It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Job applicants are hounding me on personal email and social media
I’m a recently appointed executive director who is hiring a number of people for newly created roles. In the past, I’ve hired but never had the overwhelming response I’m getting now. Much of it is coming through my personal channels, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and even my personal email.
Our organization uses an electronic ATS (applicant tracking system) and we are vetting candidates that way. More and more, I’m receiving messages non-stop, to the point where my wife and some former colleagues have received quests for my contact details. I’ve had a few candidates send surly follow-up notes, including one along the lines of, “I’ve tried reaching you numerous times, but you’ve failed to respond….” (I think the tone might be a bit hard since I don’t believe English is their first language, and I’m not sure they realize how they are coming across).
Is it okay to respond to them telling them not to contact me at my private email or on Facebook? I feel like they may need a refresher on networking and that this isn’t it. Every job I’ve ever had I got through applying on an ATS and getting selected. I feel like this is just queue jumping and I don’t think it’s fair to other candidates. How should I handle these people?
Yes, you can absolutely say that! I would write, “This is my personal email (or personal Facebook account, etc.) and I don’t use it for work communications. If you’d like to apply for a job, please apply on our website, which is the only way to get your application into our system.” If they message you again after that, feel free to ignore it. (The one exception to this is LinkedIn, which is for professional communications. There you should just say something like “thanks so much for your interest” and then use that last sentence about how to apply.)
Do make sure, of course, that your ATS is set up well and not onerous to use, and make sure you’re updating people on the status of their candidacy in a timely way, since that might cut down on some of this — but yeah, some people are convinced that going around an organization’s hiring system is the way to get noticed (even though it’s usually a bad idea). While unemployment is high you’re going to see a lot of this, so just having good systems and a form letter is the way to go.
2. Company is asking Black former employees for feedback
My husband recently received an email from a company he previously worked for, inviting him to a forum on the experiences of Black employees during their tenure at the company. The email stated in part that the company wants to do the “hard work of having candid conversations with employees and former employees” about their experiences as Black people in the company.
My husband left the company after experiencing racial slurs and casual racial comments on a daily basis. (The managing partner once asked him why Black people didn’t enunciate.) He left with a severance and non-disclosure agreement, but experienced substantial professional repercussions because of the incident. I have advised him to ignore this request, as I see no benefit to him and it would likely cause him aggravation.
I guess my question is this: Is this something companies do? Why would anyone take part in something like this, particularly if they left on less than positive terms? What’s in it for any of these “alums”? Why would an employer think this would give useful information?
Yeah, some companies are doing this, right now in particular. Sometimes it stems from a genuine desire to learn about the experiences of people of color at their companies. Sometimes it’s just lip service, so they can appear to be doing something. Sometimes the company thinks their desire to learn is sincere, but in fact they’re not prepared to do the work of making real change. I would argue that asking former employees to do this emotional labor after they don’t even work there anymore (unpaid, no less) is one really big sign of the latter. It’s not their responsibility.
As for why anyone would participate, some people see it as an opportunity to be heard and to potentially have an impact, although I’d bet participation numbers will be low. The opportunity for the company to ask for this kind of input was while people were still working there … and even then, putting the burden on employees of color in this way is problematic. It’s exhausting, people won’t feel comfortable being candid, and it’s not their job to educate colleagues or do more of the lifting than others there.
It’s absolutely fine to ignore the request. It’s also fine to send an explanation of why you’re not responding, if you choose.
3. I can’t remember completing tasks
I’ve had a problem for years that seems to be exacerbated by COVID stress. When someone asks “hey, did you review that document last week?” I feel terrible about forgetting to review it and say no, only to open the document later and find my comments all over it. This happens with both big and small tasks, at least a couple times a month or more, and I have no idea how to approach it in conversation.
I know it’s not a good look to frequently acknowledge I have no memory of doing something that might be important to someone else. It makes me look scatterbrained, or like I don’t take care with my work. Sometimes I try to joke about it, but that probably just draws more attention. I’m sure other people struggle with this, so I’m curious if there are good ways to play it off in the moment when someone asks if I did X task and I cannot trust myself to remember if I did or not.
If background is helpful, I do have several mild medical conditions that can have “brain fog” as a symptom, but they are well controlled per the doctor. I don’t have this problem in my personal life either, it’s only at work.
Do you ever actually forget to do these tasks — or are you always doing them and then later forgetting that you did? The former would mean you need a different system to track your to-do items, but the latter would just mean you need a different response in the moment. Why not make it your default to begin saying, “I think so, but give me a few minutes to verify that”? I know you’re worried it’ll look strange that you don’t remember — but it actually looks better than saying you haven’t done something at all, when in fact you have! If you ever want to give someone more context, you could say something like, “As soon as I’m done with something, it’s pushed out of my mind by the next thing!” (Don’t say that if it would sound bad in your context — like if you’re expected to still be tracking the item in some way — but in a lot of jobs it would be fine.)
Also, talk to your doctor! It’s possible this is a sign that the brain fog isn’t as well controlled as it could be, and your doctor won’t know unless you share this. It won’t hurt to check.
4. Is it still OK to send thank-you cards during the pandemic?
I large in a large city in the U.S. and am preparing to interview for jobs. I know it is a good practice to mail thank-you cards to the interviewers at their office, but many offices are currently still shut down to the COVID-19 pandemic response, with the employees working from home. I have the names of the people I will be interviewing with, but no additional information. Is it appropriate to send a thank-you note through LinkedIn, or to try to find the work email to send a thank-you, or would that be too invasive? What is the best practice for this situation? There is one job in particular I am interviewing for that I would really love to make the perfect impression on.
Actually, emailed thank-you notes are ideal and have been for years, rather than mailing them to the interviewer’s office! Even before Covid, many people didn’t check their physical office mail for weeks or even months, and hiring decisions can be made well before a physical thank-you note gets read. Plus, this is business correspondence, not social correspondence, so you don’t need a handwritten card.
In an in-person interview, you could ask for the person’s business card at the end to get their email address. In a virtual interview, it’s fine to simply ask for their email as you’re ending the interview. If you don’t do that, though, often you can figure out their address pretty easily (for example, if the HR person’s email was j.warbleworth@company.com, then Persephone Mulberry’s email is probably p.mulberry@company.com). If nothing else works, though, LinkedIn will do. Don’t make it your first choice since not everyone has LinkedIn or checks it regularly, but it’s fine to use as a backup.
5. Many jobs, one company, one resume
I have worked at the same organzation since I graduated four years ago. I started with a job like llama groomer,” then after a year was promoted to “llama specialist junior”, then “llama specialist senior,” and for the last year and a half “manager of llama operations.” How would you recommend I structure my resume? My inclination would be to list the organization and then each job separately, listing duties in each job. I’m also not sure how much of the resume should focus on this one organization versus emphasizing different internships/college clubs that I haven’t been involved in for years.
How different were your responsibilities and accomplishments in each job? If they were very different, the way you’re proposing is good. But if there was a lot of overlap, then you can do it this way:
Company Name, May 2016 – present
Manager of Llama Operations, March 2019 – present
Senior Llama Specialist, December 2017 – March 2019
Junior Llama Specialist, April 2016 – December 2017
Llama Groomer, May 2016 – April 2016
* accomplishment
* accomplishment
* accomplishment
* accomplishment
job applicants are hounding me, asking Black former employees for feedback, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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