Job interview rant.

If a company can't even reply to your application/handle interviewed candidates in a professional manner, you are probably best off not to work for them in the first place.

I've never once heard from a company post interview unless it was a job offer. Sometimes they let me know during the interview, positive or negative, and sometimes I could feel that the interview went poorly such that I basically knew already, but I've not once heard from a company post interview except for receiving a job offer. I don't think they're being malicious, I think the people involved are just so busy that they don't think to follow up with everyone that was interviewed but didn't get the job - they're too focused on what they need to do to bring the new person on board.

Anyway, good luck with the job search. It honestly feels like such a crap shoot sometimes. I once interviewed for a very similar position at two different companies, where one company was thoroughly unimpressed with my knowledge, while the other company was like, "Wow, you already know about this? That's fantastic! Here, let us take you out to lunch so we can chat some more."

good luck with the job hunt!
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Heh, I hear ya. What is equally frustrating are companies posting job opportunities on online job boards, and they don't bother responding or acknowledging your application. And just as annoying are most of those job listings have not been removed long after the position has been filled.

IMO it's a byproduct of the increasing cultural tendency of poor empathy and consequently dehumanizing fellow people. Drives me bonkers. Have to submit mass applications online, only to have 99% of them get ignored or instantly rejected because your resume is an idea, not representation of a living breathing human.

It's that even after an in-person interview you still may be viewed as little more than a solidified concept--it's why networking and connections are nearly a requirement now to obtain decent employment.

Good luck with the job search! I hope the toil bears fruit soon. :)

A while back I went for a job interview and was told by the company they would let me know by the end of the day who had gotten the job. Three days later I hadn't heard back but I noticed the company had posted on their facebook page a few hours after my interview welcoming the two people who had gotten the job instead of me and I felt it was a bit rude to announce that publicly before getting in touch with me. A week later I got an e-mail telling me I hadn't got the job. Two weeks after that the company phoned me up and asked if I was available to go and do the job for free because one of the people they hired wasn't actually qualified - something I had discovered myself at the recruitment day I'd had to attend before the shortlisted candidates got called back for interviews.

Sometimes people are dicks. Don't let it get you down and I wish you better luck in the future.

I'm in the same position you are, and it absolutely sucks. It's excruciating and honest to god I feel like when I'm doing to job hunt I feel like I'm interacting with the mythical fae - thousands of rules, none of them obvious, and a single misstep can fuck you up for good and you wouldn't even know it. And, of course, they give absolutely zero shits about you.

I don't know what to tell you except holy fuck how awful this is <:c. At least know it's not personal - and, hey, at least you're getting interviews!

Not being able to reply to applications because you're swamped in them I could get -- your HR department may genuinely have better things to do than send everyone standardized rejections. Or rather, it probably really doesn't, but they may have a bad workflow set up that doesn't let HR just push a button and have that done without any hassle. I mean, presumably they still look at all the applications to find the worthwhile candidates, so how much more trouble could it possibly be to send back a polite "no"?

But there's no excuse for not following up on an actual meeting, since you obviously had the time and effort to set that up. It's basic decency to let someone know the outcome of that, regardless of what it was. "Let me just pretend this never happened" would not be an acceptable response to any other real life meeting, much less one in a professional context. It's inconsiderate, and unnecessarily so. Just make sending the rejection part of the meeting process. It's not like the interviewers have to do this in person.

Of course, I don't own a company, so what do I know.

Lots of shitty companies do this, while keeping your data just in case something goes wrong with their first or second or wtv choice so they can get back to you as a backup option. This is plain stupid.
Others just don't care about the applicants and treat them like animals knowing there's a big supply of them.
Usually this is the first contact with the company and if they don't give a damn about you right from the start, you won't have a pleasant time with them.

I never let the persons I interviewed wait for an answer. After the phone screening I always told them the threshold they need to pass to be taken into consideration for the job and the results were announced by the end of the interview while the definitive answer had a clear deadline known by everyone.

Back in the day when I went to interviews I always hated the bullshit attitude most of the companies had and their horrible practices.
Stay away from such companies and plainly ignore them if they don't have the common sense to reply in a timely manner. Don't wait on them forever and just move on and look for a better alternative.

Good luck!

I've been looking for work for almost two years and I can count on one hand the number of times I got some sort of response.

I mean, we both thought I had a good enough chance for the job that we both took the time to attend a meeting, but you can't take the time to spend 1 minute to send me the standard copy-pasted rejection?

This. It's so fucking inconsiderate, especially when they are the ones that came looking for you first.
I am baffled at how some people don't seem to realize that letting a candidate know is basic fucking human decency.

Also, I don't know how it works in other countries, but where I live companies don't pay your travel expenses when you go to an interview. You can spend money and several hours out of your day to get to a meeting that to them is literally a fraction of the time investment, and a lot of times it's for nothing. It's like you are worthless to them.

Many posted jobs simply don't exist. There's a hospital complex nearby that's been looking for a financial analyst since 2007.

I had an interview yesterday and they were so disorganized and incompetent that I screamed at the HR flak, flipped her off, and ran out of there.

That sucks, and I've been there. It's honestly rare for most companies to follow up with people who are not getting the job, though. I will tell you that I tended to call them back myself and, very constructively, ask to understand why they went with another candidate so that I could improve. In one case, I actually had one of those companies offer me a job later on (which I didn't take, but it was appreciated) - not sure if it was another position that opened up, or if my follow-up made them re-think the position. No matter what, that information is valuable to you as long as you can be objective, because you will either improve something that needs improvement (so that you can perform better in your next interview), or you'll find out that the company is super douchey and not constructive at all in how they deal with you, in which case you'll know that you dodged a bullet. ;)

and don't let me wait in vain for an answer?

By my experience (in the United States), normally they tell you "We'll let you know within X days", so that even if they do fail to call, you know when to stop waiting for a call. Then again, speaking as someone who has lived in numerous states, shitty management is a dominant mainstay out here as well, so hearing of similarly poor interactions out here certainly wouldn't surprise me.

Given what we hear about Greece, ever since the economic stuff first hit international news, the implication that elements of employment out there are rough and disorganized doesn't come across as surprising, either- especially given that current news still indicates the nation as being under recession conditions (and in any circumstance where unemployment is high, valuation of [potential] employees tends to be very low).

(Example article: English version, Greek version)
(Key quote:)

Economic recovery will be key to bringing down a jobless rate of 21 percent, the highest in the eurozone,