Confused: What to do - Waiting for response for job???

[ItsTony]

Hi,

Just asking this on behalf of a friend.

She applied for a a graduate scheme position with a national hotel chain and attended two interviews, travelling 300 miles for both, before being 1 of 20 people who made it to the graduate scheme workshop where she stayed for 2 days, getting interviewed, giving talks, meeting managers and directors etc.

What she realised was that they told everyone that they were all guaranteed some sort of position within the company for getting this far, but also separately that they weren't going to offer anyone the gradute scheme position. We gathered this is just a clever ploy for them to find the most dedicated and best labour and to then put them in lower level positions for maybe a year so that they could train them whilst having them work a position for that time - a cheaper option than putting them on the graduate scheme. The response she got all the tasks she was involved in and all the interviews was very positive and she felt they were impressed with her.

She then waited a week after the interview to email the lady from HR who is supposed to deal with all recruitment and HR for the whole country. She was emailed back saying the manager from her preferred hotel will contact her directly. She's now waited another 11 days and still has no response.

What is normal or acceptable etiquette in situations like this. Her own situtation means that she needs to know as soon as possible so she can give notice in for her other job (which is a low paid temp job) or take another job which is well paid but doing something she hates with a passion.

Any ideas???

Thanks

[Muzzer]

I would say 11 days is an acceptable time to phone (not e-mail) the HR department and politely ask what the situation is at present as you haven't heard from the hotel.

[okgo]

Why are people so scared to pick the phone up?

There is literally nothing to lose...

[davepoth]

Yup, chase them.

[ItsTony]

She received an email today to tell her that the local manager will get in contact with her when a receptionist position becomes available.

If anything, this sounds like their way of saying there isn't a position available for her anymore.

The company in question has in the past won many awards for best company in hospitality to work for, yet this is the best response they can give to a candidate who has applied for the job, been invited to two interviews in two weeks, then completed the two day workshop in another city and then to be promised verablly that everyone who has got this far is promised a job within the company. The local manager even personally took her aside to tell her that she will contact her directly to discuss what they can offer her within the next week, but to then be totally ignored until asking for a response, which came back vague and impersonal and indrectly through the HR staff member.


Is it worth pursuing this further - maybe asking when this receptionist position might come, or whether there are any other positions, or why there has been a change in heart to offering her a job. Or does anyone think that she could have been treated better so she should instead lodge a complaint directly with some of the people higher up in the company who responsed so positively to her during the interviews etc. I know it's not the most standard approach to something like this, but we just feel like she has been made to jump through hoops and promised everything and at a click of a finger, they've completly U-turned on their decision and literally just wasted her valuable time, money etc.


thanks

[Nick M]

ItsTony said:

She received an email today to tell her that the local manager will get in contact with her when a receptionist position becomes available.

...yet this is the best response they can give to a candidate who has applied for the job, been invited to two interviews in two weeks, then completed the two day workshop in another city and then to be promised verablly that everyone who has got this far is promised a job within the company. The local manager even personally took her aside to tell her that she will contact her directly to discuss what they can offer her within the next week, but to then be totally ignored until asking for a response, which came back vague and impersonal and indrectly through the HR staff member.

Is it worth pursuing this further - maybe asking when this receptionist position might come, or whether there are any other positions, or why there has been a change in heart to offering her a job.

From what you've outlined, it seems like there's more than a hint of 'communication issues' within the company, and I'm left wondering if some wires haven't been crossed.

For example, do companies really go to the expense of putting on a 2 day workshop to hire a receptionist ? Or has the local manager / local HR person got her confused with someone else ?

I would go back to whoever she had been dealing with in connection with the workshops and mention the e-mail she's received, and ask them to clarify what the position is because she's disappointed to have gone through all of the recruitment stages only to find there are, seemingly, no jobs available.

[Deva Link]

Does sound very odd - when you think of how many receptionists a national hotel chain must have to go to that trouble to recruit 20 of them seems completely unfeasible.