What is Career Ghosting?

You found the perfect job, sent your application, had a promising interview and then you didn’t hear anything from them. Career ghosting is when a potential employer does not respond either positively or negatively about the interview. This is extremely relevant for the world we live in, after COVID-19, which set the trend for remote recruitment. The aim of this article is to explore why career ghosting happens and offer ways to handle it.

When a potential employer stops responding to a candidate at any stage of the hiring process, it is considered career ghosting. It can happen after sending the CV, after a phone screening, after multiple interview rounds, or after verbal job offers. This can create confusion, frustration, and self-doubt especially for first time job seekers.

Why Career Ghosting Happens

Recruitment delays: Long time to approve employees, outdated human resource systems
Internal hiring changes: Sometimes jobs get filled by internal employees or the role itself gets removed but the candidates are not updated in time
Poor communication culture: Lack of professional integrity among human resources in small and medium enterprises.
Overburdened recruiters: There may be too many candidates for a position that the HR department has a hard time handling and responding to applications.
Inability to confront others: Some people avoid delivering “bad news” directly.

The Hidden Costs of Ghosting

For job seekers it increases mental stress and emotional burnout. Some might miss out on great opportunities waiting for responses from other employers. They might lose trust in the hiring method and system. For employers it damages brand name, loss of potential future candidates, negative publicity on social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook groups.

How to Deal with being Ghosted

Understand that being ghosted by your potential employer doesn’t mean that you’re incompetent. Most of the time they have limited resources and face systemic issues. Give enough time for the HR department to respond to you. Send a follow up email or message to the organisation politely inquiring about the status of your application. If the wait is too long, move on and accept a job offer from another company. Reflect what kind of mistakes you made in the interview but don’t dwell too much on it.

How to Minimise Your Chances of being Ghosted?

Tailor your CV and cover letter to each job you apply for. Make sure to ask when you can expect a reply from your employee. Try applying to job posts advertised by companies with transparent hiring practices. Make use of google sheets or Excel Sheets to follow applications, deadlines, and follow-up dates. You have the right to send a final message to a company or organisation which gave you a verbal offer but never confirmed with you. Keep the message professional and not emotional.

Think of rejections as redirections and that there is an opportunity for you waiting that might be better. Career ghosting can be frustrating and unfair but it’s part of the modern job market. Therefore, keep applying and showing up for interviews with confidence and clarity. You deserve an employer who values your time and talent. Don’t let rejections and silence kill your confidence.

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