Fool me once, shame on you...
March 22, 2008 10:36 AM   Subscribe

So is applying for a particular job really worth it? Applied for a job a few years back, might have gotten "played" by HR, now the job is up for grabs again. Do I re-apply or would I be comprimising my pride?

A few years back I applied for a job in Manhattan. Great location. Solid company. Got the interview. Was told that I would be called for a second interview in the next week. And was told that I would be getting a significant salary increase (which was amazing (and perhaps in retrospect, fishy) considering that in my field, a good-paying job is hard to find, at least for me).

Fast-forward 1 week. No call. OK. They are busy. 1.5 weeks. Hmm I better call to show enthusiasm. Leave a professional yet enthusiastic message. No callback. Call again a week later. Leave a second enthusiastic message. No callback.

Fast forward one more week. Send a polite, professional e-mail. e-mail comes back from the server indicating that my address has been blocked by the recipient.

So, I am asking myself, why would someone block my e-mail? Was it something I said? I called twice and left 2 polite, professional messages. As an HR person, I would think he would be used to receiving follow up calls. And besides, instead of blocking my e-mail, could he not have written back and said "sorry, we selected someone else", or if he was not comfortable doing this, just continue to ignore my e-mail?

Why block it? Did he know I would see that it was blocked? Could he not have just hit delete? And why make all these promises of a second interview and a raise and all that? If he really didn't like me, why not just say "Thanks, we'll call you if we are interested"?

Anyways, the company where I currently work is on life-support and I need to look for work again before I get laid off. So during my search, I noticed that this "dream job" is up for grabs again. A few clicks of the mouse and I notice that the same guy is still there.

Now, I am not one who gets interviews easily, considering the lack of work in my field, so I can't just say "screw-it" - or should I? Is this job worth applying for? It is not long enough that he will have forgotten about me. And if he is a big-wig in the company, and I do get the job, perhaps he could make my life a living hell.

But then again, perhaps I am being paranoid and there is a rational explanation for all the events that occurred the first time around.

Or would I be comprimising my pride/self-worth by even clicking the Submit button on the company's job-application Web page?
posted by bitteroldman to Work & Money (21 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
apply again and see what happens, but don't get your hopes up.
posted by thinkingwoman at 10:42 AM on March 22, 2008


Send a polite, professional e-mail. e-mail comes back from the server indicating that my address has been blocked by the recipient.

More likely they were having email troubles that week. Maybe someone hit the wrong button. Who knows. Perhaps an overzealous junk filter. Might as well try again instead of just surrendering to conspiracy theories about email and crazy HR departments.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:48 AM on March 22, 2008 [2 favorites]


I applied for my job three times before I got it. Now I've been at the organization 13+ years. (Also, I don't know about email, but email weirdness on their end seems more likely than anyone taking the trouble to block your email address.)
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 10:55 AM on March 22, 2008


The blocking thing was probably more the result of an overzealous spam filter than the actions of a person.
posted by zsazsa at 10:56 AM on March 22, 2008


Most organizations cycle through HR reps every year. Chances are anyone involved previously is gone anyways. Pride won't get you anywhere. Reapply.
posted by Octoparrot at 11:03 AM on March 22, 2008


I doubt they even remember. I wouldn't hide that you've interviewed for this position before, but it isn't uncommon to get rejected for a position and then to reapply when you have more experience to bring to the table. Not returning your calls (or even sending out a standard rejection letter) was pretty bad form after an interview, but I'm guessing it's not you, it's them and this is just standard practice for them. I would apply for the job, you have nothing to lose and if it's a big company you'll probably never see the HR guy that hired you again.

Also, the whole we love you, your perfect for this job, never hear from them again thing isn't uncommon. This hasn't happened to me personally, but I've had a number of friends be literally told they had the job and then some higher up who they have never met vetoes them for one arbitrary reason or another, based purely on their resume.
posted by whoaali at 11:07 AM on March 22, 2008


you indicated your current employer is on 'life support' - that alone should give you the answer you're looking for. how can you afford not to even try in this situation? go ahead, be open about having interviewed with them before and mention you still like them and would like to be considered.

pride: what's the worst that could happen anyway? they could tell you to fuck off. you know what? I think you could handle that.
posted by krautland at 11:22 AM on March 22, 2008


Don't blame on malice what could be easily explained by incompetence or general flakiness. Hiring is a pain in the butt, it's usually extra work on top of someone's regular job, and it's rather overwhelming to sort through all the applicants and interviewees, so sometimes the unpleasant task of saying "no thank you" to the ones you don't hire gets put off... indefinitely.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:25 AM on March 22, 2008


Are you serious? It never hurts to try. You should never be too proud to try again.
posted by lrodman at 11:29 AM on March 22, 2008


You're overthinking things and taking them too personally.

