Dear Hiring Teams: Please Stop Ghosting Me
Ghosting (n.): the practice of suddenly ending all contact with a person without explanation.
I’m in the midst of my job search. I graduated last May and am still applying for full-time employment every day. Now that it’s been a year, I can confidently say that I have applied to at least 300 jobs.
Most of them have ghosted me.
I usually apply, and then sit back and wait. Of course, this was before I talked to a career counselor just last week and found out that I should contact them after a couple of weeks to check in. Sometimes I get a notification from Indeed that the job has been closed. Rarely do I get a response back about the position being filled, specifically from the employer themselves. Of the 300 jobs I’ve applied for, maybe 75 have given a response.
And when I do get the chance to interview? I don’t always get responses either. The company will email me to ask about a time I can hop on a call or video conference. I reply with my best times and then never get an answer, which means that job won’t be happening. When they do set up a time and we interview, half the time I don’t get anything back. I guess that job won’t be happening either.
My most recent one was a job where I had a phone interview, and then two video interviews. The video interviews happened on a Friday, and on the following Monday I emailed the hiring manager to thank him and ask about when I would hear back. He replied and said they were having a meeting the next day and would get back to me immediately.
That was almost three weeks ago.
When has it become acceptable for companies to ghost potential employees and job seekers? I understand, they “don’t have to” respond because they have “so many applicants.” But seriously.
I recently read something on Twitter that someone won’t hire a potential employee if they don’t send a thank you note immediately afterwards. I get it. Thank you notes can be very positive and show that you are still interested and grateful for the opportunity. But if you won’t hire someone who doesn’t send a thank you note, why are you then doing the same thing by not sending a quick email saying “thanks, but no thanks”?
Ghosting in the hiring world is ridiculous. It shouldn’t be acceptable to leave someone hanging when they may have been counting on that job after interviewing several times. They could have stopped their job search because you said you would update them soon. Not replying is, to be frank, childish. I’m sure you don’t personally like being ghosted when you’re trying to date or make friends. So why should you think it’s okay to do it with a job?
Communication is key. It’s not that hard to send an email to someone who you have interviewed with to tell them they weren’t the right candidate for the position. If we are expected to take time out of our day to send a thank you note, you can do the same with us. It’s respectful. It’s the right thing to do.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just wanting an answer. It’s simple, just tell me yes or no. Then I can move on with my job search and keep applying. But to lead someone on and never send anything back shouldn’t be an acceptable norm. Not anymore.
