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That'll teach me!

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Anne58 Thu 08-Aug-13 17:16:28

Good afternoon all.

A week or so ago I saw a job that sounded interesting and (apart from a rather low salary) fitted the bill with regards to location etc. I think that I ticked most of the boxes, i.e. must live within a commutable distance from Bude, 20% of the time visiting customers so must be happy staying away overnight, team player, good communication skills, use Microsoft Office inc. Word and Excel etc etc.

The closing date was given as August 9th, so I flagged the email alert it was on to save it. Over the past week I have polished my CV, spent time drafting and redrafting a covering email as this can be a vital part of the application. (I have been told that some companies don't even read the CV if the covering letter/email doesn't "grab" them.)

So this morning when I was finally happy with it all, I went back to the flagged alert, trawled through, couldn't find the job. Tried various others in case I'd flagged the wrong one, but with no luck.

Eventually I phoned the company only to be told that they had received so many responses they had changed the closing date to August 2nd! sad

The person I spoke to said to still send my details, CV etc through, and they would be "happy to keep it on file", which is just a sop, really.

I am pretty miffed, and quite [cross] with myself.

So, that's a lesson learned the hard way.

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nanaej Thu 08-Aug-13 17:25:24

oh phoenix sorry to hear that. But at least you have a honed CV ready to send off swiftly for any other suitable jobs that you spot. It is hard when you are looking for work not to get dis-spirited. smile

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kittylester Thu 08-Aug-13 18:00:27

How silly of them to change the rules - they missed the best candidate by doing that!!

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FlicketyB Thu 08-Aug-13 18:06:16

That is very unfair practice and very unprofessional. Would you want to work for a company like that?

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Anne58 Fri 09-Aug-13 08:50:26

Thank you all for the kind comments.

I did feel it was somewhat unfair, but if companies get a huge volume of responses, they do sometimes close early. It's actually a very well respected international organisation. I have received a reply from the person I spoke to saying that she has received the email & attachments I sent and will keep it on file, so at least I know she got it.

I did another application on Wednesday and asked the company to confirm receipt, but have heard nothing so far, so I will give them a call today to check.

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JessM Fri 09-Aug-13 19:06:11

All kinds of things happen behind the scene too phoenix - I did some recruitment work on a temp basis a couple of years ago for a very reputable company. Household name to put it mildly.
They had an internal tension between recruiting people who were "on head count" and people who were not on head count (employed by an outsourcing company). I think this was because the city expected them to keep official head count low.
They did a big press campaign for a whole bunch of jobs. Hundreds of applicants. Enter your correspondent who was being paid to try to sort out possibles from no-thanks's.
Turns out they are still arguing about whether these roles were on or off head count, which made a huge difference to terms and conditions, and whether or not internal candidates (on head count) would consider applying for any of the roles.
Two months later they still hadn't managed to reach a decision. I kid you not.

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Greatnan Sat 10-Aug-13 06:25:16

My grandson spent many hours preparing his CV, etc. and was asked to go for an interview, in London, at his own expense. Salary had not been mentioned, and when he rang the company he was told the job was for a volunteer but he must have a PhD - he has 'only' an MSc.

Good luck with your next search, Phoenix - we are right behind you. xxxx

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