Another Ask A Manager: Job applicants whose voicemail doesn’t work

[purlewe]

The question yesterday about people not wanting to leave voicemail got me thinking about a recent situation.

My organization recently hired a couple of people. One role was a more specialized position, and one was entry-level. In the hiring process, I made contacts to set up the interviews. In multiple instances, I ran into people’s voicemails that were not yet set up or where inboxes were full. I was really hoping to actually talk to the candidates, just to make the scheduling easier than it can be when exchanging multiple emails back and forth. And in some instances, email wasn’t as good an option, given the platform they used to apply.

I did end up sending a couple of emails / LinkedIn messages with a couple of the candidates for the more specialized role, as we had a smaller pool of candidates from which to draw. But there was a part of me that was a little miffed that someone who is actively looking for a job doesn’t try harder to make themselves available.

How far should we go to try to get in contact with candidates who have applied for jobs with us? I’m curious about the best way to approach these situations. Is it appropriate for a potential employer to text? I don’t have a “work” phone, so any texts would be coming from my personal cell, too.

Yeah, people are who job-searching should confirm that their voicemail is set up and not full, and they should check it regularly. While lots of people don’t use voicemail much anymore, it’s still a very normal business tool, and loads of employers still use it. When you’re applying to jobs, it makes no sense not to ensure your voicemail is a working option.

On your side: it’s reasonable to be a little irritated, but it still makes sense to switch to email in those cases, assuming it’s someone you want to reach. If a candidate is already borderline and you have plenty of other strong applicants who you can reach, that’s different — I could see not going the extra mile to reach someone who isn’t terribly competitive and hasn’t made themselves easy to reach. But otherwise, trying email is the way to go.

I would only text as a last resort. It doesn’t feel as unprofessional in hiring as it used to, but it’s still a less expected method of first contact about a job.

Comments

[xenacryst]

All of the above, yes, but one other thing that's missing is how broken voice calling is these days. Because 99% of voice calls are scams, a lot of us have started using the features on our smart phones that silence unknown callers or automatically flag calls as spam. I don't answer calls unless they're from expected people - technically, my phone is set to route it directly to voicemail. Now, I do listen to those voicemails, but not instantly, usually, unless I'm expecting someone to call, and sometimes if I'm expecting someone whose number I don't know I'll remove that feature so that I do have the chance to answer. But also, for people who might be calling me whose numbers I don't know, if I can contact them beforehand, I will ask them to let me know what number they'll be calling from so I can avoid that dance.

I've also never even added a personal greeting to my iPhone, and I've had this carrier for almost a decade - I've never gotten guff about it from family, friends, or professional contacts.

So, tl/dr: as a caller, recognize that voice calling is very broken, but also as a recipient, if you're averse to voice calls try to make sure that a potential caller has a better way to contact you.