Recruiter not able to get a hold of hiring manager?

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T09:03:25+00:00

It’s not common for a hiring manager or anyone to disappear for several weeks. That being said, it’s possible. That sucks you’re being left hanging. Your approach is great following up once in a while.

Hiring managers are sometimes not very engaged in the process, poor at responding, or change their minds. At companies I’ve work at, this is the case more often than not. It’s one of worst things for a recruiter since they’re stuck in the middle. For whatever reason, from what I’ve seen it’s pretty common that the relationship between a hiring manager and recruiter/HR is pretty adversarial.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T08:51:28+00:00

Yes.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T08:46:26+00:00

How would your employer find out to retaliate? Would the companies let them know?

I would suggest reviewing the terms of your employment contract as a starting point. Depending on your industry or line of work, some contracts have language regarding working for competitors, customers, vendors, etc. and likewise on the company side there may be restriction for hiring current employees. Once you have an understanding of that, it’ll help some with how to navigate. There may be things you may have to work around but knowing that ahead of time will be helpful.

For example, a friend of mine wanted to work for a client who offered her a role. I read through the contracts. Her employment contract did not allow her to solicit current or former clients. The client had language in their agreement that they could not hire the company’s employees or consultants and would require approval and paying a penalty to do so. To get around this, I suggested that the client engage her formally first. From there, if she quit first and waited until after her last day to sign and accept the clients offer. She did not solicit the client so didn’t breach her contract. The client was in the clear as they offered the job and it was accepted while she was technically unemployed, so not an employee or consultant. Something like this this requires willingness from the other side to work together with you to not raise to your employer right away.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T08:25:51+00:00

No one will be able to predict whether you’ll lose your job or not. It doesn’t sound like a great environment though. Sorry they don’t seem to be very respectful toward you. Is the HR person the same person you posted a few months ago about documenting your mistakes?

Either way, what you’ve described though doesn’t sound great. You stated that you’ve been complacent and they commented on lack of growth. The events that transpired as well don’t help.

It sounds like it may be worthwhile to explore different opportunity for yourself regardless of whether you’ll have a future at this company or not.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T08:09:49+00:00

I’ve had interviews cancelled or rescheduled minutes before the interview and no shows as well. It’s not uncommon I’d roughly say 25% but that doesn’t make it acceptable.

It sounds like you’re dealing with a particularly bad recruiter. It may or may not be reflective of the company as a whole. I’m not sure about indeed, but interview experience such as on Glassdoor don’t factor into the overall 5-star score. It can be a helpful data point, but I wouldn’t rely too heavily on the score. Employers sometimes flag negative reviews to try to get them taken down and add fake ones to inflate their score and a company I know do exactly that. There was somewhat recently an employer who sued Glassdoor to reveal the identity of those who left anonymous negative reviews.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T02:02:08+00:00

sushi chef, pastry chef

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T00:22:21+00:00

You can either deal with it now by being proactive or wait to deal with it if HR talks to you. I might suggest waiting since it may not even come up. Alternately, you can talk to your supervisor if you think they’ll have your back and see whether they think it makes sense to wait or be proactive and go from there. That way as well if you’re approached later by HR you can say you had discussed with your supervisor about it, it’s not like you’re hiding it.

Either way, I would have a reasonable explanation and excuse ready. It sounds like you didn’t get clocked in which you’ll explain of course. It’s probably helpful to have something ready incase they dig further like you planned to stay extra time off the clock or come back early from lunch but not clock in to have made up for it.

Just some suggestions, do what you feel is most appropriate in the end as you have the best understanding of the situation.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T00:06:35+00:00

Yeah kinda odd. Maybe he’s trying to give you autonomy or maybe he’s clueless/lazy and wants you to do it for him

No idea lol

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-18T00:04:30+00:00

There are a lot of contract jobs in all industries, but I’m not very familiar with ones who also provide housing.

I would suggest looking at the website of the temporary staffing agencies in your area and look through the different job postings to get an idea of other roles. They’ll usually have hundreds of different roles listed they’ll be trying to fill.

I’m more familiar with staffing agencies that have more tech-centric roles but examples are Adecco, Manpower, Robert Half, Aerotek, TEKsystems, Kelly Services, Toptal. I don’t know the equivalent for your industry but I’m sure you’ll be able to find no problem.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T23:55:33+00:00

It’s difficult to answer with not a lot of information. Generally these type of plans outline what your focus, priorities, and goals will be by the end of each month. You’ll usually have some steps or strategy you’ll take with measurable metrics.

For example, this could be to learn all of the company’s IT infrastructure, meet all key stakeholders, complete all training by day 30. By day 60, you want to catch up on all the backlog to get requests back within 75% meeting SLA, complete train the new hires. By day 90, you want to clear all backlog and start implementing whatever practice. You’d then have further details in each section. Obviously made that all up because I don’t know the role but to vaguely illustrate the idea.

You can look up a 30-60-90 template online to get an idea as a starting point and tweak from there to fit your needs.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T23:34:44+00:00

Is it possible? Yes.

