Give Him A Break...

See this guy right here? He is wonderful.


Amazing.
Smart.
Talented.
Kind.
Sexy.
Hilarious.
Compassionate.
Patient.
Charitable.
The list goes on.

But here is the thing...he deserves a break. Not from life or being a father or anything like that. But we are talking career-wise. He stuck around BYU (paying tuition, I might add) for an additional year in order to work on his portfolio and to be able to be in direct contact with recruiters for jobs. I will spare you the details as I've posted about them before, but here is the bottom line: we have been waiting to hear back from Microsoft, the Holy Grail of Zac's career path, since his interview back in February.

And we are still waiting.

Now someone he knows got a callback on Saturday.

But we are still waiting.

This is what the Microsoft Jobs blog says about that:

On the JobsBlog alias, we get a collection of stories from people who don't hear back from their recruiters, and these emails all ask the same question; "What happened?".

Those of us who are on the alias usually go after these silent recruiters and chase down an answer, and typically the answer is the same; "We don't yet have a team that is interested in your candidacy".

At this point any well-meaning recruiter will say that they will continue to circulate your profile, and if there is a match then they will let you know. And then the cycle repeats, the silence soon returns, and so does the question, "What happened?".

I know this answer is unpopular, but I'll tell you the truth...if we have something for you, we'll call you. If you don't hear from us then we don't have anything (yet). That "yet" is what gets us all in trouble.

Recruiters will rarely tell you a final "no", and the reason is because there is seldom a terminal status. There are always new positions with new profiles and just because you are not a fit today does not mean you won't be a fit soon. Recruiters follow-up on those that are what we call "closest to the hire" - this is recruiter lingo for prioritizing time, which means that if you are farther from a "hire", then you will get prioritized lower. Like it or not, it's true.

This is all solved by setting expections a little better, and while recruiters should do this for you, it may not always happen. If your recruiter doesn't help set expectations, you should ask when/if you should expect to hear back.

So keep writing the alias, and we will continue to chase down the answer for you... and also know that when we have something, we'll call you…

- Jenna

So we sit here. Waiting.

And all I'm saying is that Zac is amazing. And I'm putting that out there into the universe with good feelings and positive thoughts as we wait.