This is what I learned in the last couple of months…. Job market is tough when you are in a Senior Managerial or Leadership role compared to when you are in associate or junior management level and armed only with not so extensive knowledge and experience. Well, this is based on personal experience.
It all started last month when I received a LinkedIn message from an in-house recruiter inviting me explore the opportunities in her firm. At first, I didn’t finish reading the message as I was not into job searching that time but when I opened the LinkedIn app again, I opened the message and read it again. There, it said that I was referred to them by an executive that I know and used to work with in the past. So, I replied to the message then she invited me to visit their office so I can explore the opportunity they are considering me for. She even told me that the General Manage wanted to talk to me also.
So, the day came and I showed up early in their office. One HR staff approached me at the waiting area and informed me that my contact person was not available yet but she will be with me once she’s out of the meeting. I was handed two pieces of paper to accomplish. They were literally two sheets of photocopied forms with text that are almost not legible, no folder or envelope at all. It was like handing a grocery list to your maid. The person who contacted me (which I learned after I got back home, is the Recruitment Assistant Manager) approached me after like 20 mins. So, out of curiosity, I asked her how she knew this executive who referred me to them. She then told me that it was the GM who knows this executive and it was the GM who asked her to find me and get in touch with me. Well, she’s lucky to find me online. Thanks to LinkedIn.
Anyway to cut the long story short, I had a good chat with the GM, I called it chat because it was not like a super serious job interview but we were able cover all the necessary details. Maybe because we both know and worked with some people in the industry where I belong. The way I saw it , it was very positive, I was even told that out of the candidates they had, I am the one he liked the most. He even told me that he will ask HR to schedule the suitability assessment for me that when I come back, he will have the HR and Finance people with him to make sure he will not miss some important details. He also said that he wanted to fast track the hiring process as he will go on holiday. With all those details, I left the building feeling positive and sent a thank you message to the person who referred me to them. I waited impatiently to hear from the HR again but after five working days, there was not a single message. So, the right thing to do is send a follow up email knowing the fact that the GM wanted to fast track the hiring process. I received the reply after three days, informing me that she was on leave and just got back in the office that’s why she was not able to reply. I was like, “don’t you have a centralized recruitment messaging system so anyone in the team can reply to the applicant’s message?” But of course, I didn’t tell her that. I was also inform that she will get back to me the following week since they have other candidates lined up for evaluation. Two weeks passed by and there was not a word from them. I sent another follow up email and there was no reply again. A week past by and there was no reply so I sent another email combined with a LinkedIn message. On that same day, I got a reply from another email address, apparently the recruitment group’s email account but it’s a gmail account) telling that I didn’t get the job. So out of curiosity again, I replied to the email and requested to let me know why I didn’t get the job. To my full disappointment, they ignored my message again. What kind of HR people are they? To me, they are very unprofessional. Letting the candidate wait longer than what is necessary and ignoring the follow up emails and messages is just plain unprofessionalism. Sometimes, I still ask myself if I got the wrong the message during the interview or maybe I just expected too much. Nevertheless, the HR should have been more professional in dealing with their candidates. To be honest, I am both mad at HR’s unprofessionalism and kind of disappointed for not getting the job but at the end of the day, I tell myself that they are not the kind of people I want to work with, except for the GM who seemed to be really nice and kind.
To date, the search is still on and still not getting response to numerous applications I sent. I understand it if they think I didn’t meet the qualifications set for the role but the recruitment staff should at least inform the applicant. That, to me is being an HR professional.
Having all these negative experiences in the job market, sometimes, I ask myself if I really want to continue searching for that very elusive job and go back to the corporate world or start looking for an Angel to rebuild the startup that I founded a few years ago and closed just recently. I can’t say that the closure was due to the failure to lift the business off the ground. It was actually due the lack of enough efforts and hard work poured into it due to other priorities that came along the way. If I will do it again, I’m sure I will give my 100 percent to make it work. This is my dream and I want to see it fly.
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