Please help the job hunters.

Many education reporters who are hunting for jobs come to me for counsel. Would this be a good fit for me? Do you know what kind of person they want to hire? Would you take a look at my resume? Of course, given the numbers, most of them do not get the job they apply for. What they also do not get, from at least six different employers in the last month:

—An e-mail saying their materials were received.
—A phone call (or even a form e-mail!), once they have gone through interviews, telling them they did not get the job.
—Any feedback that might help them as they move on with their search.

I cannot imagine a good excuse for the first two. And it might be unrealistic to hope for that last part. But why not? Are you so busy that you can’t tell the few people you interviewed, “We hired someone with more daily reporting experience.” “We were concerned you did not have any multimedia background.” Whatever. Those of you out there who hire people: Could you explain why you don’t do that, and why sometimes you don’t contact job applicants at all?

This is obviously not specific to the education journalism field. My little brother, who is awesome and whom you should hire if you have any work in music management, deals with the same stuff all the time in Los Angeles. People are hurting! Show job seekers some love!