Post-interview etiquette (from the interviewer)

So, I understand that it's one thing to get a form letter rejection, e-mail rejection or no response whatsoever if you're applying for a job and don't get chosen as a finalist. But assuming you get chosen for an interview, be it in person or on the phone (for a location that's a long distance from where you live), what would you expect the interviewer's next step to be once they choose someone else for the position? At least a phone call, right? "Sorry Danhawks, we went with someone else..."

Please tell me I'm right in thinking that a generic letter from HR is inadequate.

 

If you've interviewed? Then yeah ... I think you should expect better than a generic HR letter.

 

Don't expect it from the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

 

A phone call should be standard, but all too often it's not. A form letter is better than nothing,

I've gotten absolutely no response after coming in for an interview once. It's happened to my wife twice. All three were newsroom gigs.

The one time it happened to me, the editor making the hire didn't have the sack to call me and tell me he'd gone with someone else. Didn't send a letter, e-mail, nothing. I found out while checking the executive editor's blog when he made a post bragging about their new hire for the job I'd interviewed for. Still pisses me off.

Ended up getting a different job there a few months later, though, working for a different editor.

 

Some people were raised by wolves. What can you do?

I was trying to think if I'd ever been blown off like that, and the answer is yes, and in a surprising situation -- I interviewed to be editor of the paper I had started at as a high school kid 25 years earlier. I rationalized it by deciding the publisher was just busy. He was outta there not long after.

Last place I interviewed, the exec editor sent a thank you note for my thank you note. I don't think I can hold everyone to that standard. In fact, it was a first.

 

In one of the more difficult situations I have been in, I interviewed for a job at a paper which was part of a chain that includes the paper where my wife works.

(She was my future wife at the time.)

She knew another hire had been made before they let me know and felt terrible about being the one to tell me. Pisses me still.

 

You're absolutely right. If I were a finalist and got a form letter, I'd be glad I didn't get that job.

 

I'd figure that a call or email from the SE would be enough, but not a form letter...

 

I agree with most everyone on here. If you come in for an interview, you deserve a telephone call from the person making the decision. If not a phone call, a personalized e-mail.

To you sports editors out there who read this: To do anything less is 100 percent chicken shit and bush league.

I understand not responding to every person who applies for a job, but treat people you bring in for interviews with a little respect. Everyone knows that the worst part about interviewing for a job is the waiting after the interview. You're anxious, your current boss (assuming you do the right thing and tell them) is somewhat anxious, your friends and family is anxious.

As a result, the person doing the hiring needs to show people who don't get the job at least a little bit of respect.

One more time for clarity: Anything less than a phone call is chicken shit.

 

A few horror stories from my past:

I interviewed for a job not too long ago, and found out I didn't get the job on, of all places, SportsJournalists.com. (Someone posted an update saying so-and-so was hired.) Still haven't received an explanatory phone call or email.

But that one doesn't gall me as much as an episode from circa 2001. Interviewed for a job covering a big-league beat and was all but promised the gig -- the editor laid out all these big plans for me, telling me he was already making the plans to send me cross-country to my beat's All-Star game, etc etc. He just had to meet with the publisher to formally approve it, and was going to that meeting later that afternoon and would call afterward.

A few days pass, no call. Couple of weeks pass, no call.

So I call the editor back. He reassures me, don't worry -- at that moment, in fact, he said he was walking into another meeting concerning my hiring. Wait by the phone for the good news.

You guessed it -- no call. No job. No explanation. I can only assume I won't receive that call -- the newspaper has since folded.

 

I'd actually prefer an email over anything else, including a phone call. The phone call is awkward for both of us and a written letter takes too damn long. Just write me an email, explain your decision as briefly as you want to and let me know that maybe we can talk in the future about another opening. No hard feelings.

 

Another thing: If you are an employer, just tell the guys during the interview how you will tell them about the job: "We'll send you an email/call/do nothing if we give it to someone else" ... how hard is that?

It's amazing at how people in this business lack communication skills.