Have you ever had an experience where you completed the written exam, aced the initial interview, and found yourself waiting for the final interview date, only for the employer to suddenly go radio silent? Even after sending emails to follow up and to let them know you’re still interested, there was no reply, not even a peep. The good news is that you’re not the only one who experienced this. The bad news is you’re not the only one who experienced this since this seems to be the norm now.
A report from job site Indeed, which did a poll in Spring 2023, reveals that 40% of applicants have been ghosted after a round of interviews—10% higher than 30% in 2022. The same report shows that 78% of applicants ghosted a prospective employer, up 10% from the previous year.
The issue of ghosting in the job market apparently is a two-way street.
Why Employers Ghost Candidates
There are several reasons why employers ghost candidates, but knowing about these reasons doesn’t make the experience less frustrating.
- High volume of applications: This is understandable and even I don’t expect to receive feedback for every job application I send. But what irks me is when I have completed written exams, passed a couple of interviews, and then... nothing. By that stage, the pool of candidates is usually much smaller, so it shouldn’t take much time to send out a rejection letter.
- Changes in hiring priorities: There might suddenly be no need for the role. In that case, a simple generic email to inform candidates would be easy enough instead of ghosting the candidates who took the time to apply.
- Internal hires: The employer might decide to hire internally. Again, sending a quick general email to inform applicants would save everyone time.
- The roles have been filled by another candidate: The employer might be busy training the new hire, but a brief update would help the other applicants move on.
- Third-party recruiter: The employer might have hired a recruiter to do the hiring process and it might not be within the recruiter's responsibilities to let other applicants know the role has been filled.
Why Candidates Ghost Employers
Candidates ghost prospective employers, too. Reasons might include:
- Better offer elsewhere: The candidate might have received a better offer from another company and forgot to inform the first employer.
- Lack of interest: The applicant might have lost interest but is embarrassed or uncomfortable to withdraw their application and ended up ghosting the employer instead.
- Poor or sporadic communication from the employer: The employer might not have been updating the candidate and the applicant assumed the employer was no longer interested.
- Negative impression during the interview: Employers need to understand that during interviews, it's not just them who’s gauging or evaluating the candidate, the applicant is also assessing the company for any unprofessional behavior and red flags about the company’s culture.
- Salary or benefits discrepancy: The job posting might state the salary is higher than what’s actually being offered to draw candidates in. The candidate might ghost the employer once the real figures are revealed during the interview.
Whatever Happened to Professionalism and Work Ethics?
The sad reality is ghosting doesn’t just happen with potential employee-employer relationships. Freelancers face it too, even after submitting proposals and completing the work! All those days of slaving away to meet the client’s requirements and after, poof!
Whatever happened to professionalism? Is it too much to ask for a simple email to let candidates know they’ve been passed over for another candidate? Or to inform freelancers that their payment is on the way? It wouldn’t hurt to send an email that says, “You should look for another client, so you won’t be homeless by the end of the month.” Similarly, candidates should also inform the employer to hire the next best candidate instead since they received a better offer elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
No one likes getting a rejection letter, but it’s far better than to be left hanging. It will not cost us anything to empathize or to put ourselves in the other party’s shoes. We wouldn’t want to be ghosted or left on read, so let’s not do the same to others.
