Tag: application

Thank you for your application

“Thank you for your application”.

I hate that statement. Especially when received in an email informing you that you haven’t got the job, one that you did not actively apply for.

The job market is pretty dire at present. There are few jobs in IT, even less if you specialise. Finding the real jobs among all the fakes is even harder. What with CV harvesters and the recruitment agency incentive schemes designed to fill their databases with candidate data by lure of a maybe role.

What annoys me however is where you are headhunted, go through several rounds of interviews and testing, only to receive an email saying “Thank you for your application but..” followed by anything from we have decided to go in a different direction / hire a candidate with more relevant experience / changed our minds due to the current economy / etc etc.

I don’t really care about the reason why as they are usually made up anyway and never constructive. The phrase thank you for your application just irks me somewhat because I did not apply, I was approached. I was actively sought for the role. I was told I was the only candidate they were considering and I had calls with the team and the CTO. All wanted me to start immediately, they were just waiting on the paperwork to go through HR / the board / the CEO.

Then pow! An email:

Thank you for your application..

Under and over qualified

I’ve been applying for jobs recently and I’ve received several “Sorry but you are over / under qualified for this position” responses. That is if I do get a response at all.

I recently applied for a role where several friends worked and were encouraging me to apply. The work looked interesting but the rate was far lower than what I usually command and I could do the work in my sleep as I was way over-qualified for the position IMO. Imagine my surprise when I heard back “Sorry but you are not qualified enough for this position”. My first thought was, wow, really? WTF? My second was to become somewhat irritated by this. If I was honest with myself I didn’t really want the position but I still put in the effort when applying.

I dwelled on this (for far too long IMO) and it wasn’t until I spoke to a recruiter friend that I was finally able to let it go. They said that telling the candidate that they are under or over qualified has become a standard response where the client has provided no feedback or has given this statement as their standard response. Some sugar-coat it by saying something like “Unfortunately you have not been short-listed at this time as we felt there were other candidates with more relevant experience”. Whereas the truth is usually something like “There were other candidates with the skills and experience we needed that were willing to work for less money”.

Just remember it’s just a game. Try not to take it personally. If you do get feedback, chances are it’s all BS anyway.