What's with people sending you emails to come in for an interview? I've only received two phone calls out of like 10 interviews and resume queries. I feel highly uncomfortable going into an interview with out any phone screening.

Would it be remiss of me to call before going in so that I'm not walking into a bombshell?

I have to question the professionalism of said companies, but now that it is clearly ubiquitous, I have no idea what to make of it. Am I old-fashioned or just practical in my concerns?

I would be fine with all communication taking place via email. Heck I would even interview via email if I could. Well... Maybe that's not true. I am a heck of salesman and think I interview very well.

Don't worry about it. If all else fails you can always just work your way through it and not get the job. You are no worse off than before. Every chance to interview should be looked at as an opportunity to, if nothing else, sharpen your interview skills.

I would probably react the same as you.

It is neither outdated nor old-fashioned to expect to talk prior to an interview. I don't even think that anything in particular really needs to be discussed, just a brief conversation about the job and when a good time for an interview might be. I wouldn't even think "screening" should be happening, but I can tell you this: when I am scheduling interviews for prospective employees, and they have serious issues with English or speaking seems to be an unbearable chore for them, I don't even bother scheduling an interview.

I tend to think of those kind of replies as mass interviews...meaning, they are bringing in a bunch of people on the same day as you. I usually pass on those.

Yeah, but it's a serious waste of time. You figure I have to break the schedule of my day for this. I don't have a car, so this could easily be a 4+ hour chunk for these things. I'd much rather have a phone call and if it goes south, I'd rather not go.

The point is that it makes the company look fairly unprofessional in my view. Not sure about how Dom's statement about interviewing a grip of people is relevant since I live in Los Angeles and every position is interviewed by 500 people, basically.

The part that really gets my goat is that so many companies ask for a well-thought out cover letter. I often do this and then I get no response or I get a boilerplate response. What a way to make you feel like a sucker. I know that 90% of all the resumes don't have a cover letter no matter what you specify in a job ad and I only write one when they specify it so I been thinking of a sarcastic thing to put in the middle of my cover letter: "Just to be sure that you are detail-oriented, please respond with the number 5 in your rejection letter's subject line. I prefer to work with people that pay attention to detail and follow directions." I'd literally be less than 5% of all applicants that followed this simple instruction. I deserve a rejection letter at least.

This one is way too far and it's a group interview so I'm not going for it.

Someone who I didn't even get hired by invites me to Linked'in. Now what do I do, close my account?

no, you bin the invite.

I hate linkedin.

its their job and they decide how they are going to fill it. each company and person will do it the way they want. it is up to you to decide if you want to go. just as there are many applicants to choose from there are many jobs out there as well.
the fact they are bringing you in means they are willing to spend time(money) on checking you out.
you can always call and tell them you are only available for a phone interview to start. this may make you strike out or may make them think you are confident and a good candidate. you never know.

How many phone calls don't end up in an interview? Maybe phoning every single candidate to cut out a few no-hopers is just inefficient.

This


If they want to actually schedule an interview, they call you.


If they don't bother to do so, it's a cattle call.

The point of the resume is to get an interview. You got the interview.

If it is a mass interview situation, what are you interviewing for, flipping hamburgers?

There was one for casino banking, two for maintaining a website, another for webmaster internship, this latest was for marketing assistant, and one was for sales at some well-known music shop (ended up being a group interview -- never again). Just a smallish sampling. Obviously, there were email-blasty items from companies that were clearly out the scam my time, but those are easy to identify. It's the truly legit ones that are mystifying.

Doesn't mean that when I do it. It just means I'd rather communicate by email than phone. And that most of our office communication is by email rather than phone.

You should start to understand that in a down economy with so many job seekers sending out tons of resumes daily, you should be pleased to have been offered interviews at all. There are people who go weeks without any form of response.

Wow, I am old and old-fashioned in some senses and I am shocked to hear that emailing a request for an interview could be taken any other way than "congratulations, you got an interview."

When I was looking for a partner in my medical practice the only correspondence I had with any applicants prior to their interview was by email. Out of dozens of CVs I only interviewed 2 people and the person I hired had not heard my voice until his interview.

Phones suck and I can tell if an interview will be worth my time by looking at your resume and recommendations. If I'm going to talk to somebody on the phone prior to an interview, it will be to speak to the applicants last employer.

Planning an interview through emails is a lot different than receiving an email that says, "be here on this day at this time for an interview."

I've been in my current position for 6 years, but this was always my experience in the past.

Interesting things this past week. I received a phone call with some screening-type questions the other day. I get there and it ends up being a cattle call. I just received the letter in the snail mail informing me I didn't get the job.

I also had one email sent to me saying "We would like to set up a phone interview, when are you available?" I bombed that interview so hard. I guess that companies get so many resumes, they have to figure the optimal strategy.