What many job applicants don't realize is that most companies are terribly disorganized about their hiring. Moreover, most companies see their centralized HR department (if they have one) as a bureaucratic black-hole, and try to minimize HR's involvement in the process. End result is that qualified applicants like you slip through the cracks through no fault of your own.

Just apply. You have nothing to lose -- not even your pride.
posted by randomstriker at 11:34 AM on March 22, 2008 [2 favorites]


I find it interesting that the same job is up for grabs again after a few years. And HR didn't treat you very well during the interview process last time. What does that tell you about the company?

Watch how you are being treated during the interview process. The interview is your chance to put your best foot forward - but it's also the company's time to make a good impression on you. The interview will likely be the time you are treated best - particularly if/when they make an offer to you - so take note of this.

Having said this, do send them your resume. Prepare for an interview. And during the pleasant interview that you will undergo, ask what happened to the previous person who had the job. Ask about company culture.

There are many reasons why what happened a few years ago, may have happened - but keep those events in mind if you do change companies. Your current employer may be on life support, but you also don't want to jump from the kettle into the fire.
posted by seawallrunner at 11:34 AM on March 22, 2008


I would apply again. But it may not hurt to use a new email address just in case the old one is still blacklisted.
posted by Yorrick at 2:03 PM on March 22, 2008


Some companies are just douchey when recruiting people - not all companies, but some of them. There is simply no way around this fact. They can be perfectly lovely places to work, but they are jerks to recruits.

The blocked email is very likely to be an email bug. Not ever sending a ding letter to the applicant is rude and unprofessional, but tons of companies behave that way. I know this, because in grad school there was a bar that gave you a free beer if you brought in a ding letter. Dell Computers, Motorola and Intel all owe me a beer. However, if I wanted a job at any of those places I'd apply again in a second.

It's a good job and your current gig isn't too promising. Apply.
posted by 26.2 at 2:09 PM on March 22, 2008


Apply but try not to look needy. It seem weird to me that when I did not care about a job one way or another, I always got an offer.

I would not even mention that you applied before.
posted by francesca too at 2:32 PM on March 22, 2008


I find it interesting that the same job is up for grabs again after a few years. And HR didn't treat you very well during the interview process last time. What does that tell you about the company?

It tells us absolutely nothing about the company, aside from the fact that their recruiters might be sloppy. Maybe the company sucks, as you extrapolate from one tiny data point. But maybe the company is growing or has multiple, identical positions. Maybe the last recruit got promoted. Maybe it's just hard to retain top talent, as is the case everywhere.
posted by randomstriker at 4:58 PM on March 22, 2008


I can apply for the same job with the same hiring manager twice before the pride kicks in. But you can't even keep a count unless you know it's the same people doing the hiring. If it's just the same HR person, don't even worry about that.
posted by salvia at 5:25 PM on March 22, 2008


It would be very unusual for software that allowed you to blackhole specific email addresses to also return a message to that email address indicating that the message had been blocked -- generally it's a silent block, and the recipient doesn't know the email has been sent and the sender doesn't know it hasn't been received. More common is spam blocking done at the domain or IP level which returns a message indicating that email from your entire domain or IP has been blocked -- but that wouldn't be a personal thing, or something that some guy in HR could even do just because he didn't like you.

I'm not sure how technical you are, or if what I've written was kind of 'no, duh!' material for you (if it was, sorry!) but is it possible you misunderstood a spam block message as being a personal/individual blocking message?
posted by jacquilynne at 5:30 PM on March 22, 2008


I would apply again. I applied for a job a couple of years ago and didn't get it. It came open again so I applied again. This time I got the job. Turns out that last time I had been their second choice but I was missing one key piece of experience that they were looking for (which I got in the meantime), and my new boss also happens to be the person they picked last time. She got promoted which is why the job opened back up. You never know.
posted by tamitang at 6:14 PM on March 22, 2008


I can't report the same experience you had, but I did apply for a job at a company a year after interviewing with them, and I got the job. So, it does happen.
posted by Doohickie at 8:48 PM on March 22, 2008


Response by poster: ...I'm not sure how technical you are...
Wen it comes to the e-mail transmission technology I know nothing, so I appreciate all the info I can get.

Thanks to all of you for your input! I will not take the e-mail block personally and I will apply again. Here's hoping!
posted by bitteroldman at 11:03 AM on March 23, 2008


so, bitteroldman, what happened?
posted by seawallrunner at 6:30 PM on April 11, 2008


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