I moved a few months ago and had to look for a new job for the first time in a while. I found one a few weeks after applying. Yesterday I got a phone call from a random company, when I asked what they were calling for they said they were just letting me know I did not get the job. I said "Huh? What job?" (it had been so long since I applied that I didn't remember the company) and they said I applied for a job in August...I asked them why are they calling in December? I said I've been in employment for a while and I'm confused as to why I'm even getting this phone call. Is this normal? I can understand getting a call after a week or two but not 4 months later. I just found it super weird.
12 Replies
It's good that they bothered to let you know but after so long they should have just emailed. It is very normal to take this long especially at the moment. Some places might wait until they have x amount of applicants before going through them and it could be a position that was coming up next year so they gave themselves plenty of time to find someone.
I would have been ok if they had emailed but it was the phone call I found weird. I wouldn't have gone for a job for a position coming up next year so it mustn't have stated that.
They don't have to, not everyone is urgently looking for a job either many people are just trying to find something different so they need to be able to give their current employers sufficient notice or see out contracts. They probably wait until the person has started work before telling the others they didn't get it too so then they can go to the next choice if the first one didn't work out instead of having to go through advertising and going through resumes and interviews again. Hell they might even wait until the trial period is over, who knows.
Some companies take ages! Usually the ones that get annoyed if you don’t answer there email within 20 minutes 🤣
Usually the same ones that are "screaming for workers" too 🙄
On the other end of the scale, I once went for a job interview that I was really excited about and it was even on my birthday so I was convinced I was getting it because you know, birthday luck. I even told them it was my birthday so they knew! I got home feeling pretty happy about everything, checked my emails and they had already emailed me telling me I didn't get it! Completely killed my day lol. I would have rathered they wait a few days to at least pretend they gave me some thought. I was actually overqualified for the position and being a government department they had to interview everyone but little did I know they already had decided on someone before doing interviews, the interviews were just them ticking boxes. Not nice at all to waste everyone's time like that.
Aww no :( that would definitely have killed my mood too on my birthday
Yes, the worst part was I had to fake being in that hyped up positive mood for the rest of the day because I was having dinner with family who knew about the interview and were all being really positive about it so I didn't want to kill the mood lol.
Yep especially government jobs, take months. My colleague recently got a job like this and it’s probably because she was the only one who had passed all checks and interviews and who was still available by the time they actually called with the offer.
I think it's the phone call rather than the time period that's unusual. I've never had an employer take the time to call me to tell me I was unsuccessful, it's always been via email or text IF I was lucky enough to get a response at all.
I have had a few generic emails telling me I didn't get the job upto 6 months later though. Like, funnily enough, I kind figured that Gary from recruitment 😂
Oh if it was an email I wouldn't have thought it was weird as I get emails from Seek months later too
I applied for a few jobs in January, I heard back pretty quickly on one and took it. In April one of the other companies I had applied for called me and asked me to do an interview with them. Mind you I'm in an aged care, an industry that is severely understaffed and screaming for workers but it took them 4 months to look at my application and call me back 🤷♀️