Remind HR that job interviews are a two way process

[wannabewhat]

I know the job market is tough right now, and employers have a lot of candidates to choose from, but honestly, that is no excuse to treat people like crap during the hiring process.

I had an interview two weeks ago, and they said they'd be in touch the following week. Nothing came. I chased politely, and got a vague "still having internal meetings, will get back to you by Thursday." Surprise surprise; still nothing. It's now Monday. No update, no rejection, nothing.

This isn't even a one-off it's just the latest in a string of terrible recruitment experiences. Ghosting after multiple interviews, jobs being pulled without notice, automated rejections minutes after sending a carefully tailored application... the list goes on.

AIBU to think that if you actually want to attract the best candidates, you need to treat them with a bit of basic respect? The interview process is a two-way street, I'm assessing them as much as they're assessing me. If this is how they treat potential hires, it doesn't say much about how they treat staff. I am also a customer of this company and starting to think I should place my business elsewhere.

Rant over. Just so sick of the whole process right now.

It’s an employers market right now. So you have to accept and move on. Cross that particular employer off your list for the future if it bothers you so much.
My SIL works in recruitment and she says they are getting pestered for feedback and special requests for interview day etc. With so many applicants to choose from they have not got the time to pander to each one.

That’s exactly the mindset I don’t understand though.
Yes, it’s an employers’ market, but does that give companies a free pass to behave unprofessionally? Particularly ones who sell B2C and may have current customers applying. A quick email to say, “Thanks for your time, we’re still deciding,” or even, “We’ve gone in a different direction,” isn’t asking much. It’s just basic decency.
And actually, if they’re that disorganised at the hiring stage, I’m glad to have dodged a bullet. But I still think it’s worth calling out, because if no one ever does, the bar just keeps getting lower.
Also, if the decent candidates are the ones who move on; because they have options or self-respect, then what’s left? Poor communication doesn’t just reflect badly, it actively damages their talent pool. In the long run, they’re only hurting themselves.

I think you are right. There's no excuse not to give feedback. I do think that with AI we will start to see bigger companies automating their feedback, but smaller companies - no, sorry, there is no excuse whatsoever. It's just rude.

Do not give them your custom in future.

I agree. I have turned down a number of job offers in the past based on poor interview experiences or communication from HR. It doesn't matter how much of an employer's market it is right now, if a company misses out on their number 1 choice of candidate because of a poor interview experience (rather than money or culture) then that is a major loss on their side.

I'd be furious as a department head if I lost my first choice of candidate for a role because HR were giving a bad impression.

You make a very good point. I've been in this situation - I've found the best candidate, but HR have screwed it up through lazy, hapless administration. Ironically, it's HR who impose all the 'systems' on us ... then don't follow them!

HR and marketing is where the lay offs are happening in a lot of companies hence the poor communication with swathes of applicants.

You're absolutely right. I turned down a job offer back in 2023 because of the various red flags during the recruitment process. Chalk it up as a blessing you dodged a bullet. The right role, at a better company, is on its way to you. Hang in there.

I don't buy the excuse that they have too many applicants. Not if you've been short listed or even had an interview. That's just downright rude and unprofessional.

I've applied for jobs where they can't have even looked at my cv or application before rejecting me. So they're obviously using some filtering programme.

I withdrew from an interview because I was originally told it was virtual so could do short notice, then at 5pm the day before they said it was in person. So unprofessional to expect me to stitch up my current company by calling in sick or booking holiday a day before.

Whenever I’ve successfully interviewed for a job, I’ve always been offered the job pretty much straightaway. Usually the next day. I think when they keep people hanging it’s because they want to keep you on the back burner in case their preferred candidate decides not to take the job for whatever reason.

My son in law had 3 interviews across 3 months. Spent a great deal of time prepping for different interview formats. They kept him waiting for 4 weeks after the third interview to say he didn’t get the job. I agree it’s so unprofessional and doesn’t make the company look good at all!

our HR department is slow and has archaic processes (we re def not "AI ready") - however, in the last 3 rounds of hiring i ve been involved with, we had request for interviews at different days, different times (when the panel where not available), requests for disclosure of the training of all panel members, demands for feedback immediately after interview (before decisions being communicated), salary negociations beyond the scope of what is reasonable (entry level candidate demanding the top salary bracket, arguing that their degree project counts as project management experience), negociation on WFH days for on-site only jobs, and that s not even going over the chatGPT generated fictional cover letters where the candidates we interviewed raised integrity concerns.

all this plays a big part in creating delays... and in 2 out of 3 cases, we went to our reserve choices >2 weeks down the line, when negociations ended with top candidates.

