When job hunting, communication is key

We were recently hiring for a new position at GreenMellen and we interviewed a handful of folks. We’re very thrilled with how it ended up (Amanda is great!), but I noticed something odd along the way.

After sorting through the initial pile of resumes, we really had four good candidates, and any of them could have filled the role very well for us. While it’s a small thing compared to their actual interview, two of them stood out by doing something simple — personally responding to our emails.

Email is the job

This role was for website support, so the main part of their job would be emailing with our clients. While their overall skills and attitude were top priority, seeing some emails from them would have helped. Here is when they could have reached out to us:

• When I sent the initial “let’s interview” Calendly link. They all picked a time, but only two replied to let us know and to show their excitement.
• After the initial interview, the same two sent us “thank you” emails.
• We brought all four in for a second virtual interview, and again they all picked a time, but only two replied to it.
• Again, we got two “thank you” emails after that.
• When we made the decision to hire Amanda (who was one of the two that emailed frequently) and I let the other three know, the only one to respond to that was the one that had done well with previous emails.

I was honestly impressed with all four candidates, but the lack of any unprompted communication through the process seemed odd and unfortunate. Two of them literally never sent me a single message.

Perhaps I’m just more old-fashioned with this, but I expected a bit more proactive communication from them. In a growing competitive market for jobs, this seems like it’d be an easy way to stand out.