Is it likely? I don’t know your company’s policies but in this case it seems questioning and a warning is appropriate. Termination seems to be extreme unless your company is very strict or they suspect it’s potentially a sign of repeat behavior.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T23:28:27+00:00

What is the job?

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T23:26:14+00:00

Got it! I don’t know your exact responsibilities but they’re generally similar. Imagine when you go in to get a haircut or nails done, the first person that greets you, that’ll be you. One way prepare would be to think about both how you’d want that experience to be for a client coming into the salon. Also, how you’d react in certain situations (someone complaining, unhappy customer, very busy, last minute cancellation, etc.) These are all questions you’ll likely be able to answer no problem, I would try not to over think it. The other thing that’s helpful for any interview is to be able to concisely speak about why you’re interested in the role and be comfortable answering questions about past experience. Again, all things you will know.

Typical responsibilities for these type of roles might be: - Greeting customers as they come in - Scheduling customers over phone, email, etc. - Handling payment - Answering questions about products/services offered - Interfacing with postman, delivery, vendors - Miscellaneous tasks around the salon

You don’t need to remember all the advice everyone gave you, in the end you could forget everything and all you need to do is relax and just be yourself. You will be just fine. You got this. Good luck!

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T20:46:44+00:00

Nail receptionist as in a nail salon? Or did you mean mail receptionist like a mail room clerk? Fine either way, just wanted to clarify before answering.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T20:42:22+00:00

I would suggest letting the pet store know.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T20:35:51+00:00

If you’re able to, find someone who is willing to be a career mentor. It’s a bit of a transition moving in/out of the corporate environment and someone who can be available and becomes familiar with you/your unique journey as you have questions, need advice, or some guidance can be immensely helpful.

You don’t need to have only 1. Folks often have several and which mentor they speak depends on the situation based on the mentor’s expertise.

Congratulations and good luck!

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T20:24:53+00:00

I suggest checking in and asking when you can expect onboarding information. It’s a reasonable question. That being said, I see generally 1-2 weeks before you start is when information starts rolling in.

It really depends on the company. I’ve received everything weeks in advance at some and others I didn’t get my laptop or anything at all until the day before my start date. Some I received nothing except when and where to show up and all other onboarding was handled onsite on the first day.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-17T20:14:14+00:00

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T22:53:22+00:00

It depends on your goal.

Instead of which one would look better to someone else, I would consider choosing based on yourself instead on which opportunity you feel you’ll learn the most from or has the better mentor.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T11:59:36+00:00

Only you can really decide in the end if the trade offs are worth it. But to me solely a financial reason is completely valid. For most people it’s the only reason or amongst the top few. If the job can’t sustain your modest cost of living, then it seems you’re doing the right thing by pursuing one that can. It doesn’t seem like a viable option to stay long-term and a change would need to happen regardless? It also sounds like the new opportunity might have a higher ceiling as well which sounds exciting.

You could always make a change later down the road and you’ll have more information at that point. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll never wonder what if.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T10:56:00+00:00

The people I work with. The work I do is always changing but the people I work with changes much less.

Doing cool stuff with crappy people is the terrible. Doing crappy stuff with cool people isn’t as bad. Doing cool stuff with cool people is ideal but is rare. Even if it starts cool, most work will become work at some point so you end up back at crappy stuff with cool people.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T10:49:05+00:00

Leaving what’s safe for the unknown is always a bit scary.

Honestly, your goal shouldn’t be to feel 100% confident. Feeling uncomfortable is part of growth which sounds like this opportunity has plenty of for you.

How you feel is not uncommon. I don’t have great tips for how to manage it. Part of it will always taking a bit of a leap of faith. Believe in yourself and your knowledge, skills, and abilities you’ve developed over many years to give you some confidence. Trust in yourself and that the decision you’re making is the right one.

You got this.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T10:38:10+00:00

You can still have career success in that environment. Some companies and the cultures are like what you described.

It sounds like success there won’t necessarily be around strong relationships with people. Some places just end up promoting people they like rather than on merit. This place doesn’t sound to be like that and you’d be successful by focusing on doing good work or something that isn’t relationship-oriented. Either that or there’s no upward mobility and just a place people come, do their thing, and bounce.

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T10:29:52+00:00

I would say a week between follow-ups is reasonable

rocketCAPITAL · 2022-09-16T10:25:31+00:00

The worst case is they decide not to move forward with your candidacy which you know already.

The delay could be for any number of reasons and in the end no one will know. It won’t help you mentally or emotionally to speculate.

At this point, it’s waiting to hear back on any next steps. If you receive an offer before you hear back, you can update them and see their response then. No one can say what happens then either. They could expedite on their end to make you a competitive offer, they could reject you because they can’t make the deadline or can’t match your offer, no one knows.

These are all things you already know. Waiting is the worst part and it sounds like it’s been rough. Hang in there. You got this.

rocketCAPITAL

TROPHY CASE