Maybe there's a reason...

Yesterday I talked a bit about the benefits of following up after submitting a resume by having a face-face or a phone conversation with someone in the office.  However, there was a time when I was a bit overzealous and I think my plan for a face-to-face backfired.

I had seen a job posting on Craigslist for a receptionist at a local law firm.  The posting gave a fax number to send cover letter and resumes.  There was also a note on the bottom of the ad that said, "No phone calls please."  I had an idea that if I looked up the fax phone number on Google I would be able to get the name of the firm.  I found the name and address of the law firm and it happened to be right up the street from where I volunteered at the legal clinic.  I thought to myself, "Well it says no phone calls but it doesn't say anything about stopping into the office in person."  I thought I was being all clever and resourceful.  So one day after I finished volunteering at the legal clinic I went over to the law firm.  I walked over to the reception area and the girl at the reception desk asked if she could help me.  I thought of just asking if I could speak with the attorney but then I figured the receptionist would just ask me what I wanted to speak to the attorney about anyway.  So I thought I would skip that step in the middle by telling her why I was there.  I gave her my name and told her that I had submitted my resume in response to a posting for a receptionist position (of course I have to say I felt incredibly awkward talking to the receptionist about the receptionist job).  She was really snotty about it (which made me think there might be some hard feelings about the fact that I was there asking about her job).  She just said that the attorney was reviewing all of the resumes.  I didn't want it to be a wasted trip so I asked if there was any way to see if the attorney had received my fax.  She said, "I have no idea if she got your resume and she's on the phone right now so I can't ask her.  I didn't want to keep pushing it.  I didn't know if the current receptionist was leaving on bad terms or what the situation was so I decided just to thank her and I left.  As I was leaving the office and going down the walk the office door slammed behind me.  I turned around and saw the receptionist I had just been talking to storming out of the office.  I watched her get into her car and tires screeching (literally) she raced out of the parking lot.

As I walked back to my car and watching her burn rubber, screeching tires down the street, I hoped I didn't cause any office drama, I thought to myself, "Sometimes, maybe there's a reason they say no phone calls please."