Why can I not get ahold of HR to followup on an internship application status? [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I have tried on multiple occasions to call the Human Resources department regarding my internship applications, only to be continuously (total of three phone calls over two days) turned down at the first person I speak to (receptionist, never get through to HR). I only seem to have some success when I have names and I don't mention it's about an internship.

• The entire HR department happens to be at a meeting.
• The is nobody available right now, call back in 30 minutes.
• They have already gone home for the day (at 15:45).

(Repeatedly and in that sequence)

Is there some 'thing' here I am missing? I'm being lead around in circles as opposed to getting a 'no, we don't do phone calls unless scheduled'. Most internship materials suggest you follow up after two weeks to show your interest, but I can't get past the reception - why might this be the case? I know no one can know specifically, but it seems strange to me.

Today I managed to talk sufficiently long to the receptionist that I should call at 08:00 in the morning. As much as I know that NASA called astronaut candidates with random questions at 04:00 to see if they were 'helpful' as opposed to 'annoyed and grumpy', is what I am seeing some test in persistence and interest towards the employer, or do they just not take these cold calls throughout the day to be able to work?

Field: Engineering, Europe.

manpreet 2 years ago

Because they don't want you to contact them

The answer to the literal question of "Why can I not get ahold of HR to followup on an internship application status?" is that they have explicitly taken steps to prevent you from getting ahold of them to followup on an internship application status. You're likely getting such responses from receptionists because they're doing their job in protecting other employees from undesired contact attempts - you may think of them as a 'meatspace spam filter'.

Companies who have a small number of applicants may choose to treat each application individually.

Companies who have a large amount of applicants may (and often do) choose to implement a process that minimizes time spent on each individual application. For example, for a vacancy with 100 or 300 applicants (common in some industries), you would generally want to spend any meaningful time on only a limited amount of them - you'd have a first stage screening process that would leave you with a manageable amount of candidates (10-20) and take something like a minute per application. 5 minutes per application times 100-300 applications would mean 8-24 working hours for just an initial screening - so that's generally not aceptable.

Throwing out good candidates for random reasons at this stage is okay (because there are more than 10-20 good candidates, and even a perfect screening process will have to eliminate many good candidates w/o consideration); wasting time on individual phone followup is not resonable - they will spend time on the candidates they selected, the rest will get an automated response if the system allows to do that in an efficient way (i.e., no personalized responses or explanations).

This applies for advertised vacancies - cold calling / cold mailing for internship opportunities may often deliberately mean no response at all, ever, and an automatic forward to the trash bin. They're likely not interested in applications, and even less interested in spending time to discuss them.