Interview Followup

Valord

Hi, I've been a long time lurker but first time poster here. I just had this thing on my chest and I didn't know where to go to discuss it so I decided to do it here.

So recently I did a final-round interview with a major tech company in Dublin about a graduate-level engineering job (I'm not sure whether I should name it or not, I don't really want this following me and I'm not sure if it's considered bad form, so I'll omit it for now). It was in mid-December so a few weeks ago by now. I'm in my final year of uni so I had exams going on at the same time, but I took it anyway because I really wanted the job.

Unfortunately I didn't get it, which is fair enough. I'm used to getting turned down for jobs, it's just part of life, and I think I kind of flubbed on the day anyway, so it didn't come as a big shock to learn this. However, I did really want the job and getting into the place to see it and talk to the people working there (all the interviewers I spoke to were engineers too) only made me more enthusiastic for it.

Most of the time when I get turned down, the rejection still includes some kind of "we hope you're not discouraged and apply with us again in the future" kind of thing and so did this one. I'd never really followed up before but I wanted this one more than really any other I had gone for. This one even said that although they couldn't give specific interview feedback, they could arrange a call next week to talk about options going forward. So I responded quickly and said I'd like to do that and just gave a list of times I would be in exams the next week because I wouldn't be able to answer then.

So the week goes by and I don't hear anything. No email reply, no call. I was feeling pretty bad about it but friends and family told me not to worry about it because it was the last week before Christmas and the HR woman who we dealt with might have had a full plate and wanted to ignore stuff that wasn't so urgent.

I had this on my mind throughout the whole holiday and then after new year's I sent a followup saying I was still interested and would like a chance to talk about applying again when they did more recruiting. Still nothing back. After 2 or 3 days of not hearing anything back, I sent an email to the one other HR contact I had in the company who I spoke with at a recruitment fair and who was the person who originally took my CV and arranged the interview. Nothing from her either.

At this point, this whole thing has really started to hurt my self-esteem more than most failed interviews. Before I got the interview, these same people would usually respond within minutes to any questions I had, and definitely would get back by the end of the day. It's pretty confusing and seems very unprofessional to specifically offer to talk about it afterwards and then just ignore the questions I have.

Is this a normal thing to happen? When companies talk about following up, even if they say "next week", would they typically let weeks go by without addressing it? I realise I'm not a priority now like I was before, but it still seems like just common courtesy and professionalism to do something like that. How should I be taking this? I really don't want to just give up on the whole thing and to try to move on, but I can't really see what else I can do at this point. Seems like any further contact at this point would just be nagging.

Stheno

Most companies are still getting back to normal after Christmas you may hear next week

Valord

I dunno, after waiting a few more days this is really starting to look highly unlikely. Is there really anything that I could conceivably do about this? I presume it would be improper to add either of the two recruiters on LinkedIn, although they're being suggested to me. I'm really still fixated on this. I even tried looking around on graduate websites for opportunities and the few I've found look really uninteresting to me in comparison now.