By YOU FIND ALL SORTS of interesting things when you go through old email.
I’ve been doing that recently as I try to get rid of the many messages I’ve saved over the years. Why I saved so many escapes me now, but the silver lining is this — I’m finding some interesting conversations that are worth revisiting today.
Here’s one on a topic that is highly relevant in today’s screwy job market: getting jerked around when getting considered for a job.
Here’s the setup: Back in 2016, I got a message from a well-known technology analyst that was short and sweet. It simply said:
“Hi John. We have a project going on I think you’d be very interested in. Would you have time to talk this week? Thanks, hope all is well!”
This tech analyst had been talking to me for years about working together. It seemed to come up just about every time we connected at a conference somewhere, but it was always just cocktail party chat and had been for years.
This time, it finally felt like something definitive — especially since my analyst friend was working closely on the project with a big name consultancy most everybody has heard of. that I will simply refer to as “Company X.”
8 months communicating with lots of people
SO, I RESPONDED. We did a little back and forth, but were never able to really connect about the “project” the tech analyst had messaged me about.
Sadly, I never found out any more about it because he never personally communicated with me about it ever again — but that didn’t mean I was done discussing the “project.” Instead of hearing more from the well-known tech analyst, I got passed off to other people, including:
- An executive from “Company X” who seemed to be working with the tech analyst on this project. I had a few emails and a brief phone conversation with him until he passed me along to …
- The new Chief Editor for the project who had just been hired by “Company X.” I’m pretty sure this was the job the well-known tech executive had been thinking of me for, but despite that, I had a good phone conversation and exchanged some emails with the Chief Editor. She seemed to feel that I could help by writing a regular column and serving as an advisor since she was new to the talent management space. But all that came to a halt when she passed me off to …
- A Senior Recruiter for “Company X” who was now the main contact for me on the project since the other three people I had been communicating with had stopped communicating.
At this point, I had been dealing with various people about this project for eight (8) months. My expectations for it had been significantly lowered, and I was now being considered for freelance work on the project as well as any other editorial projects that “Company X” might have available.
7 months of talk, and then a writing test
OVER THE NEXT seven (7) months, I filled out paperwork, added myself to the company’s hiring portal, and even supplied my proof of auto insurance in case I ever had to drive somewhere on a freelance project.
Then the Senior Recruiter reached out to me with this:
“Okay! I’ve finally received a response from the (well-known tech analyst’s) team about their project.
First – are you still interested and available?
Secondly – can you send me some writing samples? I see your writing all over the internet, but not sure if you want me to direct them to a website, blog, or if you have choice pieces you like to showcase. Can you also send me an updated CV? I don’t see one attached in our portal.
I know you are a “known entity” (within Company X). If you can provide names of people you’ve worked with in the past, I can do the old name drop. That way you have internal cheerleaders as well, instead of just me saying, heck yes he’s great!”
This all seemed a bit odd after months of back and forth about me working in some capacity on this “project,” but given how much time I had invested, I wanted to help the Senior Recruiter in any way I could.
So I sent her what she wanted within the hour, and she responded with an email saying, “You are a total rock star, John!!!! I’ll get this over to the team.”
I finally felt that something might actually happen with the infamous “project” the well-known tech analyst had reached out to me about so many months before. It was a nice feeling, but only until the Senior Recruiter sent me this three weeks later:
Hey John — Some movement! The team has asked if you would mind completing a short writing assignment so they can better evaluate your talent. You’ll be given 5 days to complete it. As soon as you have time, let me know and I’ll forward it to you.”
A week later, the Senior Recruiter followed up with a short note that said, “Hey John. Just checking to see if you’ve found time in your schedule for the writing assignment? Thanks!”
A simple way to give me a kiss off?
I’D BEEN WORKING on a response for the Senior Recruiter, so I sent this along later that day:
“I’m sorry I have not responded sooner. I keep getting distracted and I want to be precise in what I write because I know you are in the middle on this. You have been wonderfully responsive, communicated back at all stages, and made me feel good about my interactions. I thank you for all of that.
