will hear back and never hear anything more. Sadly I've read too many times on this forum that this is not unusual.Agree[/QUOTE]
Agree Agree Agree

westv

WeakHeart wrote: »

It makes like so much easier for people when ads or automated responses to applications say 'if you have not heard by X then please assume you have not been successful' or even 'only successful people will be contacted'. With so many online ads costing nothing so no reason not to include something like this.

What really can't be excused is when people have been interviewed, told they will hear back and never hear anything more. Sadly I've read too many times on this forum that this is not unusual.

In the days of paper and postage there might have been good reason not to contact people who had been unsuccessful but I think in this day of easy Internet access and the ability to email multiple addresses there is no excuse for companies not to send a response (even if just a standard one) to all they have the email address of.

WeakHeart

westv wrote: »

In the days of paper and postage there might have been good reason not to contact people who had been unsuccessful but I think in this day of easy Internet access and the ability to email multiple addresses there is no excuse for companies not to send a response (even if just a standard one) to all they have the email address of.

It can be really soul destroying to hear nothing at all but unfortunately when it's an employers market, candidates are far more likely to be treated poorly. So many workplaces are far more cost and profit conscious these days I'm sure that this is another reason why resources aren't put behind this. It doesn't make it okay though and I completely agree with you that this is not always as difficult as people are making out.

Truegho

And whilst we're on the subject of paper and postage, another thing that these employers are doing now is, rather than sending you an applicaton pack in the post, expecting you to download it from their site, print it out yourself and then send it off. This can be an absolute PAIN, especially when there are near TWENTY pages of these accursed forms to print out, thus wearing out your expensive printer refills faster than you would like!

It is just ridiculous. The apathy of these companies is just unbelievable.

We poor unemployed aren't half being treated like dog muck now in this country. GRRRR!!

WeakHeart wrote: »

It can be really soul destroying to hear nothing at all but unfortunately when it's an employers market, candidates are far more likely to be treated poorly. So many workplaces are far more cost and profit conscious these days I'm sure that this is another reason why resources aren't put behind this. It doesn't make it okay though and I completely agree with you that this is not always as difficult as people are making out.

SnowyOwl_2

Over here in N.Ireland employers mostly use their own application forms and don't accept CVs. A lot of them also insist that you divulge your medical history, and also your religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status and age for their "monitoring/equal ops". So you give them all that - the only thing they don't seem to want is a list of people you have shagged - and they still don't bother to reply. How incredibly rude! They ask for your private details and say that they won't consider your application if you don't provide them, then they don't even bother to acknowledge that they even received your application, never mind if you got an interview or not. It makes me stamp my foot as organisations keep applications for seven years (or they are supposed to anyway). I am a fully qualified HR person with 20+ years experience and I do not think it is unreasonable to write to people to say "no thanks" regardless of the number of applicants. It would only take a couple of hours clanging Word to do a merge for a couple of hundred applicants. At the very least they could include a card with the applicant pack for candidates to stick a stamp on and for the company to then post back to the candidate. It just needs to say something like "we won't be progressing your application". That would be so easy to organise but they don't even bother doing that!

Forgot to mention: OP I am totally with you on this issue, it's soul destroying. Thankfully I am on prescribed happy pills and they are getting me through this long bad patch.