Quoted with permission.  Weekly memos from John Lucht, author of Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+, are available only to members of www.RiteSite.com.  All rights reserved.

IT'S NOT JUST YOU!

Here's a communication from a member who brings up irksome -- and familiar --
happenings.

Dear John,

Thank you for your e-mails ... they are wonderfully informative and helpful.

However, it would be good to get your views on what is happening AFTER you
break through and get the interview.  These are things I (and others) are
seeing in this market:

1) You're called in and interviewed for a position on the "Go Direct"
approach.  You may go through several levels/rounds.  You do courtesy follow
up letters and e-mails.  Then you hear NOTHING.  When you let a decent
interval go by (say two weeks or more) you follow up with a call or an
e-mail, and the following happens:
-- if you don't reach the contact and merely leave word, your call is never
returned;
-- when you do reach them, you are put off (especially by internal HR
people);
-- if they say someone else has been selected and you ask for honest
feedback, you are told that "we can't remember (!) why"
2) Same scenario, only the job search is through a recruiter.

My experience is that courtesy in treating potential candidates, even ones
like myself at $100K -- indeed substantially above that figure -- has gone
out the window.  Employers and recruiters are surprisingly poor at this
follow-up when all it takes is a phone call.  Aren't they supposed to be
cultivating relationships?  And this is happening with retainer recruiters as
well as contingency!

All very dispiriting.  It would be great if you could write about this.

Thanks.

YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS DISCOURTESY IN THE EMPLOYMENT PROCESS.

However, it's nothing new.  I've heard similar comments during all of the 34
years I've been in the business.  Indeed, decades ago I was embarrassed and
apologetic when many of my decision-making clients and/or their HR
counterparts behaved as you've described.

A really first-class retained recruiter usually presents a slate of
candidates ... often 4 to 6.  These range from seasoned pros who are --
competitively speaking -- eating the client's lunch, to excitingly talented
junior people who've already scored impressive victories.   The recruiter
tries to get the client to interview all of these fine people, one after
another.

Even 20 and 30 years ago, a classic pattern emerged during sequential
interviewing.  Let's suppose the recruiter does a good job.  The candidates
are all excellent.  When meeting the first one, the client is delighted.
This person can do the job!  Accordingly, the client exudes cordiality,
appreciation, rapport, and respect.  Thus ends interview #1.  If the client
or HR person is inconsiderate, the recruiter gets no status report.
Otherwise there's a rave review, and the recruiter reports the good news to
the candidate ... hastening to caution, however, that there are additional
candidates to be seen.  With or without feedback from the recruiter, the
candidate knows that he or she has done well and becomes deservedly
optimistic.  (Here we are not talking about an ambiguous or sour interview.)

Then the client interviews candidates #2 and beyond.  Again, seductive warmth
prevails.  Others, too, feel encouraging rapport with the potential boss.
"I'd like working for this person," they tell the recruiter.  Of course.  If
there's any chance the employer might want them -- even as second or third
choice -- he or she, although challenging, is also charming.

HUMAN NATURE HASN'T CHANGED ... AT LEAST NOT FOR THE BETTER

Even in "Norman Rockwell" times, I found many of my clients unwilling to
expend even the slightest effort in graciously turning away the persons he or
she had so misleadingly embraced.  Often, too, there was little or no
appreciation for the candidate's effort in coming -- sometimes hundreds of
miles -- to see me and -- again -- to see the client.  You get the picture
.. people being treated in a most callous and cynical manner.  Meanwhile, I
was trying to "make nice," wanting to keep the candidate's good will.  Here
was someone I hoped would return for another bite of a similar apple.

NOW FAST FORWARD.

That was then.  Are people today more gracious, polite, considerate, well
mannered?

Hardly.  I grew up in a small rural community in Wisconsin.  As little kids,
we were diciplined to take our caps off immediately upon entering the school
building.  That, we were told, was common courtesy.  Now I often see CEOs
stride through Park Avenue lobbies into posh elevators and ascend 50 stories
with their hats still on.

Or the phone rings.  You answer and identify yourself.  The caller has made a
mistake.  As third graders in Reedsburg, we were taught to respond, "I'm
sorry.  I have the wrong number."  Again, common courtesy.  Today, the only
sound you get if you're not the desired party often is just CLICK.  Not a
word!  You made an effort to come to the phone.  Yet you didn't merit -- or
at least get --  5 seconds of courtesy in return.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

I had a conversation with the woman who wrote me the above email.  I told her
what I've just told you and said I would NOT be writing a memo about it.  She
demurred and encouraged me to write. Reason: she had actually worried that
she might be doing something negative to bring on the treatment she
described.

No!  Even long ago, many people didn't behave as they should.  Now, times and
circumstances have changed.  Decades of downsizing have far fewer people
doing more work.  Even if inclined to be gracious, today many good people
simply do not have -- or feel they have -- the time for appropriate behavior.

THE TAKE AWAY:

Don't be discouraged or self-doubting when recruiting rudeness happens.
Click "Ignore."  It's NOT just you!

Warmest regards and best wishes,

John