Here’s why job recruiters ghost you and how to cope
We’ve heard it said that your job is not your life, but when you’ve been looking for work for months without landing many interviews, let alone offers, it can be devastating.
Consider San Diego resident Hannah Pitman.
The talent acquisition specialist has been applying to between 75 to 100 jobs every week since last November, and has shared on LinkedIn that while she’s had a handful of interviews, what she’s mostly received is “a lot of radio silence.”
Her situation is not unique.
Another LinkedIn user, Veronica R. Chiesi Brown, reported that out of the 174 jobs she has applied to, she has scored three interviews, three rejections (2%), 32 (18%) auto-generated rejections and on the rest (80%) she was ghosted.
It’s as if these women were sending the applications into black holes.
“I am not begging for a job. I just want to be kept on the radar . . . Feeling forgotten has been hard but I am resilient, and I am choosing not to let tough times in the job market get me down,” wrote Pitman.
That’s the right attitude, especially when you consider what many aren’t aware of — that for the most part, humans are to blame.
This is the case for a variety of reasons, according to Maryam Jahanshahi, co-founder and head of R&D at Datapeople, a provider of recruiting analytics software, who points to “poorly written job requirements, misalignment between HR and the business, off-market pay bands and more.”
In other words, it’s likely that in some cases, there was nothing wrong with Pitman’s application or her qualifications.
Remember that one-third of all job posts on the web are problematic, making it likely that at least some applications are dead on arrival.
It’s also worth noting that there may be a small percentage of jobs that are continuously posted, such as for entry level jobs or roles where turnover is high.
Loretta Barr, a career coach at Korn Ferry, a management consulting firm that specializes in digital, executive search, recruiting process outsourcing and professional search, said there may be other reasons applicants get no or slow responses. “Sometimes employers might post a job to see if there’s a candidate pool out there. Or maybe they’re thinking of firing someone, but want to line up a replacement first.”
Peter Cappelli, a professor at Wharton business school, said that “some job postings are fake” in that some employers post job openings without ever intending to hire an individual from outside the company to comply with legal and equal opportunity policies.
He added that sometimes employers aren’t willing to pay the salary that the market demands, but they aren’t willing to change who they are looking for either, so the job never gets filled.
Here again, the trouble lies with the job posting and not with the people who applied.
In cases like these, it’s not always clear what to do with the applications, so they remain in limbo until the job post is eventually shut down.
Some employers never intend to hire an individual from outside the company but still post the job to comply with legal and equal opportunity policies. Shutterstock
It’s only after that point that applicants might be notified of their status.
This might be what happened when Pitman got a notice in April about a job she applied for last December.
That’s a long time to wait.
Some employers send out notifications when applications are received.
They often say something like “only the selected candidates will be contacted.”
Others wait until the opening has been filled or canceled before notifying unsuccessful candidates.
It’s worth noting that there is no law requiring employers to acknowledge applications or to explain why someone wasn’t interviewed or hired.
While it’s tempting to shame recruiters for their behavior, some argue that they are receiving an unmanageably large number of applications.
Steve Levy, a recruiter at Zip.Co, told the New York Post that he gets 400 to 500 résumés for every search that he does.
Given that he usually recruits for up to five jobs at once, that can mean 2,000 résumés at a time.
That said, Levy is one of the good guys. “It may take a while, but I get back to everyone,” he said.
Amazon Web Services is another employer that responds.
After applicants complete two online assessments, the company follows up in two days.
Sadly, these are the exception, not the rule.
So, what’s a job-seeker to do?
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If you want to confirm that a listing on a career site (like Indeed, or Monster) is real, check for the same job posting on the company’s career page.
“Almost all companies have jobs listed on their own websites. It costs them nothing,” said Hannah Morgan, job search strategist at CareerSherpa.net.
Amanda Augustine, a career expert and owner of TopResume, a professional résumé-writing service, advises going another route.
“If you can, avoid applying to jobs posted online,” she said. “Tap your network instead.”
She advised locating the jobs that you are interested in on sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, Monster and so on, and then leveraging LinkedIn, or another social network, to identify a connection or a connection of a connection who can provide an introduction to an employee of the company that is hiring.
“Ask to get some insight on the position — hopefully, they will offer to refer you to their employer,” she said.
The advantage of this is that the hiring manager is much more likely to review your information out of respect for the colleague who made the referral.
“Companies are inundated with applications, they might not ever see yours otherwise,” said Augustine.
Job-seekers can search niche or specialty job boards for their chosen profession and cross-reference with contacts as well.
In many cases, you can find them by Googling for the name of your profession together with the word “association.”
Find a member of the association who can introduce you to the hiring manager.
Finally, “spend your time on quality rather than quantity,” said Levy.
Augustine agreed. “If you’re not a good fit, don’t apply,” and instead focus “on a job you want, are qualified for and where you have a connection.”
Source: New York Post
