‘I lost a job opportunity because I didn’t have the money to go to the interview’

Unemployed for six months and deep in debt, Raíssa Cardoso, 28, was approached in June by a company offering her a job.

But what seemed like an interesting opportunity turned into an embarrassment, due to the inflexibility of the contractor when the designer asked if she could do the interview virtually, as she did not have the money to travel at that time.

At a time of high inflation and falling family incomes, the process of selecting employees requires empathy from companies, according to a human resources specialist.

“After a step of sending a video presentation, they sent me a message. It was a weekday, in the late afternoon. I was busy, I couldn’t see the message at the time, and they didn’t wait for my response, they already sent the address, assuming I could go”, says Raíssa, who lives in São Gonçalo, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro.

The vacancy was for face-to-face work, in the neighboring municipality of Niterói.

“I had been unemployed for six months, owing bills, cards, loans. I was in a very complicated situation, counting money. So, from one day to the next, I didn’t have [dinheiro]”, remembers the designer, who says that her situation got complicated after not being paid for the final month at the last company she worked for.

“I live with my parents. My dad is retired and my mom is a self-employed beautician, but she wasn’t getting much either. So it ended up being pretty difficult.”

The worker then asked if there was the possibility of conducting the interview remotely. The recruiter asked what the justification would be. Raíssa was honest: “I don’t have any money for the trip at the moment,” she wrote.

“Let’s leave it for another opportunity,” was the reply.

The professional then asked to return later, saying that she would try to borrow the money. But the answer was again negative.

“They didn’t offer any possibility of rescheduling, they didn’t even want to give me a little time so I could borrow the money. They didn’t give me any opening and removed me from the selection process”, he laments.

“I felt a lot of inflexibility on their part and a little lack of empathy too. I think when you’re dealing with a candidate, you have to remember that there’s a person there on the other side, who has problems, who has a personal life like everyone else. I was frustrated and a little shocked, because in a matter of minutes, the conversation totally changed.”

How much does it cost to look for a job?

At a time when Brazilian unemployment is falling — the unemployment rate reached 9.3% in the quarter ended in June, the lowest level since 2015, after a peak of 14.9% in March 2021 — the cost of looking employment still imposes itself as a barrier between many unemployed and the return to the labor market.

Although the employed population is the largest since the beginning of the survey’s historical series, in 2012 (98.3 million), the number of informal workers hit a record (39.3 million), while the average income has dropped this year (5 .1%), compared to 2021.

According to a survey carried out in 2019 by the job classifieds website Catho, people who were looking for internship or trainee vacancies, for example, spent about R$ 300 per month in this search. The account includes expenses with transport, food outside the home, printing of resumes and mobile internet.

Also according to the company, candidates looked for a job in person three times a week, on average, with an average daily expense of R$25.

BBC News Brasil asked Catho to update this survey, in view of the accumulated inflation of almost 27% since 2019, but the company said it does not have updated data.

In June, in addition to the 10.1 million Brazilians still unemployed, the country had 4.3 million discouraged, representing almost 4% of the working age population.

The discouraged are people who have given up looking for a job. It includes those who think they are too young, too old, inexperienced, unqualified or afraid of not finding a vacancy due to their place of residence. It also includes those who don’t have the money to pay the ticket and look for a place.

Some states or municipalities offer free tickets to the unemployed on public transportation. This is the case, for example, in São Paulo, which provides a credential that allows free access to the Metro and CPTM trains, for people unemployed for more than 30 and less than 180 days. The benefit can be requested at the CPTM Barra Funda station.

But not every story of workers with no money to find a job ends up like Raíssa’s. The difference may be in the humanized treatment of the situation by the company.

This was the case of a professional selected by human resources analyst Michelly Soares, in a story that started with a lack of money to go to the interview and ended with the hiring, professional requalification of the contractor and her advancement towards a better paid position.

A problem solved with empathy and a Pix

“I was doing a selection process for a vacancy of general services assistant, which are the people who take care of cleaning the common area of ​​the hotel”, says Michelly, 34 years old.

“I received a resume and called the candidate. In the first contact I made, she didn’t answer the call. I insisted several times, until the last attempt — when I thought ‘if you don’t answer, I won’t try again’ —, she answered and said: ‘I’m sorry, Miss Michelly, I thought it was a charge’. There I already saw that he was a very humble person”, says the human resources analyst.

After a previous phone conversation, Michelly invited the worker to carry out a practical test at the hotel the next day.

“She said: ‘Oh, Miss Michelly, tomorrow I can’t. It’s because I’ve been unemployed for a long time, and I can’t afford the ticket to go to the interview. Yesterday I already borrowed money because my husband went for a job interview. So I don’t have anyone else to turn to'”, recalls the representative of the hotel located in Ipanema, an upscale neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro.

Michelly then gave a simple solution to the problem: she suggested making a Pix to the candidate, with the amount necessary for her to travel to the interview location. The worker even asked if she was a prankster, fearing that she was being a victim of a scam.

But the HR professional managed to convince her that the offer was legitimate. The next day, the worker took the practical test and was approved by the area manager.

“She was very, very happy. She started working with us and, in the first month that she received the salary advance, she came with the Pix value, wanting to pay me back, and with a chocolate in thanks. Of course, I said I didn’t need it, but I accepted the chocolate. She cried, hugged me and thanked me. We were both very emotional”, says Michelly.

Looking beyond the curriculum

According to the HR analyst, after this case, other similar cases have already taken place, especially in operational vacancies, usually occupied by lower-income workers, who usually live in distant neighborhoods or even in cities neighboring the state capital.

She tells, for example, of a professional over 50 years old who gave the company a hand-written resume. He was already discredited to re-enter the job market, but ended up being hired, standing out and showing great commitment.

Michelly says that the satisfaction with these success stories is immense.

“I don’t even know how to explain the feeling. It’s a feeling of mission accomplished. You see the person working and feel pleasure in what they do. It’s something that is priceless”, says the analyst.

“The HR professional is a mediator between employer and employee. But having empathy for the other is something that is very much part of the professional’s profile”, he opines, adding that this attitude is beneficial for the company, which ends up identifying talents that, otherwise, could be wasted.

“I know HR professionals who are just worried about closing the vacancy, they don’t care if the person can’t come. They don’t have the feeling to look at a resume and see that the person had difficulty putting together the document. Sometimes, the curriculum can have Portuguese errors, because the person has not had the opportunity to teach, but she works very well”, he says.

For Michelly, it is HR that “makes the company”.

“Humanized HR can make a difference, resulting in a nice organizational climate and engaged people working,” he says.

Raíssa, after being dismissed by the company without empathy, got another job. Now, she considers that the negative experience was actually a “release”.

“The place I’m in now was a job that I wanted very much, for a long time. So I’m very happy. The people are very nice and I’m doing something I really like”, he says.

“As for that other company, if before hiring, they already treat people that way, without having a minimum of flexibility in the face of a problem, probably the treatment with the employees there is for the worse. I’d really rather not be there.”

The general service worker Michelly hired is no longer at the hotel.

“She was so good working here with us, that she started an internal training to become cumim, which is the professional waiter. She liked it a lot and another hotel had a vacancy for cumim. She took the test, passed and went. It was very nice, I am very happy to see someone who was our apprentice prosper”, he celebrates.

This text was originally published here.