Dear Santa: A Job Seeker’s Wish List

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male wearing santa hat and looking upward Dear Santa,

And by “Santa” we mean hiring managers, HR personnel and even recruiters. In the spirit of Christmas, we job seekers have decided to make our own wish lists.

All we want for Christmas is for all of you to…

Acknowledge our application(s)

Hiring managers, don’t all of you understand that we spend hours perfecting our resumes and cover letters for each position we apply for ? And set aside 45 minutes to one hour to complete skills assessment tests? Then after investing so much time and energy into applying, we wait. And wait. And continue waiting. And most of us, unfortunately, never hear back from you.

Did the hiring manager receive our application? What’s our current status (if we even have one)? These questions and so many more boggle us down as we daily fight against the inevitable “resume black hole.” Grant us one wish this holiday: Simply acknowledge the fact that we’ve applied. Even if we don’t get the job, it feels much better to have some type of acknowledgement for our efforts than silence.

Be prepared for interviews

Recruiters always want to talk about their horror stories when it comes to interviewing candidates, but what about ours? We’re expected to show up early (being on time is late, remember?) and wait for the interviewer. Then, after she arrives 20 minutes after our scheduled interview time, she shuffles through papers, finally pulls one out, quickly skims it over and says, “So, you worked at XYZ company? Tell me about it.” Really?

Can we get more interviewers who are actually prepared for the interview this Christmas? And throwing in a little excitement and interest in the position they’re hiring for is helpful too. It’s difficult to explain to a hiring manager why you really want the job if he or she is nonchalant about the position.

Keep your word

Please stop telling us, “You’ll hear back from us by the end of the week,” if you truly don’t expect to follow up. You may as well say that you’re only going to contact those candidates you’d like to have move forward in the hiring process. At least then we’d be 100 percent certain that not receiving a callback really doesn’t mean “maybe they just got busy.”

Keep your word this holiday. If you assured us of a callback, make one. It’s not only about holding true to what you said, but also respecting our time. We’re not all just lazy, unemployed job seekers who have nothing better to do than interview with companies whenever they desire. We have lives too. Going in for job interviews takes up just as much time in our days as they do yours. Please, respect that.

Offer an explanation

If you’re one of the hiring managers who is kind enough to call us back and tell us, “We’ve decided to move forward with other candidates,” please don’t stop there. Can you tell us why we didn’t get the job?

We’re looking to be hired; if something is hindering this from happening, we need to know about it. Maybe we actually need more skills for that type of position; maybe our answers during the interview weren’t strong (or honest). Whatever the reasoning, please inform us. No one wants to continuously go through the hiring process to only end up rejected, especially if there’s a common reason that can be corrected.

Give us a job

This may be a stretch to avoid the hiring process; we truly understand that we all must go through it. Please, don’t quickly skim over our resumes because it’s the holiday season ; you may miss out on great candidates. In fact, while others are relaxing, we’re still investing time and effort into applying for jobs, even at a time of the year when many say isn’t good for the job hunt. If that doesn’t show you our commitment—and offer reason to hire us—I don’t know what does.

Signed,

Job seekers

By Shala Marks