Rant #2,282: Nothing From Nothing Is Nothing (Part 2)

I hate to belabor the point, but ...

I had another job-seeking-related incident late last week, and it is worth talking about.

Once again, it demonstrates that if the Internet is the "Wild West," then certainly job hunting during the Internet age is the "Wild Wild West."

On Nov. 5, I applied for a job that was posted on one of the job boards, and as I always do, I did it early in the morning--after writing my daily Rant--and hoped for the best.

The very next day, I heard from the company that I applied to, and here is what they wrote back to me:

"I reviewed your skills, experience and background and feel you may be an ideal candidate for the position."

To say I was surprised was an understatement. In all of the time I have been looking for employment, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times companies have gotten back to me like this with such a positive message.

The email also listed the salary allotted to the job, which fell right in line with what I was looking for.

Everything was peachy keen, and I awaited their next email about an interview.

A few days passed, and I heard nothing from them, so I wrote back to them, asking when the actual interviewing process was going to be starting.

Their reply was this:

"We are still evaluating resumes. I'll be in touch."

OK, I thought, let me give them some time, and I am sure they will be get back to me.

Well, I waited more than a month, and I never heard from them again.

So on late Friday afternoon, I thought I would send them an email, to ask them when the interviewing process was going to begin.

Their reply was this:

"The position has been filled. Thank you for your interest."

So, in a matter of about six weeks, I went from an "ideal candidate" to nothing, and if I had not written back to them on Friday, I would never have heard back from them about this position.

A nice way to deal with an "ideal candidate," isn't it?

I decided that the person I was dealing with would receive one more email from me, because this person's vapid response to my email, and the way I was dealt with by this company, was reprehensible.

After going over everything that I just went over with you here, I got down to brass tacks in my email back to this person:

"You did not get in touch with me, and that is why over a month later, I started to wonder about what was going on.

Let me tell you, I am 61 years of age, and I have been to "the rodeo" before. I have been employed with my current company for nearly 23 years. The company is teetering with insolvency.

I have been looking for a new position for more than two years, and the sum total of my efforts, after applying for probably more than 400 positions, is this: three face-to-face interviews, and a few phone interviews, probably because I am looked at as an older worker (but go prove it).

Your email gave me a lot of hope, it was very positive, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, something good would come out of this.

And I waited, and I waited, and I waited. I mean, you did say you would be "in touch."

If I had not written to you today, you would never have been "in touch" with me.

Now, I ask you, if you were in my position, how would you feel about this situation?

I am not trying to be nasty or rude, but if you were me, how would you feel?

Well, I kind of feel disappointed, and kind of lied to.

This is not the way to conduct a job process.

There is nothing I can do about it, but I will have to move on and try to find something in the new year.

But I do believe that you at the very least let me down.

If you are offended by anything I have said, please remove my resume from your files."

Well, it certainly won't further my job search, but it made me feel a lot better than sitting there with my hands folded.

I can tell you from personal experience that looking for a job today is quite different from looking for a job in previous years.

I have learned that you are often dealing with people who are much younger than you, have never been out of work themselves, and really, truly, have been entrusted with filling a position but simply do not have the interpersonal skills needed to do so.

I think I ran into that here. You don't go from the penthouse to the outhouse like I did via the person's email communications, which the person handled very, very poorly.

And no, I have not heard back from this person, and I am sure that I never will.

Sure, this is minor compared to what I described to you the other day, but it is just as frustrating.

So-called job experts say that the best way to find a job is to find it through your relationships with others, such as former co-workers, friends and relatives.

I have exhausted those avenues. I have tried, but to no avail, to use these avenues to my advantage, but the door has always been closed in my face, simply because firms are not hiring as much as we are told they are, and they certainly aren't hiring in my field, or anything related to it.

So what is my next step?

Finish this Rant, post it on Facebook, and go to the job boards again, where I will find a job that I am interested in, send in my resume, and hope for the best.

What else can I do?