Professionalism and the job market

See, we’re expanding. So I’m interviewing a lot of people for various positions.

I was to interview someone today at 11.30am. The candidate had applied for a job and after exchanging a few mails, the time was fixed. She turned up half an hour early. Great. But I was out and came in about 20 minutes before the scheduled meeting time. I was told she had come and left. Strange!

So about 45 minutes after the scheduled time, I messaged asking if she was coming in. No reply. Then I called. And she told me that since this is a start-up, she had changed her mind. She wants to work for a bigger company! Wow. Jobs must be easy these days again. Anyways, to each their own. But what baffles the mind is there are ways of turning down a job offer/interview. There are ways to research a company you want to interview with and then apply.

Despite the fact that we are no longer a ‘start-up’ (we do have some clients, you know, like Epson, SOTC, Ad Club, TOI, Yahoo!, AOL etc, but perhaps they aren’t large enough for her) this candidate made her decision based on what our waiting area looks like. She didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t wait to find out the company plans, current profile or anything that someone looking for a career tries to find out. So how will she know we got acquired and are now part of a US outfit? She won’t!

Either I’m out of touch with how job hunting is done these days or the recession is well and truly over and candidates have many many options to choose from. The first may be true, but the second, certainly isn’t. Whose loss? Time will tell. I do have a few more people to meet for that position. So maybe not mine.

Professionalism? Very low indeed. For the record, the candidate is not from Pune, but has just moved here. So don’t say Punekars are unprofessional!

Good luck, candidate. You know who you are!