But honestly, I’m puzzled by the notion that I need to take a writing test. I’m not sure who on the team wants this, but there is a boatload of information on me that is available — on my background, my experience, my writing. I’m pretty sure you and the team have all that. I also believe I sent you links to a lot of my content (written over the past 10 years) as well. Anyone who knows how I write, what I have written, and what kind of experience and background I bring, can easily find it.
Given all that, I wonder: What is a writing test going to show that can’t be found out about me already?
Here’s what I think: Nothing.
A writing test won’t show anything to anyone that they can’t already find out. (Company X) already has all this information on me and should be able to judge me if they simply take a good look at it.
However, a writing test is a very convenient way to take a pass on me if someone wants to find an easy way to do that.
That’s what this feels like — a simple way to give me the kiss off by having me jump through some hoops and then tell me, vaguely, that I didn’t jump through them well enough. …
So, I want to thank you again for all your help. I appreciate what you have done, but at this stage of my career, it’s insulting and a little demeaning for me to have to take a writing test for some unspecified job or assignment that it is likely I will never, ever get offered.
I feel very jerked around by (Company X). With the exception of you and your professional and caring approach, my experiences with (Company X) have all been one-way and one-sided. That’s a bad way to do business. And everything I have ever written or done in my professional experience will tell anyone who cares to know that I believe that it is terribly wrong to treat people that way.
Again, I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate you and all of your help. You treat people the way HR used to treat people so long ago, and it is very, very refreshing to find that the caring part of HR has not completely died.”
“I have to warn you, I’m not giving up”
TWO HOURS LATER, the Senior Recruiter responded:
“Hey John,
I think they asked for a ‘writing test’ just so they can compare apples to apples with other contractors/candidates they’ve been speaking to. Please don’t take it as an insult to your obvious writing talents. It’s another tool that’s been developed to help streamline the process of hiring. Impersonal? Yes. Efficient? Meh…
I’ll take the blame here, as I was trying to find a way to move this forward and asked what would help them.
And absolutely no worries if you don’t want to do it. I get it. You are a known entity here, just not by this team. Not sure what’s up with (the Chief Editor) or the lack of follow up from her. Maybe she’s new in the role and getting her feet under her? My deepest apologies that your experience hasn’t been representative of a top notch organization. I’ll be tattling on everyone.
Know what’s funny? I’ve always considered HR to be the evil empire. My recruiting background started off in an agency, so HR was the gatekeeper, keeping me away from that big fat commission check. I used to get a little offended when people called me HR. I’m a recruiter, not a rule maker. Now here I am — Part of the Borg HR colony. Okay, it’s not that bad, but I refuse to assimilate completely. (I’m nerding it out big time tonight!)
I have to warn you, I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep poking around and will be in touch with you if an opportunity opens up. And please, if anyone contacts you about another project, give me a shout. I’ll let the team know you’ve passed on their test.
I truly appreciate your candid response and will pass along the conversation to others on our team. No one should ever feel slighted or undervalued, and again my sincere apologies.”
“Bottom line? Don’t be an as*hole”
ONE MORE THING: As nice as that last email from the Senior Recruiter was, it was the last thing I heard from Company X.
I don’t blame the Senior Recruiter for that. She desperately wanted to help, but there were other forces within the company working against her.
The problem was that she had other people in the process who didn’t feel any responsibility to follow through, and this is true from the well-known tech analyst who originally reached out, to the Company X executive who just passed me along, to the Chief Editor who avoided her managerial responsibility to either bring me on board or be honest and give me the kiss off.
It’s not the only time I had this happen in my career, but this one was a doozy because the process went on for nearly 18 months.
As resume guru Roberta Storey has written on LinkedIn:
“Don’t waste people’s time if you already know there’s zero chance they’re getting hired. That’s right— it makes you an asshole.
Bottom line? Don’t be an as*hole.”
She wrote that a few months ago. My experience started back in February 2016.
It’s a reminder that despite all the happy talk about improving the candidate experience, about treating job seekers with greater dignity and respect, jerking job candidates around has been going on for a long time.
I don’t expect it to change anytime soon.
