Why do employers ghost an applicant?

Question

I have seen this happen multiple times. You can’t have the courage to let me know your decision?

BCA6010 · Accepted Answer

Speaking anecdotally, this never actually happened when I was in charge of hiring, because applicants didn't even get offered an interview if their application didn't already check the boxes we were concerned with at the time. The order in which we offered interviews was mostly based on the order in which they were received, or their availability matching what we needed. If the interview went well, they got the job offer at the end. Being in a right to work state, if things didn't work out, we could always let them go as needed, anyway. In that case, we didn't actually have to give a reason, but there are zero instances I can think of in which the reason would've been a mystery.

Another scenario which I've witnessed but wasn't directly involved in are companies that outsource their hiring, who will often do over the phone or zoom call interviews themselves. You may think this one goes well and that hiring agent promises to send your information to the company for approval, but that doesn't obligate that company to actually hire you, and often times because they've never been in direct contact with you themselves, they don't feel obligated to let you know that the position has been filled. I think this happens a lot more in the age of online hiring apps where algorithms and bots are eliminating large chunks of applicants without any employer interaction at all.

Personally, I've received what seems to be a mass or automated email whenever a position gets filled without me roughly half the time.

Friendlybro79 · Accepted Answer

They do this because they're unprofessional.

sheikalana · Accepted Answer

Sometimes they just want to keep you as an option for when they have another job vacancy. To be fair is not mandatory to give feedback on how the interview went but if you have any questions you can always send an email to HR enquiring the status of your application. Some companies will send you a regret email but a lot of them won't.

Account · Accepted Answer

There is no excuse for not giving an appropriate response and for stringing along the applicant even if they receive hundreds of applications daily, but unfortunately that is how the world is nowadays.
I would reach out to them in order to ask.

ArrowheadSW · Answer

I can't speak for all circumstances, but a lot of companies don't want hiring managers to tell an applicant why he/she wasn't hired. It has to do with applicants coming back and complaining about the reason why they weren't hired, even if it is a legit reason. So therefore, they contact applicants as little as possible, unless they are going to hire them.

D_Bone_Steak · Answer

Just say you're a trans black trans woman and post a picture of you being alpha and white as fuck. They either are going to recognize you get it and are the fucking bomb or they legitimately just want a gay black woman to meet diversity hire quotas.

RebelinSteel · Answer

It greatly depends where in the interview cycle you get ‘ghosted’

if it’s the initial one of sending off an application.

there may have been 10k applications for each of the 10 jobs being offered.

i very much doubt anyone would be told as it would take too long and cost too much money

If it’s the last few stages, then yes they need to inform you, same as you inform them if you get a different job you applied for.

KostasKouvalis · Answer

They get hundreds of applications and resumes and they don't even look through the majority of them, unless there's something that really pops out at them. So that's understandable. But what annoys me is when they do the interview or send you a follow up message then don't get back to you.

The simple answer is, they don't care about you

LordMadara · Answer

if employers were all German but sadly  most employers are jewish 🤷🏽‍♂️ that is the equavalent of arrogance  shredding machine was a jewish invention , off you go CV 👀

purplepoppy · Answer

They might have hundreds of applicants and won't necessarily look at ever application. Once they've found enough to interview the rest just get binned.

genericname85 · Answer

because that's economically speaking the most logical thing to do. why pay someone to contact an applicant just to tell them they won't be hired and give them a reason to sue? fuck that. just ghost them.

Levin · Answer

I think that happened to me once. In the end, I thought I was kind of relieved. You don't need to work at a company like that or even pay it any more heed.

exitseven · Answer

They should at least reply to the applicants that they have come in to interview for the position. A lot ifcplaces won't even do that. It shows bad manners.

OfMiceandMen · Answer

I would think it depends on whether they saw or heard something that turned them off the applicant.

BCRanger10 · Answer

I'd gotten plenty of "thanks, but no thanks" emails.  Even so, they don't have an obligation to do so.

bobby_bush_eater · Answer

Many times the job doesn't actually exist. They're anticipating openings and want to get a pool of candidates just in case. There's many videos on how and why they do this.

It really fucks up job statistics tho

KrakenAttackin · Answer

HR is just looking to justify their existence at your expense. HR doesn't care who's time they waste, so they interview knowing who they are going to hire or knowing no one will be hired. HR is filled with the most incompetent idiots.

Anonymous · Answer

Traditionally they cannot be bothered or don't have the resource to reach out to a vast number of unsuccessful applicants.

Anonymous · Answer

Too many applicants to make calling them all practical.

spartan55 · Answer

It's a cruel world dude. They owe you nothing.

In_Trance · Answer

Because they're not interested

Why do employers ghost an applicant?

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