Calling when ad says "no calls please"

it starts with an S.

 

No, Dye. I put "no calls" in my ad because I was the head of a three-man staff, often had to design and copy edit 5-6 pages by myself and didn't want the phone ringing off the hook during my shift. It has nothing to do with not knowing how the world works. It's about working efficiently. You know, when you post a job ad, you don't clear your day to take phone calls to tell people "yes, I got your resume." The world DOESN'T work that way.

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again for the benefit of people applying for jobs.

A few years back, it was deadline day for our football tab, and advertising massively screwed things up by giving us the wrong sized dummies. The page width was too big for the film we had. Just an awful mistake on their part, so it's 4 p.m. and I have to reconfigure every freaking page in the tab. I had advertised for a job opening, and had told anyone who had e-mailed that no decisions were going to be made on cutting the field, performing interviews, etc. until the tab was done. Priorities, you know.

So while my tab is crashing down around me, somebody who happened to be in town showed up to the office and asked if he could have an interview right then. No calls, no nothing. Kid shows up in a suit with all of his stuff. I was already late with the tab, and I had to tell him that I couldn't meet with him.

First off, he wasn't even going to make the first cut. So think of that, first. If you don't get a call back immediately, maybe your stuff isn't that good. Trust me, if a tremendous set of clips passes over an editor's desk, he'll take notice. This kid's stuff was mediocre, and I wasn't planning on even giving him a phone interview. Yet he shows up and basically wants a spot interview. No, that's not the way it works. I felt bad for him, but that's business.

So, yeah, no calls means no calls.

 

Did he at least offer to help?

 

Hah! I should have asked him to start proofing pages.

 

Probably would have been a new event at that shop.

 

You know, Cosmo got me to thinking ... something I've never seen in an ad, but if you had a way to pull it off, it might actually be helpful.

"Calls concerning this position will be accepted Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1-2 p.m.; no exceptions."

By the way, I've never bought the "see how much gumption a person has by seeing if they call after listing 'no calls please' in the ad." I'm more of the "bad at following directions" side.

Especially with e-mail being another tool to use.

 

Well this thread certainly has been beneficial for me. While the specific situation that prompted the question hasn't turned into the tragic opportunity lost scenario that so many of you say it should, probably because you guys weren't on the other end of the phone call, this thread did provide concrete evidence of one thing: I am not the only idiot/moron out there.
But now, armed with knowledge of this so-called e-mail, I could rise up and become a genius. Or even better, an editor.

 

Bottom line here DyePack, is that a really good designer would have saved Cosmo's ass that day, and maybe young Wright Thompson would have gotten his interview.

 

Sounds more like it would have been just plugging and chugging.

Not really the job for the one-page PFAD builders of the world.

 

You could send by certified mail, I suppose, to assure that it gets where you wanted to go.

 

am i the only one who finds it strange that in a biz that so values aggressiveness and relentless in reporters, chickenshit editors don't want to be "bothered" by phone calls? i've never understood this.

cripes, as a geezer who existed pre-emails, how the heck did editors communicate back in the day? geez. answer the phone and take the 10 seconds to say, "we're still evaluating..." be a mensch. ain't that hard.

end of mini-rant.

p.s. -- for those who don't want to be bothered during crunch-time, i agree with those who suggest an ad specifying what days and times would be good to call. voice-mails work, too.