If you’ve been following NMH on Twitter (which you should, given how the tweets let you know when I update every day on this sporadic schedule I’m keeping), you might have noticed that the followers count is doing something it hasn’t done in a long time: growing at a more stable rate. It used to bounce around wildly – one minute, there would be 10 new followers, then 7 would leave, then 4 more would join, then 3 would leave, then 8 would join, 10 would leave…there was no consistency, and I was worried about how to get the numbers on track.
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t fully get Twitter. But I’m starting to. So I took a page from my own book and have started sending short thank you messages to new followers. And whaddya know – they’ve stuck around!
I’d love to say it’s because the content in my tweets and on this blog has increased in quality, but the truth is that it’s probably because I’m making a more concentrated effort to connect with readers.
But I digress – this is a blog about job searching, and I’m just talking about something you shouldn’t do at work (but should do for the job search).
When you send in an application for a job online, if you’re lucky, you’ll get an automated response message. The message will usually thank you for your submission, and will say something about contacting you if the company is interested, but otherwise you won’t hear anything. So you can spend days, weeks, or even months waiting for a response that may never come.
Even though you’ve crafted a meticulous application specifically for that position and company, you might still get silence. And even if you follow-up with the employer, you might get silence (although now it’s more unlikely). So what can you do?
If you have a job search site that tracks your submission, that might help. But the easiest way to deal with the silence and uneasiness that accompanies it is to ignore it. Keep sending out applications, looking for other jobs and be productive.
Regardless of the medium in which you contact the employer about your candidacy for an open position, the social obligation of the company to contact you is no longer there. So keep on looking for work – if you dwell on the silence, the “no” can be even more deafening.
