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Comment by imglorp | Hacker News Reader

Speaking of dubious recruiting practices, can anyone explain why applicants frequently get ghosted? I mean some companies give zero reply after the workflow system acks receipt of an application.

I feel this reflects poorly--in public--on a company's culture. The glossy "work here" page means nothing if there's no follow through in practice. A human may have spent days researching your company and preparing a cover letter, and you can't even click the "no" button?

The workflow system, at the very least, should provide state feedback: received, in review, no, or "let's talk".

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After I had worked as a software engineer for about 5-6 years, struggling with impostor syndrome during portions of that time, I decided to apply for a job at Google mostly just to see what would happen. Guess what happened? They ghosted me. Nothing. No 'thanks, but no'. Just nothing.

I remember that it I felt embarassed and was frankly a bit ashamed that I hadn't received a reply. It took a while before I realized that I had in fact gotten ghosted as well. I waited for a reply from them for weeks. My self esteem took a definite hit from that. This was about 5 years ago now, so I've since gotten over it - but it changed my perception of Google as an employer from a place I'd be lucky to work at, to a place that I would have a really hard time applying for a job at again.

It's tough. You can't take it personally. Most likely if you have a good buzzword list you're worth a conversation at least.

Another data point: 30 years exp, I just finished a job search for remote s/w. Total time to sign was about 5 weeks.

* 10 cold applications, all with good fits and detailed covers and research: 1 cold no; 1 few interviews then a no; 8 ghosts after bot ack

* 1 internal referral: got to final talks

* A few external recruiter engagements: two final talks; accepted one of these; and a few ghosts

External recruiters can be a pain but they have one superpower: the ear of their client.

Yeah, no, I know. Google is a big company and my application probably got lost, overlooked or buried in a sea of applications. Still, I think it reflects poorly on a potential employer to ghost candidates.

I think they dodged a bullet since you took it so personal.

No, I know it wasn’t anything personal. Google is a big company and my application probably got lost in a sea of applications. Still, I think it reflects poorly on a potential employer to ghost candidates.

I personally would respond to an email. Or, rather, ask the recruiter to send an email to the person I rejected to even meet.

The common answer to this question is, it would take way too long to answer these thousands of candidates that are applying to your position. Obviously, that's nonsense unless you're Google or Facebook.

At huge companies, I suspect CVs just get lost in the system somewhere when they don't have the correct keywords for automated parsing. In that case, you'll hear no response because no human has seen the CV.

At smaller companies, I honestly don't think that a response of "we decided not to go further with the CV, but thank you for applying, and please, feel free to apply to any other positions for different consideration" would be too much to ask.

Small companies can get thousands of applications, no need to be Google. There was a time when you could see how many people applied to a listing on monster and linkedin, the numbers were pure madness.

As a manager, you probably only see applicants that were filtered by HR and applied for your team or department specifically, while HR has to view all the applicants across the entire company, that's a whole order of magnitude more.

Which is fine, but here's what I think should happen:

You apply to Position P. Recruiter hires someone for P and closes the req. At that point, the bot should send everyone in the wait bucket for P a mail saying "thanks P has been filled, feel free to apply to similar roles R and S".

It would take zero extra recruiter time.

Recruiters and employers who disappear are burning bridges. Next time they have a position to fill, are you going to apply or to dismiss them as a waste of effort?

> The common answer to this question is, it would take way too long to answer these thousands of candidates that are applying to your position

This can be automated, and several companies already do this.

I think you don't properly appreciate how many job applications somebody can get, and just what a large percentage of those are just spam disguised as applications -- "let me recruit for you", "hire me on contract", "I'm in <country>, sponsor me", "fire your team and hire my offshore consulting firm", ...

Exactly, on the other hand to be certain it's possible to write again or directly call. Sometimes it will be a clear rejection, other times it becomes an invitation to the next step in the process. At least that's my experience, but motivation and thinking this is a good fit is necessary though

Yeah, I try to be good to even the cold applications. But, definitely if I've proceeded to even a phone screen, I'll personally followup with a rejection.

I've been ghosted by a major company after several rounds of interviews. Get fucked, my dudes.

> Speaking of dubious recruiting practices, can anyone explain why applicants frequently get ghosted? I mean some companies give zero reply after the workflow system acks receipt of an application.

I've noticed more companies following up with their rejections this year than I did a few years ago. Those that go out of their way to reply get a thank you from me no matter what the outcome is.

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