Which is fine. But don't you send your reserve candidates a check in message, to try and keep them engaged? Rather than tell them you will hear by X date, and then rely on desperation to keep them on the hook as your back-up?

in short - no, i don't think so,

Rejections are sent fairly fast / within timeline
First choice the same
Reserve usually shortly after the top choice refuses or accepts and gets contracted (except that this now takes 3 times longer than usual).

i am equally frustrated when it means that reserve candidates have moved on when we call on them, but tbf, i dont want us to gaslight them with empty promises when we always hope for the top choice to say yes

It is an unwelcome feature of the job market today. Unfortunately ghosting unsuccesful candidates happens at every level. To some extent, seasoned professionals are just getting the same experience entry level and low wage jobs have had for decades

Still absolutely no excuse to treat applicants in such a shoddy,disrespectful manner.
A generic email doesn’t take too much effort! Surely it means that the decent applicants go somewhere else and it’s very disillusioning particularly for the younger generation who are struggling with the crap world we live in .

Recruiters are often not keen to avoid feedback because candidates will seek to argue their case after the event if they disagree.

So do you just ghost those that aren’t first choice and not provide any updates or answers? If so, you are doing a bad job.

Well, you're not wrong but as PP said, it's a buyer's market. It's expensive to recruit people, hard to get rid of them if you make the wrong decision - yes even in probationary period and first two years - and the employer is taking a big risk on anyone who hasn't worked in there. For senior appointments there are a lot of stakeholders involved in the decision - not just the recruiting manager and HR. Also there is management and messaging to any internal candidates. The recruiting managers are also having to do their own day to day work and manage their own teams while this is going on.

They haven't rejected you yet - it actually sounds quite positive to me that you are in the range of potential next stage candidates. If you don't need the job, salary or the future relationship, feel free to burn your bridges though.

You need the hide of a rhino to manage the current job market, it's worth developing one. It comes in handy in lots of situations.

All that @FKAT said - plus the preferred candidate may be waiting for another interview outcome or be negotiating various points before accepting/declining.

We would try and pad the process a little to allow for this eg saying we should be in touch by the end of next week even if we have concluded all interviews by mid the previous week etc.

But we don’t ghost anyone, even those who don’t make the first round interview

I got invited to a first round interview with a very large global pharmaceutical company (phone call) about 18 months ago. Professional job. They didn't call me. I contacted them to say hope everything is ok but I didn't receive a call. No apology. They re-arranged for the following week. They again failed to call me. I gave up at this point. A few weeks later I noticed that my application was still active so I contacted them to say whats happening? They called me and told me that they had recruited for the role already.
Fair enough that's fine. But I thought that was so unprofessional of them and it clearly was not an open and fair recruitment process if they don't progress candidates through the stages at the same time. Plus how are they ensuring that they are appointing the best candidate for the role?
A few months later the job came back up again so I gave it another go. This time I managed to have a first round interview, they invited me to a second round interview. Heard nothing more. Very off putting to ever apply for a job with them again.

This is exactly what I have heard. I know my boss did have the courtesy to provide feedback, but after receiving a few rude/ argumentative messages back he says he will now make it very clear that they may not hear from him by xxx date if unsuccessful.

Interviewees are getting frustrated as the job market is tough. It is an employers market.

I recruit apprentices (I work in HR) and ensure our systems and processes means that candidates are not waiting round for an answer and all receive feedback.

My frustrating is having to chase managers who constantly swap and change things about and don’t tell me. They are quick enough to moan when they lose a good candidate.

Nine years ago, I had 8 interviews for a role. Never got a response.

I’m beginning to think they might not want to hire me…

YANBU but have never believed the line that interviews are ‘two way’.

How is it pandering to someone to give someone an update following them spending time preparing and attending an interview? Its so rude and unprofessional to do this.