Job hunting in the time of Coronavirus

March 3, 2020 5:47 AM

So assuming "We'll set up a time to get you in the office to interview with others next week" isn't the new "Don't call us we'll call you but we won't call you", what would you suggest for follow ups on phone interviews that haven't turned into in-person interviews this week? I've had four local calls this last month at software companies that went dead silent after a promise of a follow up.

Suggestions on "you guys still interested" emails that might reference things being up in the air with Coronavirus around? (No deaths in my state, though a few infections, and lots of cancelled conferences in our tech industry).

posted by tilde to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Chances are good that everyone's calendar has gone a little haywire with all the craziness in the news. I'd shoot them an email along the lines of the following.


Hello, _______!

Just following up on our recent discussions...I know there's a lot going on right now and I wanted to quickly touch base to see if there's any additional information I can provide. Can we connect briefly by phone, say (this afternoon/tomorrow morning) around (time)? If that slot's no good, let me know what works on your end - just trying to get a handle on scheduling for the upcoming week.

Regards,

tilde tilderson
posted by jquinby at 6:09 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

Hiring always takes longer than people think. They’re not going to forget about you, and they’re unlikely to speed up their process for you. Add a week to the time they said it would take for them to get back to you before following up.
posted by mskyle at 6:20 AM on March 3, 2020 [20 favorites]

I’m hiring, and our processes have gone off the rails. We normally fly candidates to us, but now can’t. We normally fly interviewers to satellite locations that don’t have as many experienced interviewers, but now can’t. We’re looking at adapting our interviews to run over videoconferences but haven’t yet figured out how to adapt portions of interviews that would routinely involve whiteboarding.

Hiring is always slow but this has made it absolutely brutal.
posted by whisk(e)y neat at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

We've just had a company wide travel ban put in place and people are scrambling to rearrange trips into a future that's still unknown.

On top of that they've shut off access to many social media and streaming websites to save room for remote/VPN traffic. A remote interview might not even be possible AFAIK.

But jquinby has it right. The recruiter should take your email and/or call, it's part of their job.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:00 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Don't assume it has anything to do with the outbreak. Even if the outbreak DOES have something to do with it, there's no actual reason to bring it up, and you risk seeming presumptuous if you do. Like, "I know the ONLY thing that could have POSSIBLY delayed your response to me is a global pandemic!" It just strikes me as a bit tacky. Not that I think you actually mean it that way - but a hiring manager might.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:45 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

Just nthing that a lot of companies have been seeing disruptions to normal operations lately. Ours has banned non-essential travel to COVID19-affected areas and is encouraging people to stay/work from home if they're sick or feel they need to for other reasons. That said, a quick email along the lines of what jquinby outlined sounds like a good idea.
posted by Aleyn at 12:45 PM on March 3, 2020

Response by poster: Okay. I’ll reach out Thursday to the guy who said “next week” two weeks ago, and wait a bit longer on the one who was going to reach out late last week.
posted by tilde at 3:04 PM on March 3, 2020

This may not necessarily be the case for the companies you are interviewing with, but as an FYI, many companies have imposed hiring freezes due to expected coronavirus-related declines in revenue.
posted by lovelygirl at 5:48 PM on March 3, 2020

I know someone at a software company who says they've explicitly halted onsite interviews in order to reduce the number of people with unknown travel histories entering their offices.

The recruiting team has been pressed into service doing random scutwork to prepare for the possibility that the entire company will start working from home.

Seems reasonable to me to make some passing reference to the virus. Like, "no worries if things are a bit crazy right now and we need to postpone. Just want to make sure I haven't fallen through the cracks."
posted by meaty shoe puppet at 10:08 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]