I once submitted an application to a firm that specializes in computer security, and was granted a screening teleconference with a technical recruiter. I was told to expect an e-mail about progress of my consideration for the position on the following Tuesday, which e-mail never arrived. I sent the technical recruiter an e-mail to ask about progress, and got an excuse. Five days later, I got an e-mail from the recruiter which stated that the firm had “decided to move forward with other candidates at this time.”

Enh. It happens.

About a week later, the same technical recruiter forwarded me an e-mail chain from another applicant to the firm, including a PDF of the applicant’s writing samples.

I carefully did not open the PDF. The other applicant’s privacy had been breached enough. I wrote the other applicant and made that applicant aware of the breach. I wrote to the technical recruiter, and everyone at the hiring firm who had been copied on the chain, informing the firm of their mistake.

The other applicant replied immediately, asking me to delete the e-mail chain, which of course I did. And I confirmed to the other applicant that I had deleted it.

The technical recruiter telephoned me the same day to apologize for the inconvenience and also asked me to provide the firm with an undertaking that I had deleted the e-mail chain. It was nice to have the assurance that the firm hadn’t fired the technical recruiter over the incident. But I do confess to some surprise that they should react to their error by requiring an undertaking from me.

I was left wondering about the professionalism of the firm, but since they don’t have products for consumers, it seems unlikely I’ll ever need to worry about how professional they are.