The Unfillable Position

In November 2008, a friend forwarded me a posting for a Brand Analyst position at a leading advertising agency. It was a great opportunity for me and I was excited when given a chance to interview. Although my background was not specifically within analytics and data analysis, I believed I could pick it up quickly. On the plus side, I am familiar with brands. I am a rarity in that I find commercials interesting and enjoyable for the most part (Though the Mr. Potato Head/Bridgestone commercial from this year’s Superbowl was stupid).

I met with the head of the department, an alumnus of the MBA program I now attend. We had a great interview. I expressed my interest in the position and gave examples of relevant brands (Victoria’s Secret, Coca Cola, Google), exciting new brands to watch (Under Armor, Vitamin Water (actually a Coca Cola brand now)) and brands that had made mistakes (Pepsi’s new logo and their change of the Tropicana (Tropicana is a Pepsi brand) packaging. I thought both looked better before).

During the interview I also met with everyone else within the department. I seemed to hit it off well with all of them and was not surprised when they asked me to come back in and meet with the VP of the department (Remember: this was November 2008, so I was not as jaded about my employment search. In fact, I was happily employed at this time). I came back in a week later and had another pleasant interview with the VP. I even did some homework on him prior and brought up a recent study he had published during the interview.

Afterwards, I wrote the VP a personal note thanking him for his time and consideration. He wrote back and told me that I interviewed well and was a strong candidate. He then went on to tell me that the company had instituted a hiring freeze due to economic uncertainty. He said that they were allowed to interview candidates, they were just not allowed to hire anyone.

I found this frustrating, but I had a job at the time so I didn’t dwell. I continued on with my job and stayed in touch with the VP and the people in the department (Basically, I just wrote them a note once a month reconfirming my interest in the position and to see if there had been any change in the hiring freeze).

In late August 2009, now unemployed, I learned that one of the other employees in the department was leaving to get her MBA. So I reached out to the VP and asked if this changed anything. I assumed if they needed extra help when they were at their current staff level, surely they would need someone new now that their department was losing someone. The VP agreed that they definitely needed another person now, but said this didn’t change their hiring situation. Instead, his department would just have to work harder for their same salary.

I still follow up with this company and hope the hiring freeze lifts one of these days. Granted, I don’t even know if I would get the job assuming there was no hiring freeze. But they haven’t given the job to someone else yet, so I can’t let it go. In the meantime, this situation seems frustrating for many people. I am stuck hoping to one day get the job, the VP is stuck with frustrated employees and the employees are working harder for their same salary.

If you can’t actually hire someone, why put up a job posting and go through the interview process?