My experience with Enteles Search was extremely disappointing
My experience with Enteles Search was extremely disappointing, particularly given how positively the relationship started.
I was approached directly by Enteles about an opportunity at a time when I wasn’t actively looking to move. The initial conversation with James was energetic and compelling, and I was given the strong impression that my background was an excellent fit for the position. After receiving the full job description, I agreed — it looked like exactly the sort of career step I wanted to take.
I therefore invested considerable time in preparing a tailored CV and application and sent it to James for feedback. The initial response was very positive, and I was told it was ready for submission to the client.
Then, effectively, communication stopped.
I appreciate that recruitment processes take time and that candidates are not always successful. After a couple of weeks I followed up, then followed up again the following week. By around week five, I had reasonably assumed that I hadn’t progressed. That in itself wasn’t the issue. A simple rejection email would have been perfectly acceptable and would at least have allowed me to close the loop and move on.
After further attempts to get an update from Enteles went unanswered, I eventually contacted the hiring company directly. Their Head of Recruitment returned my email within two days and explained that they had already completed the recruitment process approximately three weeks earlier and had selected a candidate. They apologised for the lack of communication. In my view, however, that apology shouldn’t have needed to come from the client; communication with me was the responsibility of the recruiter representing the opportunity.
What made the situation worse was that, immediately after that conversation, I checked the Enteles website and found the same opportunity was still being advertised as open for applications.
I contacted Enteles again asking for an update or explanation. Eight weeks later, I am still waiting for a response.
Being unsuccessful for a position is part of recruitment and I have absolutely no issue with that. What I do have an issue with is being proactively approached, encouraged to invest time in an application, receiving positive feedback that it was ready for submission, and then being met with silence.
Recruitment is ultimately a people business. If you approach someone and persuade them to engage with an opportunity, the minimum professional courtesy should be to close the loop when that opportunity is no longer available.
Unfortunately, based on my experience, that basic level of candidate communication was missing