September's job-search: candidate feedback in mime

Times are hard. There's so few jobs being advertised, CILIP have cut back on number of issues of the Gazette that will be published for the rest of the year, citing 'significantly reduced levels of recruitment advertising'. I have had nothing from any of the agencies I am registered with.

Just as I did at the end of August, I summarise below my job searching activity for the past month. I have had two interviews, and, though I have not yet had an offer, there seems to be the likelihood of employment. In September I applied for jobs in the following sectors: Higher education: 2 Private sector: 1 Health: 2 Many applications simply disappear into short-listing panels' waste paper bins. If I don't receive feedback on why I haven't been short-listed, I always ask for it, but few employers can be bothered. Here are a few replies: 'Many thanks for your email, I can confirm we received your application for the above role and that you were not shortlisted on this occasion. I am sorry to say we don’t have capacity to provide individual feedback at shortlist stage. I can advise that we did have a big response to the advert for this vacancy and it was a strong competition.' 'I am afraid that you were not short listed on this occasion. I am afraid I cannot give you individual feedback on the reason for this other than to say that we had a very high number of applications and a very high number of these applications were excellent. However the short listing panel had to make a decision on interviewing those who met the spec the most closely. They commented to me that this was very difficult due to the high calibre of almost all of the applicants [I like the use of almost here-TR]. I am sorry I do not have better news and I thank you for your interest in [name redacted]' 'As I am sure you will understand, we cannot undertake to give detailed feedback to candidates since we simply do not have the resources to provide such a detailed and individual service for the large number of candidates who both apply and are interviewed for our positions each year. Prior to commencing recruitment for any post, we establish a very clear and precise person specification and list of competencies for the role and these were used by the selection committee to match the skills, experience, abilities and aspirations of the candidates to the job requirements. The final decision in relation to appointing to this post was taken after full consideration of all of these areas and on this occasion there were other candidates who more closely met the outlined specifications. I am sorry that you were disappointed on this occasion.' I have saved the best for last. '[Name redacted] has a policy not to provide feedback other than verbally [and how would they provide non-verbal feedback, I wonder? Mime? A pencil sketch? This was from an educational institution-TR] when contacting unsuccessful candidates who have attended for shortlist interview. Our application form clearly states: [Name redacted] will not enter into discussion or correspondence with unsuccessful applicants about their candidacies.'