

Turned Down for a Job at Groupon Over a Year After Applying - bennesvig
http://bennesvig.com/post/8715782820/groupon

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jeremymcanally
I had the opposite awkwardness: I was "hired" at a company 8 months after I
interviewed.

Needless to say I instantly "quit." Somehow they didn't see a problem with
waiting that long, which further informed my aversion to working there. :)

~~~
r00fus
I know someone who went through 9 months and 7 interviews (including flights
to Chicago and other regional offices) with Cisco for a director-level
position, and finally got turned down.

Some companies are simply amazing at how inefficient their HR is.

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pnathan
Bluntly put, decent behavior is to have a 1-3 day turnaround on this sort of
thing.

I sort of have a 2 week rule: if you can't send some sort of ACK in two weeks
to me, your processes are sufficiently lousy that you've downgraded your
desirability in my eyes; further, based on my experience, you're probably not
going to respond after 2 weeks if you haven't, anyway.

At my current company, I think I completed the entire hiring round from my
initial inquiry to hire in under 1 week. IMO, that's how it should be done!

A response with a 1 year lag is asking to be mocked on the Internet.

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pagekalisedown
What about a place like Google? Would you make an exception for them? The most
desirable employers are generally so overwhelmed with resumes they just can't
do prompt follow ups.

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jc123
There really shouldn't be exceptions regarding respectful behavior and
courtesy.

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js2
Look at the email headers. Maybe it was stuck in an smtp queue? (You laugh but
I've seen mail recently delayed by 6 months. It still happens.) :)

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coryl
I absolutely HATE when companies don't reply to applications. I don't
understand how or why they take so long, especially when the entire system has
become streamlined with things like Jobvite.

A hasty rejection or progression is much appreciated. Mutual respect; showing
a little bit goes a long way. Maybe its just me, but I guess I have a bit of
an ego and a chip on my shoulder when companies (which I spend time
researching and applying to) totally brush me off or don't reply after initial
emails.

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ximeng
Companies may have to talk to five other people before they can decide whether
to progress or reject your application. Those five discussions might take time
to arrange and complete. Companies may have liked you enough to consider you
for the position but if you're third in line, you need to wait for the first
and second people to reject or accept the position, which may take a few days
each time. Or a great application may come in half way through the process.

I agree with you that companies should keep you updated, but sometimes these
things take time.

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amorphid
Recruiter here. I get back to everyone that applies, or at least try to.
Current recruiting software doesn't have a good solution for dealing with all
the different use cases that delay the hiring process. Combine that with high
volumes of job applications and it becomes a real pain.

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jhuckestein
"If you can’t respond in a reasonable time, then don’t respond at all."

I disagree with that. It was their fault for not notifying you earlier, but I
don't see how it is better to say nothing.

When I see that I did something wrong in the past, I try to apologize, even
though the situation is far in the past (and even though it's sometimes hard
and/or embarrassing).

~~~
Cushman
Yeah... You're not talking about a form letter, though. I think the real point
is that if they don't get back to you for a year, they should at least have
someone write "Hey, sorry about that" by hand.

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jprobert
Look at it from a different perspective. Is Groupon now going back to old
applicants because they're having trouble recruiting new talent? Groupon
hasn't exactly been a cinderella in the news lately with their phony
accounting metrics and questionable concerns about the viability of their
business. Perhaps they have outgrown their employment base. Hard to imagine
considering above 9% unemployment but just a thought.

~~~
mnutt
I have to think it can't be that bad a place to work; they at least have a
good sense of humor. April Fools' before last they did this awesome parody of
Gilt: <http://www.groupoupon.com/>

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dadads
HR was using an automated system that sent boilerplate e-mails. Nothing to see
here, move along...

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mortenjorck
Yeah, that's the standard JobVite rejection message. I've usually gotten them
within a week or two of an interview, though.

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Karunamon
When I achieve world domination, failure to follow up with candidates in a
reasonable time will be punishable by summary execution.

I find it hard to put into words how infuriating this behavior is.

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BillSaysThis
My hate is reserved for excited HR types who volunteer a deadline for a reply
and then not only don't keep it, never respond. Compounded if one of their
colleagues (i.e., another on-staff recruiter at the same company) writes a
month or two later to ask if you're interested in the same job.

~~~
wccrawford
I've had people tell me they do that because they 'want you to ask for the
job.' ... Seriously? Coming to the interview, doing well, and showing interest
wasn't enough? I now have to also expect you not to keep your word?

Forget that. If someone says they'll do something and then doesn't, that's a
direct mark against their trustworthyness. Why would I want to work there?

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ffffruit
I have had a similar experience when applying for a graduate job in a
satellite comms. company in London. I got a call literally eight months later,
thanking me for my application and that its being considered. They claimed I
would have an answer within the next month. They never called me back and I
found a much better job in the mean time; out of courtesy gave them a ring to
let them know I am not interested in the position (this is t+1 year since
applying) - they told me a decision had not been met yet and were even 'angry'
on me leading them on and not cancelling the application earlier.

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elliottcarlson
Similar experience with a certain agency - got a rejection letter months after
I applied (because I didn't bother taking their coding test - which was a
flash based test when I was applying for a non-flash position), followed by an
email asking me for my updated resume not even a week later - both from the
same HR person.

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noarchy
My own experiences have shown me that the bigger the company, the more
convoluted and delayed the hiring process. I've had the resume-interview-hire
cycle happen the span of a few days at smaller firms. More recently, a larger
company called me to offer me a position some three months after my interview,
and the position offered wasn't even what I had interviewed for.

~~~
dagw
The only reasonable way to get hired by a big company is to have someone on
the inside who can short circuit the process on your behalf. Last time I
worked for a big company, the only person I dealt with was my future boss and
he managed to circumvent the standard HR process and sneak me in through the
back door.

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systems
Okay, I learned in an HR course that the HR job is composed of mainly 2 parts

(1) Quantitative, which includes stuff like payroll management, leave
management, hiring (paper work part of it) and firing, etc ...

(2) Qualitative, which focus on 2 things, recruitment and motivation

It becomes obvious to me day after day that HR rarely does (2) correctly if at
all

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michaelcampbell
Of course an HR course would tell you that. In reality, HR is concerned with 2
things:

* Keeping the company from getting sued

* Everything else you said

The first bullet is about about 80% of their time.

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GrantMastersson
Probably has everything to do with their recent acquisition of their primary
development contracter.

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hi5at5
Super quick rejections is all that great either as it would show that they
didn't really take a close look at your blog, cv, cover letter, etc.

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jfong
Did you go in to interview or are you expecting a reply when you email
jobs@groupon.com?

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frankdenbow
I just got one from Facebook today. Must be at least 6 months old.

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tocomment
I think he got his math wrong. Maybe he want 5/26/10?

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lysol
He corrected his typo.

