dealing with multiple applicants? We usually interview every applicant in our queue before extending a formal invitation. It has seemed like common courtesy to us to at least interview applicants that look like they’d be a good fit but maybe not. It is definitely a painful process because we always seem to end up with multiple excellent applicants and have to turn down all but one.
So far, our process is to quickly send a reply to every applicant either declining (with explanation) or asking to set up a video call. That typically narrows the field down to 3 or 4 interviews. During the video calls, we explain that we have X applications we’re sorting through but expect to make a decision with a few days. Once we’ve made our selection (so far, always within a week), we send a thank you note to the unselected applicants notifying them that we’re extending an invitation to someone else but that they may or may not accept the invitation. So we’d like to keep communications open in the event the invitation is declined or future dates come up. After sending those thank you notes, we send the invitation to the sitter we’ve selected. So far, all of our invitations (except the very first) were accepted.
So far, this process has worked well for us except that it has felt uncomfortably awkward. We only went this circuitous route because the THS invitation/acceptance mechanics aren’t obvious until you’ve gained some experience and, even then, seem rather blunt and discourteous to us. But maybe blunt is preferred by sitters and we’re just wasting applicants’ time and patience? Is there a better or preferred way to handle the selection process?
. I probably an oddity in regard to this but I wouldn’t even be able to sleep it’s stresses me out so much. 