Burning your bridges is never a good idea.

Burning your bridges is never a good idea.

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I encountered an interesting situation with a candidate at the beginning of the year, whereby my client requested a 2nd stage interview, in person and even offered to reimburse the candidate for their travel fees to the interview. The candidate was unemployed and was in the process of another interview and was under pressure to complete the task that he couldn’t make the time to make it to the in-person meeting and kept pushing it out to the end of the week.

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My client was really interested in the candidate and wanted him to meet the rest of the team as soon as possible so that they could make him an offer. My client understood the candidate was busy with the task, so he suggested a teams meeting. The teams meeting was confirmed then rescheduled by the candidate, this happened twice. The teams meeting was officially scheduled for the end of the week. 10min before the interview, the client emailed the candidate asking if they could reschedule for later in the afternoon as his current meeting was running longer than expected.

The candidate responded 3 hours later with a terrible excuse as to why his response was so late and said that he was heading out to an event so wouldn’t be available.

As recruiters, I feel that we can quickly identify a poor excuse when we see one, am I right?

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Monday came and the client sent the candidate an email stating that they would no longer be considering them as an applicant, as they had interviewed other people and they needed to move ahead with the hiring process. My client even suggested that if the offer stage didn’t work out then they would be in touch with the candidate to schedule the final stage. The email was straightforward and to the point. I found it to be very professional and transparent.

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My candidate, however, did not. I received a 4minute voice note. Swearing at my client, tearing my clients’ character down and going as far to say that this always happens to him. He also stated that he would not respond to the email. And he didn’t.

I was so shaken up by this voice note. I left it and took a step back in order for me to ensure that I didn’t react emotionally and rather respond professionally. That evening, I responded, displayed empathy and understood the frustration, said its unfortunate that it didn’t work out the way he had hoped and that if there is a need to reschedule then I would be in touch.

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During the course of that week, my client made an offer to a great candidate who accepted and started there a month after.

However, my clients’ company is growing and they are constantly recruiting as the company’s needs expand. My client mailed me a month after this situation, asking if the candidate was still in the job market and whether they would be interested in a Front-end developer position that had just come up within the company.

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Honestly, I didn’t want to reach out to the candidate because I had seen a different side to them which leads me to believe that they would probably have not been the best fit for my client and their company culture.

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This was just a brutal reminder on the importance of never burning your bridges. Even when the outcome isn’t the one you had hoped for, it is best to thank them for their time and if an opportunity arises again, you have the control to decline or choose the way forward.

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Granted, there are times when you need to put yourself first and burning your bridges is the better option. But that’s an article for another day.

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