Should you follow up again?

[Anonymous]

In June I had an interview with a company, around mid-june they told me they decided to hire someone else for the position. I just saw the job re-posted on a job board last week. So, should I contact the recruiter again? Or does it mean they actually never hired anyone but just said that to get rid of me?

[Anonymous]

Why not email or call the recruiter? Do it once politely and then let it go, even if they say they'll get back to your application and never do. It is possible that they did it to get rid of you, but you never know -- it's also possible that whoever they were going to hire didn't accept the offer/didn't work out so they're starting again. What do you lose?

[Anonymous]

This happened to me. I didn't reapply, but did contact the recruiter. I never heard from them. Given my experience, I would never again contact a recruiter if something like this happens to me again.

[Anonymous]

I agree w PP that you really don't have much to lose in contacting them one last time.

[Anonymous]

OP here- thank you all for your advice. Also, this was an internal recruiter, i-e someone who works in the company's HR department, not an independent one. I am just wondering if they did like me at the interview, then why wouldn't they contact me again if the other candidate backed out? I would think if you interview a few people and then one person backs out, you would call someone else from your pool of candidates and offer them the job, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thank you all for your advice. Also, this was an internal recruiter, i-e someone who works in the company's HR department, not an independent one. I am just wondering if they did like me at the interview, then why wouldn't they contact me again if the other candidate backed out? I would think if you interview a few people and then one person backs out, you would call someone else from your pool of candidates and offer them the job, no?

Your reasoning makes sense but you're giving them a lot of credit as well, since you don't know how their internal HR process works. It's quite possible the hiring manager said "I like x, make them an offer." The HR person did so and the offer was rejected, re-neged, etc. Then the hiring manager could have said "ok -- let's re-open the position." The HR person may not have even thought to go back to whoever was number 2 on the list and frankly may not even know who was no. 2. I find HR/internal recruiting to be better (sometimes) than outside commission based recruiters. I've sent polite emails re this type of situation in the past and have gotten a "we're not interested" reply (i.e. we are looking at an internal candidate or we'll keep you in mind) and have also gotten "I will follow up with the hiring manager about you," types of replies. You never know unless you ask and since you don't currently work there, you don't lose anything -- at most they say no, but the answer right now is already no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thank you all for your advice. Also, this was an internal recruiter, i-e someone who works in the company's HR department, not an independent one. I am just wondering if they did like me at the interview, then why wouldn't they contact me again if the other candidate backed out? I would think if you interview a few people and then one person backs out, you would call someone else from your pool of candidates and offer them the job, no?

Your reasoning makes sense but you're giving them a lot of credit as well, since you don't know how their internal HR process works. It's quite possible the hiring manager said "I like x, make them an offer." The HR person did so and the offer was rejected, re-neged, etc. Then the hiring manager could have said "ok -- let's re-open the position." The HR person may not have even thought to go back to whoever was number 2 on the list and frankly may not even know who was no. 2. I find HR/internal recruiting to be better (sometimes) than outside commission based recruiters. I've sent polite emails re this type of situation in the past and have gotten a "we're not interested" reply (i.e. we are looking at an internal candidate or we'll keep you in mind) and have also gotten "I will follow up with the hiring manager about you," types of replies. You never know unless you ask and since you don't currently work there, you don't lose anything -- at most they say no, but the answer right now is already no.

What would you say when you follow up in these cases? I just don't wanna look too desperate or pushy. I just feel like usually Hiring managers would have person1 and alternates for the position and if it doesn't work out with person1, the logical thing would be hey what about candidate2? Why reopen the position and go through a whole round of interviews unless no one else from the first pool met what they were looking for?

[Anonymous]

as a manager that handles hiring, I say there is nothing to lose in reaching out to your contact. we just had a similar scenario where we made an offer and then the day the new person was supposed to start she had "family issues" and could not take the job. we did not go back to our #2 and instead just reposted the job. If our #2 called I would probably consider them, as I would realize that they really want the job (but please note we also had a #3, and #4 that I would NOT give the job to if they called since they were never in the running). we never reached out to #2 because it has been well over a month since our interview we just figured we might as well start fresh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as a manager that handles hiring, I say there is nothing to lose in reaching out to your contact. we just had a similar scenario where we made an offer and then the day the new person was supposed to start she had "family issues" and could not take the job. we did not go back to our #2 and instead just reposted the job. If our #2 called I would probably consider them, as I would realize that they really want the job (but please note we also had a #3, and #4 that I would NOT give the job to if they called since they were never in the running). we never reached out to #2 because it has been well over a month since our interview we just figured we might as well start fresh.

HR Bitch here: Agree with the above. Sometimes people don't reach out b/c they think it'll look desperate. But what's worse? Looking desperate for a few minutes but then getting the job, or not reaching out and actually becoming desperate for work?

[Anonymous]

I got the job being a #2 -- the guy initially offered the job was an internal transfer -- but then he didn't start.

The hiring manager just asked the recruiter to go down the list of other good candidates -- I don't know if it was just me or if there were others they'd have reached out to.

Many managers hate massive rounds of interviews as they can be a time sink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as a manager that handles hiring, I say there is nothing to lose in reaching out to your contact. we just had a similar scenario where we made an offer and then the day the new person was supposed to start she had "family issues" and could not take the job. we did not go back to our #2 and instead just reposted the job. If our #2 called I would probably consider them, as I would realize that they really want the job (but please note we also had a #3, and #4 that I would NOT give the job to if they called since they were never in the running). we never reached out to #2 because it has been well over a month since our interview we just figured we might as well start fresh.

OP Here, thanks for sharing, I will reach out to them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got the job being a #2 -- the guy initially offered the job was an internal transfer -- but then he didn't start.

The hiring manager just asked the recruiter to go down the list of other good candidates -- I don't know if it was just me or if there were others they'd have reached out to.

Many managers hate massive rounds of interviews as they can be a time sink.

Lucky you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a manager that handles hiring, I say there is nothing to lose in reaching out to your contact. we just had a similar scenario where we made an offer and then the day the new person was supposed to start she had "family issues" and could not take the job. we did not go back to our #2 and instead just reposted the job. If our #2 called I would probably consider them, as I would realize that they really want the job (but please note we also had a #3, and #4 that I would NOT give the job to if they called since they were never in the running). we never reached out to #2 because it has been well over a month since our interview we just figured we might as well start fresh.

HR Bitch here: Agree with the above. Sometimes people don't reach out b/c they think it'll look desperate. But what's worse? Looking desperate for a few minutes but then getting the job, or not reaching out and actually becoming desperate for work?

Thank you, I sent the email

[Anonymous]

I would follow up (since as people said you have nothing to lose), but honestly, as a hiring manager, you are most likely not on the list. When I am hiring and candidate #1 backs out, then I go to candidate #2 etc. If there is no candidate #2, then we start the recruiting process from the beginning.