Job candidates deserve fair treatment of their applications.

• Author: Bowal, Peter

I have applied for many jobs in both the private and public sectors in Canada. Some were full-time, most were part-time. Several employers follow a long, drawn-out application process involving several phases: asking for numerous personal and work experience referees; written examinations; telephone calls; and occasionally requiring flights out of province or drives to other cities for interviews (sometimes at my own expense). Often about eight months later, all contact with the prospective employer stopped. No one returned my calls and I am still waiting nine years later to hear whether I got the job.

For several other part-time, unpaid positions with public agencies, I spent two to three days away from my regular job travelling to Ottawa for interviews. I had to produce four original reference letters from supervisors and colleagues who were asked to comment on a list of things. I brushed up my French, read all I could find on my agency and put my best foot forward. I did not hear from the Government of Canada for almost one more year, which was several months after I read on the website the name of the successful candidate. She was, by the way, the person who was serving in the role on an interim basis. This was the same outcome several other times I applied for jobs. I did not have the impression my application was considered seriously. Rather, I was mere fodder fed into a formal process that always had a pre-ordained conclusion.

Employment agencies can be guilty of the same disregard of applicants. Recently, I was in a law recruitment office applying for a part-time volunteer position (lawyers even compete to volunteer). While I was waiting in the reception area, I noticed several paid job postings that tweaked my interest. When the search consultant (who also headed the firm) completed her interview with me about the volunteer position, I asked about a few of the other listed positions. She seemed dismissive. When I pressed her, she admitted without a whiff of impropriety, that the positions had been filled, in some cases years earlier. Her objective was to attract as many interested candidates to her firm, even with the bait of attractive job openings that were no longer active. There is no economic or legal incentive to communicate with applicants and to remove stale postings, even though today, valuable ongoing communication with applicants and maintaining up to date job listings has never been easier to achieve.

On another site, I...