Ghosting after interview

[Notheardback]

I had an interview last wed and was told I would hear back early this week. I have heard nothing so emailed hr, no response . My portal has not updated.

I am really thinking this company just don’t bother to get back to candidates who don’t get the job. I have noticed others have written similar reviews .

Is this normal practice now ? This is a government type agency. I know at my old work, they let everyone know . I have experienced this 4 times now and it has knocked my confidence. Only one company has had the decency to ring me and let me know.I haven’t been rude in anyway or down anything awful . I don’t mind a rejection email or to be rejected, but I am confused. I am amusing they must mean you only get told if you are successful ? Just seems rotten to me.

Yes, it is normal practice - but also, if someone who needs to approve part of the process has been off sick or something, that might delay things. It can take ages for us to get back to people, usually because part of the process gets stuck. And it's really annoying for candidates and hiring teams, but HR processes are as they are.

Hi @EBearhug thanks for your response. Just to clarify , is it only the successful candidates that usually get contacted in your experience?

It has happened to me as well.
It’s very common but incredibly rude IMO.

I would take it as a sign that it’s a company that doesn’t really care about people and so you’ve dodged the bullet.

We contact all candidates, even the unsuccessful ones would get a communication to tell them they had been unsuccessful.

As someone else said further up, there are delays almost all of the time in the hiring process - ours has to go through authorisation and due to a new policy our People Director signs everything off, which is delaying things massively by weeks. And we can't call to offer someone because if it isn't approved it'll end up a mess.

I am only ever contacted if interview was successful. Got used to it ;)

It often takes longer than expected so I wouldn't write them off completely yet. That said, although it is pretty inexcusable not to contact people who have been interviewed, it seems to be becoming increasingly common.

We always contact every candidate successful or not. I work for the NHS. It’s nerve wracking for applicants so we always call back.

Brutal.
Had it happen to me.
Then you’re checking emails, post, texts, portal.
It’s a hard world.
Manners cost nothing.

Is it actual UK Gov (public sector organisation) @Notheardback ?

If so they should give you feedback, but it may need you to request it. Everything is documented, recruitment decisions have to be transparent and open to scrutiny.

If it isn't UK Gov it's The Wild West variable depending on each company's recruitment practices.

Thanks for all the responses . Seems like it depends on the company . It is very hard as you don’t know if they will get back to you or not. HR have ignored me aswell, that is a new one for me. I’m not a ‘chaser’ particularly either , this is all new to me.
I guess I will have to try to accept how things are and push on :).

Hi @daisychain01. It used to be a government agency , but now it’s owned by the government. I think they set their own rules. They say you can ask for feedback , but have not responded to me.Of course , they may still respond but I don’t have much hope. Sadly by reviews they have form for this and it is hit and miss if you get told or not .

After many incidences of this, I now operate by the '72 hour rule'. Basically if I've not heard back within 72 hours, unless I know they're seeing other candidates, I write it off.

Any job I've ever been offered has not made me wait.

I work for "a government agency" and recently interviewed as an internal candidate for a role. I was told I should hear something in two days, That turned out to be nine days, and only then because I sent an email to the resourcer to check ... My experience is that, the larger the organisation, the longer it takes them to finalise recruitment decisions. But all applicants find out their outcome where I work as it's all automated - one person gets an offer, the others get a declined status which shows on the portal. It can just take longer than you might expect.

If I have interviewed somebody then I phone every single interviewed candidate on the day (or evening) of the interview, or the next day if I can't get hold of them on the same day. They also get a standard letter via our HR function, but I consider that alone to be rude.

Sometimes a company will delay rejecting candidates until the person they offer too first accepts. If that person passes they then go to the next person as a back up.

That's a good point @KatherineJaneway. Plus, PS organisations often run bulk recruitment campaigns and invite people who largely meet the criteria to be put onto a reserve list, especially if the role is a frequently occurring one with high turnover. Or if the selected candidate is good on paper but fail their security check.

So losing out on one role doesn't necessarily mean the end, it may just take longer!

I agree that it itls frustrating and this is why reasonable expectations should be set.

Delays can be for a number of reasons...

Before we can hire someone in it goes through a 5 step authorisation process, as high up as the people manager in Europe so if anyone in that process is off, delays.

Sometimes we have to spread interviews out over a two or three week period, so if you were the first interview and the next one isn't for another 2 weeks... Delays.

Sometimes, if it was a close call, we "hold" candidates until the first choice has accepted and a start date has been confirmed.

As with some PPs, at my work we don't get back to the unsuccessful candidates until the first choice has signed their contract and agreed a start date. This can take a couple of weeks if there's a lot of back and forth negotiation, or any of the approvals are unavailable due to holiday / sickness / etc.

While it can take weeks, hiring managers should have an inkling of that, and say that even if they will make their decision by the end of the week, it then has to be signed off by HR and so on, so it might be a bit longer before you hear. I know they won't want to put people off, especially if there is a chance they'll have other offers, but they can say it will be longer than a week without stating "our internal bureaucracy, which the successful candidate will learn to hate, can take weeks and weeks."

I know from experience this doesn't happen, though.