In this age of technology and communication getting ghosted after applying for a job must be one of the most painful things to experience, even sometimes more painful than being ghosted by your significant other.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons your recruiter hasn’t gotten back to you. Some of them are simple yet unexpected.
1) You didn’t apply. Sometimes as a candidate you see a job and get over excited reading the job description and daydreaming about how you would be amazing at this job. So you send the recruiter an email expressing your interest and then forgetting to actually fill in the application. Months later you are still waiting for a call or feedback that never comes because you didn’t read the instructions to see what is required to submit an application.
2) Unforgivable mistakes. Applications usually require you to put in a lot of thought as this is the first step in getting noticed by the recruiter. Hence mistakes such as poor grammar, spelling mistakes and small letters in place of caps and vice versa might be the reason you get disqualified from the process. You may have also provided irrelevant responses to the questions!
3) You apply for every job. We know the unemployment rate is high and sometimes you may feel desperate. However in your desperation do not at any point apply for all jobs listed by a company or recruitment firm. This might be taken to mean that you do not have an actual passion/interest for any role and are just applying for the sake of applying.
4) One size fits all CV. Before applying for any job go through your CV and make sure it highlights clearly your skills and experiences relevant to the JD. Some candidates copy paste their current job description into their CV and even go as far as copying pasting the same description on all their past roles with similar titles. Other common cases where the CV has several diverse experiences thus it’s difficult to pin point where the relevant expertise for the specific job you are applying for is.
5) The recruiter is overwhelmed. Sometimes the recruiter has to go through hundreds of applications and this makes the process take longer. Sit tight and wait for the process to run its course they will hopefully get back to you.
6) You are stalking the recruiter. The recruiter is just as excited to fill the role as you are to get the job. And sometimes in your excitement and impatience you end up calling the recruiter every day even on weekends for feedback on your application. While asking for feedback is acceptable overdoing it might communicate a lack of professionalism on your end.
7) Wrong phone contact. You made a great application. However your phone number is incorrect.
8) They have changed their hiring plans. Often, in the course of a hiring process, the business may undergo major changes that lead to hiring decisions being halted. Such could include change in budget, team, business priority and so on. Sometimes in this period there are a lot of internal conversations and uncertainties that delay the decision on what to do with the current applicants.
9) You are unreachable via phone or email. Timely communication really helps in the process, in case you are unavailable let the recruiter know, be professional in your communication. Some applicants may go offline for a while and not inform the recruiter and hence loose out on communication regarding the selection process of the role. Keep checking your spam folder to avoid missing an email.
10) The overall decision maker is unavailable. The recruitment process is sometimes longer than usual because the hiring manager or overall decision maker is unavailable; maybe they are on business travel, leave or have taken a sabbatical and therefore this drags the process.
11) Other good candidates. It is painful to hear but maybe there is another candidate out there who has more years of experience, is more skilled and submitted a great application. Thus the recruiters are running an assessment for those before considering everyone else. Sometimes actually they may end up still considering your application!
12) Bearer of bad news. Recruiters are human too and no one ever wants to be the bearer of bad news, so maybe you haven’t gotten feedback because someone is procrastinating giving you bad news.
13) Qualifications. And the most obvious reason could just be that you did not qualify for the role and that’s why you haven’t been called for that interview.
We hope you enjoyed the series!