How to Prevent Recruiter Ghosting

Ghosting is a no-win strategy, whether you're hiring or hunting for a job. In my early days in recruiting, I learned that frequent, quick touchpoints were key to maintaining momentum in the recruitment or job search process. However, in my estimation, both recruiters and job seekers often overestimate the time it takes to give an update and underestimate the value of doing so. Imagine a recruiter sends a quick email or makes a brief call: "Just checking in to keep you updated. Our hiring manager is out this week, but you're still in the running. We'll reach back out soon!" This small effort can prevent a candidate from feeling forgotten. Similarly, job seekers should feel empowered to send concise messages to keep their candidacy top of mind: "Wanted to express my continued interest and availability. Looking forward to any updates when available." In both cases, these short communications help prevent misunderstandings and keep both parties actively engaged in the process. They also enhance your personal or company brand by demonstrating professionalism and thoughtfulness. Let’s end the culture of ghosting. Regular, brief communications respect everyone’s time and keep the hiring and job-seeking process moving forward.

Q. Hi Liz, I usually hear from a recruiter every few weeks. My job is OK but I’m always open to hear about better opportunities. I tell them, look, if you connect me with an employer who interviews me and then ghosts me, that’s it, I will not be able to work with you anymore. I can only work with recruiters who have a good enough relationship with their clients that I will get a yes or no answer after every interview. I talked to a recruiter yesterday who said my standard is not reasonable. She said, if I can’t get feedback from a client after an interview, it means they don’t want to hire you and you should just move on. I feel that my time and expertise are valuable and if a recruiter cannot get their client to share feedback after an interview, they are not the right recruiter for me. Do you agree? A. You are 100% right. The recruiter you spoke with is either new to the field or confused. They are setting their sights too low and requiring too little of their clients. No one will respect that recruiter, you, me, or anyone else until we stand up for ourselves. Sadly, I know too many recruiters who put up with heinous treatment from their clients because they are afraid to set a boundary. They will never grow their business or their careers that way. You know your value. That’s the most important thing. You cannot help that recruiter find her voice to ask the bare minimum from her clients – just a simple yes or no after an interview – but you can walk away from that situation and work with more confident, competent and professional search partners. Keep growing your flame!

👻 Why do recruiters ghost me? Recruiter perspective: 1️⃣ First, as a candidate, you can only be ghosted if you have a relationship. If this is your first message, and you get nothing in response, this is not ghosting. Don’t internalize. For sure, the reason you don’t get a reply could be you. (I don’t respond to thoughtless AI-templated outreach). But there could be other reasons (maybe your recruiter got hit by a bus). It is not always about you. But when it is about you, what can you do to show that you are a rare human? 2️⃣ Second, you are not being ghosted if you don’t follow up. It is your job to be top of the mind. Recruiters find people for jobs not jobs for people. Your career is nobody’s priority. Stay in touch if you are interested in the opportunity. 3️⃣ Third. When I was a candidate I thought that poor recruiters are so busy, overwhelmed, overworked, stretched thin. Now that I am on this side of the table I know: Poor communication = amateur recruiter Candidate Experience is LITERALLY THE JOB. And great candidate experience is simple: swift, transparent, honest communication. With my candidates I level set from the start: - I don’t care if you join or not. I will close the job regardless. This is not about me, this is about you. What are your dreams and aspirations? I will show you the door to alternative reality and give you maximum information to make this decision. But it is your life. My job is to give you options. - I play long terms games with long term people. My job is making new friends. Even if this opportunity doesn’t work out my intention is only to play long-term games. - If this is a No, you will get an email from me within a week. (It can get longer depending on what is happening within the business). - If you don’t hear from me, all my channels are open to you. Email/LinkedIn/SMS/WhatsApp - you can text me ANYTIME. - If it doesn’t work out but you present yourself as top talent (integrity, intelligence, energy), my network is your network. I am happy to facilitate introductions. The game is only obscure when you don’t understand its mechanics. Master the rules and you can hack it. #candidates #ghosting #dailymeditation

Getting ghosted sucks. Following up can help mean the difference between getting a job and never hearing back… Here’s a real example: • I met with a former job seeker yesterday who landed an amazing job. • He met with the recruiter for an initial interview. • 4 weeks later, he hadn’t heard anything back. • In the past, he would have thought he didn’t get selected because he didn’t hear back. • This time, he followed up with both the recruiter and the hiring manager, reiterating his interest in the position. • They gave him an interview, and eventually, he got the job. 👏 Now, there’s a lot more to this story, but the moral is that he never would have gotten the next interview if he didn’t follow up with them. I hear examples like this often, where following up helps push a job seeker forward in an interview process. Recruiters/Managers want to respond to you, but they’re busy and sometimes need a nudge. You won’t always hear back, but it takes little effort to send a quick follow-up message and it could end up paying off big time by ending your job search. It also shows your taking the initiative and showing interest in the position. So, if you interviewed for a job. If you were reached out to by a recruiter. If you talked to someone on the hiring team. And it's now been about 4 days or more since you heard anything? It's time to check-in. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗲: __________ 𝘏𝘪 [𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘏𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳], 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬! 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 [𝘑𝘰𝘣 𝘛𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦] 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. [𝘉𝘖𝘕𝘜𝘚: 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺/𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵/𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦] 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘧𝘶𝘭, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸! 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦, 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘵, [𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦] ___________ Unfortunately, ghosting is way too common in job searching. But I believe everyone deserves a response. You might be worried that you’re pestering them - but you’re not. They will appreciate the nudge if the message is polite and professional. So, if you’re still waiting to hear back - send that follow-up!  🙏

