Ghosting on steroids.
Posted by Mitch on 14th October 2021
Most of the time, companies (and agencies for that matter) get away with ghosting job applicants, but less so with job candidates.
I’ve made that distinction deliberately because a candidate and an applicant are two different things.
An applicant has responded to a job posting, whereas a candidate is someone who has been deemed to be a potential fit and has had at least an initial screening interview.
Most people who don’t hear back from a job application won’t remember (usually inside a month) who the guilty companies (or agencies) were.
But when someone has invested some time and emotion in having at least a conversation about a job and hear nothing back, they’re far more likely to remember.
Then it becomes personal. And that’s when it can damage the company’s reputation.
You know why; because people tell other people – especially if they work in a fairly tight niche or discipline.
But, believe it or not, it can get even worse than that.
A friend of mine works for a very large, well-known, multinational bank. A couple of months ago she was offered the chance to interview for another job. It would have been a promotion.
She went to the interview but, sadly didn’t get the job.
How did she find out?
Yep, you guessed it. Her own motherfucking employer couldn’t be bothered to let her know!! If that’s not a glowing example of institutionalised corporate arrogance, I don’t know what is.
And how did she react? “If this is what they think of me, I’m fucked if I want to work for them anymore”. My words, not hers.
To end on a positive note, she had an interview with a competitor on Tuesday and it went really well.