In my Vegas post, I mentioned that sometimes the small things matter, and that those can increase your applicant pool, which (while it can increase the time required to filter through it) should increase the quality of your final selection.

As if to prove my point, I read the following on TO Polk’s blog (he’s a 25-year-old from South Carolina):

It’s been fairly quiet on the job search front. As a result, I’ve deviated from my original plan of working for a gaming publisher. The way this economy is, I’m fairly open to anything right now. At the moment, my only qualification for a accepting job is that it’s not somewhere crummy. Basically I don’t want to live in the Great Plains. Unfortunately, I haven’t even gotten far enough to where I can be picky regarding where I want to live. Most of my job searches have resulted in me just not hearing back from anyone. On the bright side, I know it’s not just me. I’ve heard from other people, recent graduates, recent “downsizees,” and those just looking for a new job, that they’re not hearing back from companies either. Talk about picking a good time to re-enter the workforce. Had I known this, I would have hung out in school for an extra semester — original plans be damned.

Two things I think employers should notice about this:

1. “Most of my job searches have resulted in me just not hearing back from anyone.” That’s a terrible feeling. And a quick call back or e-mail to tell applicants that they should keep looking can make that difference. TO says, “I know it’s not just me. I’ve heard from other people… that they’re not hearing back from companies either.” In other words: every single one of those contacts he made was an opportunity for a company to build its image as an employer, even if it’s from someone who wasn’t hired there. From the sounds of it, every single one was missed.

2. “The way the economy is, I’m fairly open to anything right now.” This could be a mixed blessing. You can get them in the door now, but once the economy is bullish again, will they stay? TO said he planned to work for a gaming publisher. If, for instance, you aren’t a gaming publisher, you hire TO, and you don’t want to deal with higher turnover costs once we hit the end of this cycle, you’ve got to be thinking about how to keep your him now. Doubtless the current downturn will change Generation Y, but does anyone think it will affect a complete change in our attitudes? Don’t count on it.