I have seen an absurd amount of people posting about being ghosted by companies and recruiters recently.. 👻 Even though I’ve been in TA for a little while, I’m not exactly sure what this stems from. Possibly, pressure from hiring managers or leaders to place a person on hold or keep them warm. Alternatively, the TA person might prefer to avoid having a difficult conversation. Here are a few tips that I hope will help limit this trend.. 1. The No Update-Update - These are my favorite, and you may already be familiar with them. Example: While I know it’s been a couple days - I do not have an update on my end and as soon as I know more, I promise to let you know immediately. 2. Be Transparent - Why is this taking so long? What’s going on behind the scenes? You’ll be surprised how reasonable people are when you’re real with them. (I’m not recommending disclosing confidential material) 3. Have the Tough Conversations- As recruiters you’ll sometimes have to let people know that their offer has been rescinded (rare cases) or they did not make it to final interviews or they did not receive an offer. These are not the easiest conversations for recruiters, but they need to happen and it’s your job to facilitate them.. For instance, I had to have a tough conversation recently - I prepared for it, but I was still anxious going into it.. After some back-and-forth and meeting a couple of times we were able to reach a compromise and funny enough, this person turned out to be one of the most interesting and intriguing people I’ve met in my career and we still keep in touch, regularly. 4. Push Back - If you feel that you’re being asked, or told to hold off contacting someone for an unreasonable amount of time - push back, respectfully. You need to consider your employers brand, your SLA’s, and the mere fact that these people are human and it’s not the right thing to do. Let’s save the ghosts for Halloween!

“Why do recruiters ghost?”     Good recruiters try to keep you in the loop, but let's be real, even the best ones fall short sometimes. And it’s usually because of one thing: Time. This is the one resource that all recruiters are short on.   I’m thankful to work for a company that truly values candidate experience, and we work very hard to make sure that candidates are communicated with through every step of the process. In particular, I always connect with candidates who were in final interviews but didn't get the job, and will try to personally reach out if they've made it to a second round interview.   But, I also have approximately 30 jobs at any point in time, each of which brings in anywhere from 15-80 applicants. I screen probably 30 candidates a week. Each screening call takes about 20 minutes, so that's 10 hours. I also have 3-4 new job intake calls, each about 45 minutes, so that's 3 hours give or take. Weekly update calls with as many of my hiring managers as possible is 5 hours, reviewing resumes - 5 hours a week. Sending notes and candidate summaries to hiring managers, 5 hours. Then there's actually managing the candidates in play, working with HR on offers, making follow up calls, arranging interviews, that's probably 15 hours a week. Active sourcing for roles that are hard to fill - 3 hours. That's 46 hours a week already, and that's not counting all the one-off situations that come up.   For me, if I know on the screening call that a candidate is not right for the job, I'll tell them right then and there. But if I send the resume to the hiring team and they pass, or they say no after a first round, the likelihood of the recruiter calling a candidate to let them know they didn't get the job is low because we just can't. I'm not exaggerating when I say we are BUSY.   That said, if you reach out to check in, we’ll definitely respond. If you are consistent in checking in, a good recruiter will take 30 seconds to let you know where things are in the process. But with so much on our plates, staying on top of follow-ups for every candidate is almost impossible.   My advice: If you want to know the status of your candidacy, email us. text us. call us. Ask for updates, and we will give them. It's the best way to make sure you don't fall off our radar.   Trust me - Recruiters don't ghost on purpose!   #recruitertips #ghosting

