My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

sending the right message with your email template

Josh & Gretchen's Work Life — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 02:13:33 GMT

Since we're on the topic of questionnaires and spam , Heather over at Microsoft writes a great post about

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

Somdeb Basu — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:53:41 GMT

I totally agree with you on the point that templated email is the worst thing you can send to a possible recruit. But what I find to be even more worse is the fact that in case you do not qualify, you are sent an "even more templated" reply, rather than a broad idea of why you did not get through.

I mean, if the interviewer has gone through the whole process of interviewing you for half-a-day, the least that a recruit expects in case he did not get in, is some idea of why he did not get in. Obviously, a specific reply is not expected as it would lead to possible further argument. But a broad idea is definitely more satisfying than a canned reply stating ".......though you are a very good candidate, you do not meet our specific requirements".

As an example, I remember that in my college days, a few of my friends and me, received emailsl for recruitment at Microsoft asking us to send our resumes and reply to a set of general questions by email. I obviously did not like the idea of receiving a templated mail which included about 10 questions for me to answer, an "exact replica" of which a friend had shown me previously.

But more than that was, the ones among us who did not make it received the stock reply as mentioned above. A friend of mine even sent another email asking for some broad reasons regarding his rejection, but received the reply that this could not be discussed as a matter of policy.

However, something I discovered was that not all companies follow this policy. During the recruiting season, some of us also applied to Bloomberg, the financial software company. A friend of mine, who did not get selected and received a simpler reply ".. that there were other candidates better than him for the position".

On calling the recruiter, he was put in touch with the actual interviewer who asked him to call back at an appointed time. On talking to the interviewer, the interviewer gave specific reasons regarding what points he needs to improve on.

Now, such a detalied response although preferable cannot be expected, but a stock reply definitely puts people off.

Additionally, my friend mentioned the fact that he got a detailed reply for his rejection to a lot of other students on campus, something which created a pretty good image for Bloomberg among the student community. Unfortunately, it was just the opposite for Microsoft, people still did apply there but among people with multple job offers almost all decided not to work there.

So, a personal and straight reply goes a long way towards the employer's image, as almost everyone relates a stock response with a bureacracy and few people want to work for a bureacracy.

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

HeatherLeigh — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:35:40 GMT

KR - that's funny. I think I experienced the flip side of that. I got an e-mail from a candidate that started with "Dear Google Recruiter" and went on to detail why they thought they would be a great addition to the Google team. Hmm, I hope they got their wish.

Bethany - that is a painful lesson to learn! Ouch!

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

Bethany Pirttima — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:34:34 GMT

Funny story in regards to email templates...

Back in my agency days when I found myself sending out email templates about as frequent as filling my coffee cup I sat down to an open req and a Monster screen. I began the standard copy/past of emails from monster to my outlook screen, but erroneously (maybe it was the fourth cup of coffee) I pasted into the cc in the the bcc. Needless to say my email was ill-received from the 250+ candidates who were able to their fellow 250+ recipients email addresses. I suppose these days sharing and email address is sononomous with identity theft. No one likes to be called a spammer and that quickly became my nickname around the office. Lesson learned. BCC!

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

Karthikeyan R(KR) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:32:07 GMT

Your point 8 minds me of the line from the movie 'Wedding Singer' where Robbie screams at the bride's father and says "Well, I have a microphone, and you don't, so you will listen to every damn word I have to say!" :)

But, hey, you gotta listen to this. I am a product manager, and once (not too long ago) got an email from a recuiter for the post of a PR person in MY OWN COMPANY!!! Boy did that make my day!

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

HeatherLeigh — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:04:27 GMT

Kaisa - oh no! That is awful!

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

Kaisa M. Lindahl Lervik — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:34:38 GMT

Getting a templated email in the initial recruiting process is one thing. Getting an email from a company where you've been interviewed with a subject of "Fwd: Suggestions for rejection message" and a very standardized word document with generic rejection phrases feels even worse... OK, so they didn't want me or a few other people, but they could at least fake an interest. Just removing the "fwd" would have made it look slightly less... unprofessional.

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

HeatherLeigh — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:07:16 GMT

Greg, yes I would definitely agree (assuming that the employee is credible and relatively well connected inside the company. Heck, even if they are new). It simply gets peoples' attention. I'd say that in general, when you submit a resume, the closer to the hiring manager that you can submit it, the better. I think the easiest way for me to explain it is to equate it to a series of concentric circles with the hiring manager being the nucleus. The next ring are the people around the hiring manager that they trust (hopefully including a recruiter but not necessarily), then other people at the company, then people outside the company. Outside of the company, you can start to see trustworthy talent pools. These represent places where you can be reasonably assured of finding good talent and then further out, places where it becomes more speculative.

What I have found with job boards in general is that you can find talent. Period. Some good, some bad. But there's a cost involved in sourcing off of those boards and that is time. When you find a good job board, it moves you in to a closer ring. That's how I feel about TheLadders, for example, relative to some of the other job boards (some I won't even bother with). I have found that with a resource like TheLadders, where I have found strong talent in the past, I know that my time is a good investment. The closer to the nucelus a recruiter can recruit, the more efficient of a process it will be. It will be more efficient for the candidates too; more likelihood of getting the manager's attention, more likelihood of moving forward in the process (all other things being equal).

Whew...long winded answer. Hope it made some sense.

Dan - I like your style and I totally agree.

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

Daniel R. Sweet — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:32:03 GMT

If I have to use a template, the first thing I do is admit it up front. Most candidates understand that they're not the only candidate that you ever talk to.

If it's to a group of folks that I've at least met, something like, "Sorry to have to send this out in a mass e-mail, but this opportunity is pretty time-sensitive and I wanted to be sure to get this out to 'my guys / gals' as quickly as possible..."

If I don't know the folks to whom I'm sending the e-mail, I'll use something like, "I know you don't know me, but my researcher came up with your name on (Monster / DICE / Whatever) and she thought you'd be a good candidate for this position if you're still looking...."

Agreed on not sending an e-mail heavily laden with qualifying questions, other than, "if you think this might be a good match, give me a call so we can talk in more detail..."

Dan

re: My take on templates as part of an initial recruiting process...

Greg — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:26:18 GMT

Heather,

Great blog, I love your perspective and as a hiring manager, I think it does help me to peer into the world of the recruiter.

As someone who is currently on the prowl for a great new position (keyword: great), I'm curious of your take on something. I've found that if I submit my resume through people who work for the company (an internal referral) that my resume carries MUCH more weight than if I'm cruising Monster, Careerbuilder, or whatever and decide to respond to a post out there.

Would you (generally) agree with my hypothesis?

Just curious...

Greg