Ghosted by a recruiter? What to do when you are…
You’re excited about a job opportunity. You apply with enthusiasm and you’re just buzzing with excitement. Woo! However, this enthusiasm slowly starts to wane when you don’t hear back. It’s been days, weeks, months and not a word…Why is this happening to you? What do you do?
Being ghosted by a recruiter is a sticky subject, but we had to write about it. We are hearing more and more from our clients that they have been applying to positions and have not been hearing back from HR or the recruitment team. There is no acknowledgement or receipt of their applications/resumes or any signs of an update. Not only have they not heard back about an application, but they go on interviews and they don’t get an update or feedback.
There are a few issues here. The biggest one is that not hearing back leaves you in “job search limbo” where you really don’t know if you’re the successful candidate or not. Additionally, this silence can make you feel as though the person on the other end of the screen (assuming this was all done virtually) who saw your profile or who interviewed you, don’t value your time; they don’t care. You feel slighted or disrespected. As a result, you start feeling unmotivated and this can negatively affect your job search.
No one likes being ghosted, especially by a recruiter. It’s also a tough pill to swallow knowing that you put so much work into an application only to have it fall into an ether, a “recruitment abyss.” However, there are reasons why this can potentially happen.
As a huge disclaimer here: the response you will see below is in no way supporting recruiters who don’t reply and provide job candidates with an application update. We are addressing this issue as it’s become very common lately and we hope that by sharing our views we can provide some insight as to why there may be delays with your feedback and most importantly how to handle this.
Scenario One: Submitting an application online to a job posting and not hearing back
Most companies send you an automated response when you apply to a job posting acknowledging that your application was received. With this recognition, they add a disclaimer:
“…thank you for your application. However, due to the large volume of applicants who applied to this position, only successful candidates will be contacted.”
Here, the reason is very clear as to why you may not hear back. Your profile didn’t meet the requirements of the job and you were not a successful candidate. There is no other communication that is needed or should be expected from the company as the expectations around communication/next steps are set from the start of the application. Understandably, this doesn’t seem right; but if you think about the 100s of applications a recruiter or AI need to review for one position alone, it’s not possible or in some ways reasonable to reply to each individual applicant again to let them know they weren’t selected.
If there is no automated message and you don’t hear back, this is still not necessarily an issue and as a candidate you should try to not take this personally. In an ideal world (around 7-10 years ago) when the job market was not as saturated, recruiters had more to communicate. You would almost always hear back. Things have changed now.
What to do?
First rule of thumb to remember is that as a job candidate you should never put all of your eggs in one basket i.e. you should be applying for multiple opportunities and if you don’t hear back from one opportunity this shouldn’t make or break your job search. You have to keep pushing forward and carry on. While you do this, you can still wait to hear back. You should have the mindset that you will be okay no matter one. There are many other jobs out there.
You can send a follow up email to the hiring manager or recruiter if you have their contact information. A gentle nudge reminding them that you submitted your application and that you are still available and interested in the opportunity. Again here, you wait and hopefully you get a response. If you don’t, you move on.
Scenario Two: Attending an interview and getting feedback or follow up
We try to remain as neutral as possible, but we do have some thoughts on this one. We believe that you should always hear back from a recruiter (at some point) especially after you complete an interview. Here, you’ve not only put work into creating your application, but you’ve put into the time and effort to prepare for the interview and to also meet team members. You are now invested. Even if you are unsuccessful, you should hear back, period.
Here’s you can try and get ahead of this. At the end of your interview, you should ask about timelines. For example, you can ask questions like these:
When are you hoping to have this position filled?
What is your timeline for getting back with feedback?
When I can expect to hear from you with next steps?
If I have not heard from you by this time next week, do you mind me reaching out to you or the recruiter?
By asking these questions, you show that your are interested and you also set expectations and place a level of accountability on the recruiter to keep the lines of communication open. If you don’t hear back by the specific time that you are supposed to, follow up with an email. Affirm your interest. Keep the email light and say you are just doing a “check in” because you are still interested. Give this some time. If 3-4 weeks go by, I would say that it’s time to move on.
There’s no excuse for being ghosted by a recruiter, but it happens. Instead on focusing on the why you’re not hearing back try and remain positive. Be proactive and continue to apply to multiple positions. There could be several things that affect the delay in response. For example, the job could no longer be available, the recruiter could have fallen behind, there could be no updates from the hiring managers, you were not a fit for the role etc. Whatever the reason, you may never know. Once you’ve tried your best to reach out and still have not gotten a response, you know it’s time to let go/move on. Ask yourself, if this would be a company that you would want to work for? Perhaps, this wasn’t the right fit for you to begin with.