I have a 96% resume-submission-to-interview rate as a sales recruiter. It’s one of the stats I’m most proud of as a sales recruiter and trainer. If you’re a recruiting firm it’s the stat clients judge you the most for. That’s why this stat should be a huge focus in your training delivery. Gone are the days of a spray and pray methodology in recruitment. ❌ It upsets customers ❌ It wastes the time of candidates ❌ It minimizes repeat business So how do you as a recruiter achieve it too? Discovery in every step of the recruitment process and becoming a specialist in your market. This is how you do it: 1️⃣ Curiosity: Ditch the questionnaires. Throw them out. Treat every conversation with candidates and clients with curiosity. Be interested in their background, dive into goals with thought provoking questions. 2️⃣ Clarity: as a junior recruiter, there were many times when I was confused in client meetings. I didn’t ask for clarity because I was scared of looking unqualified. If you don’t know, ask. 3️⃣ Value: recruitment is polarizing. Many people think we’re over paid with zero value add. Just a transactional resource. Be an educator to the people you speak to. Bring back the Consultant back to Recruitment Consultant. 4️⃣ Comparison: when picking up jobs, come to the table with a competitor analysis, with examples of other roles similar in the market, at different companies and ask them if and how they differ. 5️⃣ Specialism: Stop working with everyone. Only work within your ICP. Only go after the roles and companies that will benefit from having your knowledge. Specialism comes with time. 6️⃣ Education: The more you become a specialist, the more clients will come to you for education. The more you educate, the more they’ll trust and the more they’ll interview your candidates because they trust your process. 7️⃣ Respect: treat all your candidates with Hollywood-style representation. Don’t ghost them, keep them constantly informed and don’t manipulate them. Somewhere along the way, people lost trust in recruiters. Be the difference maker. By doing the above, your suppliers and candidates will see more value in keeping the relationship with you and you’ll inevitably establish more exclusive relationships. It all starts with discovery. Discovery is a heavily practiced skill across all sales markets and not utilized enough in staffing. The more you practice discovery, the more of a specialist you’ll become, the more candidates will interview and the more repeat business you’ll get. #salestraining #salesrecruiting #techrecruitment 🦘

In the last few weeks, I interviewed potential candidates to join my team. This was an interesting experience, and I have a few takeaways to share 💡 Candidates: Do your research 👀 Check out the interviewer's LinkedIn profile, research the company and who works there. Read some content from the company. It can come across very clearly when you skip this, and the interview feels like a waste of time ⏳ Be concise and focused 🚨 Too often, nerves get the best of us, and suddenly, you end up sharing pointless stories in the short period you have to showcase who you are and why you are the right person for the job. Follow-up 🗣️ Don’t send a basic thank you note. They don’t show anything you picked up in the interview process that can tell the interviewer if you were truly interested in the conversation. Take notes during your interview and share some of those in your thank you note. Ask follow-up questions to your conversation as if to continue the conversation. If done right, you may land yourself into the next stage. Interviewers: Read the damn resume 👓 Respect your interviewee and know who is in front of you. Please spend a few minutes understanding their background and be targeted in your questions. Ease the other person 😓 Start the conversation with small talk, share the interview framework, and explain what to expect. All of this can help the other person feel more comfortable, allowing the conversation to follow better and maximizing the interview's outcome. Close the loop ➰ Either you or someone from the hiring team should get back to the candidate about feedback and possible next steps. Never ghost a candidate. Be respectful to others, just as you would want to be respected. For those on the job market, stay positive and keep going. If you'd like to connect and do a mock interview, feel free to ping me.  For those new to interviewing and wanting some coaching, feel free to ping me. #interviewingtips #respect #hiring

From the Coach's Desk Stepping out of your comfort zone in Networking and Job Search In my roughly 14 years now of Executive Coaching one theme that has often arisen in my work with candidates is somewhat of a reluctance to reach out in networking (and in replying to potential employers and recruiters). This is totally understandable as it forces one to step out of their comfort zone and reach out where there may be an element of being ignored and feeling a little vulnerable and unhappy about it. Networking: In terms of networking, one particular area arises where candidates say "I haven't reached out to this person for 'x' number of years and don't know if they will remember me, want to help, feel it strange," etc. I totally understand the candidate's discomfort, align with their feelings but then suggest how it can be incredibly worthwhile to re-establish the relationship and I typically suggest some potential language to overcome the time gap. I usually suggest tackling the issue head on, something along the lines of "Hello 'y". Hope you are well. It has been a long time, I trust and hope that all is well with you (your family)... As you may or may not know," -- and then fill in an update for them, and then move on to the desire to reconnect, set up a time to talk, etc. By simply dealing with it head on -- and in a friendly way -- more times than not, the other person is usually quite pleased to hear from the candidate and the relationship gets re-established. Job Search Another area, as noted above is if, say, a recruiter has been very positive, and/or an interview as well, and then there is a deafening silence. Some candidates seem to immediately assume the worst. I often hear in that scenario "well, I guess that that one didn't work out/they don't seem to be interested," etc. I always caution my candidates to, first off, not assume the worst. The amount of delays these days is an ever increasing number. Also, even if one is ghosted for awhile, it does not mean that one is now suddenly out of the running. Of course, it can mean that -- but it doesn't have to. Again, I recommend to my candidates remaining diligent, continuing to follow up, until such time as it has been definitively determined that one is actually no longer in the running. Stepping out of one's comfort zone here is so important -- and often leads to surprisingly good results. :) What are your experiences in these areas? #executivecoaching #leadership #comfortzone #recruiters #networking #contacts