Ingram Content Group

In April 2014, I received an email from a recruiter at Ingram Content Group about an interactive designer position (still not clear how they received my resume). I read the job description, but as soon as I saw the “mobile design experience” requirement I knew it would be a waste of time pursuing it. I responded with, “Thank you for contacting me about this position. While I am confident I could perform the tasks, I do not have the required ‘work experience’ in interface design on mobile applications, and I’m certain they would reject my resume. There was a time when a company would hire you and permit you to learn on the job, but those days are sadly gone!”

She followed up with, “When looking at your profile, I was very impressed with your experience, and I believe that the hiring manager would definitely be interested in seeing your resume.”

So we had a phone screening where she asked a few generic questions that didn’t really accomplish anything...

"Are you proficient in Adobe Creative Suite?"

Yes, I am. I state so on my resume which I assumed you'd have read by now.

"And are you proficient in Illustrator?"

Um, Illustrator is a part of Adobe Creative Suite, sweetheart.

As with almost every recruiter I’ve dealt with these past few years, I’m estimating her age to be half of mine. We wrapped it up with her insisting that their hiring manager would appreciate my work experience and portfolio, and that she’d be in touch.

I never heard from her again.

Fast forward to May 2. I received an email from another recruiter from the exact same company. "I received your resume to our Interactive Designer position posted on Dice in the past and wanted to see if you would still be in the market to consider a new position? If so, I would like to speak with you about another new Interactive Designer position and I want to discuss if that would fit your interest and skill set. I have attached the job details for your reference."

I did not recognize the company name or job description at first, so I replied and we scheduled a call. Afterwards, I did a quick search through my emails and, sure enough, I found the earlier message thread. I brought this up during our call, giving him the name of the girl I conversed with. He seemed slightly embarrassed and wasn’t even sure if this was the exact same position. He said he’d look into what happened and get back to me. Here’s the email I received not long after hanging up...

"Your candidacy was reviewed in April and I just had your information re-looked at once more. The notes on your candidacy were in a different place which I missed, so that was my mistake. Unfortunately, you were passed on and per the chaos with all our new IT positions, getting back to let you know fell through the cracks. I apologize for that as we make part of our process to let all candidates know the status of their candidacy once we have feedback. At this time, the decision still has been made to continue to pursue other candidates.”

So, in summary, this company has kept this position empty for a month at least, and will continue to keep it empty until they find that magical “perfect candidate,” whomever that may be. And I particularly love how he did not share with me WHY I was “passed on.” Seems that if I was never a good candidate I should never have been contacted in the first place.