Check Your Voice Mail Greeting

Mark Evans had a post about trying to try the kinder gentler approach of less email, more voice mail.  (Sorry, no link, on my RIM, Google the boy).

So, always one to follow interesting advice, I've taken to using the phone a bit.

Hmm, others may not be ready for the return to phones.

I get a CV for a senior level position that I'm working on for a portfolio company.  Looks really really good. Rather than email, I decide to leave a message inviting him to come on by for a chat.

one ring, two, three, voice mail:

"Hello, this is []. I am not available. Leave a message and I will call you back if it is convenient for me to do so."

No, really. I called it back to get this verbatim.

I didn't leave a message so as to not inconvenience this person.

If you are in the market for a new job, check your voice mail greeting.

Comments

[Iain]

Communications is communications; some people just suck at it. I've had people not reply to emails, not return calls, not reply to messages left on voicemails, and in the dark ages before voicemail, some wouldn't respond to messages left with secretaries or receptionists.
Oh, and a tip for anyone leaving a voicemail message: don't rattle off your phone number like a machine gun! Give the person at the other end an opportunity to write it down without having to re-play the message five times.

[Brian Donovan]

Wait - you're no longer considering this person because they were honest about their handling of voicemail? You were so miffed that you didn't even consider sending an email?

AFAIK, no mobile service provider really gives customers the same sort of tools for blocking/filtering voicemail that we have for email. This may just be that gal/guy's way of cluing callers into the fact that not every single message left will necessarily result in a callback.

This post has really left me, as your reader, with a strong impression of you as a prima donna (e.g. "How dare he suggest that he won't call me back!") and I think that your next entry should try to lay out some good reasons why anyone would want to work with you or one of your portfolio companies.

[Rick Segal]

Hi Brian,

I think you are taking my comments to literal. Since this was a job for marketing/sales position, 90% of that is communication. It was a business number and, while I agree that filtering is tough, the point of my post was that you will get judged on it. You've heard, I'm sure, the stories of people going out with lunch with candidates to see how they treat the wait staff, etc. That was the higher level point. Email, Voice Mail, etc, it's all about communications and impressions. I was making that point and, as it turned out I did send email and that person is interviewing with a CEO. And I suspect they've now seen this post, Ian's comments and yours which is all good.

Thanks for stopping by the blog, I appreciate your feedback.

>R<