When I started out as a Personnel Assistant, many (many!) moons ago, I was tasked with carrying out my very first round of interviews. When I had finished, and had called the successful applicant to deliver the good news, I asked my manager where the ‘reject’ letters were on the system. She explained to me that personal feedback wasn’t only about delivering good news. She said as the applicants had taken the time to attend the interview, the least I could do was call them with the bad news and give them some feedback to help them next time. The first couple of calls were really nerve wracking but after a while, I quickly realised that I could be responsible for turning someone’s future job search around. Giving feedback in a meaningful, constructive way suddenly became a nice job to do – win/win. This lesson has stayed with me throughout my HR/recruitment career.
Fast forward 20 years to 2019 and I have been helping my 17 year old nephew with his degree apprenticeship applications. His first application was to a multinational company and the initial stage involved completing an application form where the five questions required answers with a 4000 character count each – it took quite a few hours of research and writing to complete. The time and effort seemed worth it though as he was delighted when he was selected for a telephone interview and again, spent lots of time preparing for it. Two weeks passed and yesterday he received a standard ‘unsuccessful’ e.mail, explaining that they were unable to supply any feedback and stating that most candidates are unsuccessful due to the five generic reasons they had listed.
What a disappointing first recruitment experience for a young person starting out on their career path. Not getting through to the next stage was fine – it’s a competitive market and he just needs to keep applying – but wouldn’t it have been nice if he had received some feedback to take on board for the next telephone interview? Did he not comply with just one of the reasons or all five? I’m a big advocate of things always being worthwhile if you learn from them but if I’m honest, I struggled to find many positives in the time he had spent on this particular application.
I’m pleased to say that the whole team here at Connect Recruitment follow the same philosophy as my very first manager and we pride ourselves on ensuring that all candidates, whose cv’s match our vacancies, receive interview/application feedback – good and bad. It’s a vital part of our service and something that is second nature to all of our consultants.
We’re currently recruiting for a number of grad roles for a great, multinational employer based in Slough. If you’ve got a Business, Finance or Marketing based degree and you’ve recently graduated then please get in touch – if you’re a good match on paper, we guarantee feedback on your application or interview J
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