This blog is based on How to Handle Getting Ghosted During Your Job Search by Sara McCord from The Muse
There is a common experience among job applicants who leave an interview feeling like you nailed it, only for the employer to never reach back out to you, with your emails remaining unanswered.
How do you handle getting ghosted by an employer and why does this happen to you?
Why do recruiters ghost?
More than half of job seekers report being ghosted by an employer at some point during their search. There are a few reasons why recruiters might be ghosting
- Competitive market. Recruiters could potentially be talking to dozens of applicants, with hundreds of applications waiting to be reviewed. Artificial Intelligence has made mass applying to job easy, which makes the recruiters job harder.
- Internal hire. It is not uncommon for a company to decide to hire someone already working there for the position you applied for.
- Financial downturn. The company could have hit a financial downturn and put a freeze on hiring.
- The fear factor. Recruiters could be afraid of being accused of discrimination and would rather say nothing at all.
- No feedback policy. The company may not give feedback to any applicants due to an internal policy.
- Understaffed. The hiring team may be understaffed and have difficulty finding the time to provide feedback.
How to handle being ghosted
- Handle it with grace. Don’t send off any rude emails. Think about the upsides. Maybe the company wasn’t the best fit for you in their work culture or industry. Although it can be frustrating to be ghosted after spending potentially hours of your time into the application process, keep those thoughts to yourself. The hiring manager doesn’t need to see an “I’m better off without you” email.
- Evaluate yourself. In most cases, getting ghosted by a recruiter is not your fault. But if this is a consistent experience for you, think about why this might be happening. Are you prepared for your interviews? Are you asking the right questions? Are you following up after the interview? Maybe your resume was outdated and not fitting of the position. Take this into consideration and work on it before submitting your next application.
- Don’t let it affect your other applications. Learn from the experience. When the recruiter says they’ll be in touch, try to get a more specific timeline. If they say they’ll be in touch by next Friday and you haven’t heard back after that, you can send a follow up email.
- Remember: Some things are out of your control. You can’t control how you are perceived, even if you feel like you did everything right. There are more factors than just your interview that get taken into account: your skills, qualifications, experience, and other subjective qualities are all looked at and taken into consideration.
Bounce back after getting ghosted
Don’t let the experience bring you down too much. You applied to this job because you want to get hired. Keep applying and working on your skills. Staying positive might be hard, but it will help keep you going in a long job search.