Seriously pissed off with ghosting

[Auburngal]

I send off online application forms, agencies and companies phone me with jobs that I have a good match. Then all forms say will be in contact with you by end of the week/whenever and hear nothing. This is called ghosting. It's really getting to me now.

The other day, I went on a company's career page by accident (got the page bookmarked) and an application I sent end of November says "application received" which was the same wording as the minute I clicked 'submit application'.

When I was job hunting back in 2007/8, I learnt not to phone/email companies and agencies to chase them up as I got treated like I was the rude one.

How the hell do you reduce the ghosting that organisations seem to do?

This is affecting my anxiety. I am getting very worried that I will never get a job. I am only in the position of unemployed due to 2 people. The store manager who bullied me and his boss who thinks he's a 'wonderful' manager. What's so bloody wonderful about being bullied and making staff leave? Other stores in the area had no jobs suitable for me.

Don't wish to apply for 6 or 12 month contracts as I be back to where I am after the 6 or 12 months time.

So you’re just not hearing back from applications? Or are you actually talking to employers and having interviews and then being blanked?

I am so sorry it hear this it is very stressful. My husband and I are in the exact same boat. Both been made redundant. First me and then him. Mass redundancy going on in around our area. I think sadly the job market has now returned to employers not getting back to you and yes its awful as it is ghosting.

Husband was even asked to put in CV by an old manager and made him drive 2 hours to head office for a face to face. They never even let him know he had the job. i.e didn't even contact him. He even sent a polite email. Nothing!

All I can say is don't give up you are not alone. I think there will be a lot more short term contracts due to NI increase. Companies looking short term not long term. You could take a fixed term and keep up the job hunting in the interim. Take care.

It's both interviews and applications. Why would a company advertise jobs in November and not even bothered to read my application?

Maybe they had too many applicants and have employed someone that was suitable without closing the job, frustrating I no. It’s worth going for the 6 and 12 month contracts tho m, you can keep looking even if you do get one

Very annoying and unprofessional.
I'd still go for the short term contracts, some money is better than nothing.
Also one of them might lead to a permanent job.

I don't like the fact that so many employers don't communicate well in recruitment, but this isn't "ghosting". Ghosting is a deliberate refusal to communicate with someone that you are in a personal relationship with. You have no relationship with these companies or agencies, and there is nothing "deliberate" about getting no response from them. It is bound to have a negative impact on you if you are going to take it all so personally. It isn't personal, and if you can see that then it may be dispiriting to not get an interview, but it is simply the case that, for whatever reason, you aren't making the cut for an interview.

I would suggest that you not turn away from short term contracts. In the first place, at least it is an income. And secondly, that may be the foot in the door to something longer term - it often is. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Also remember that for some organisations they may be advertising long term contracts, but many of their applicants will be exisiting staff on short term contracts. They will often head the queue for safer roles.

If you are then still not getting anywhere, that would suggest that it is something in the way you approach applications, and you may need to get advice on that. As someone who has done a lot of recruitment, it can sometimes be very frustrating to see an application that has potential, but somehow just fails to realise it. When we are limited to a set number of interviewees / a set time for interviewing, there isn't time to slip in a few "might have potential" applicants if we already have several that meet all our needs. It's easy to get out of practice at applications, or fail to appreciate how times have changed certain aspects of applying.

I thought this was always the case; you only hear back on an application if they want to progress it?

It didn't used to be like that. In the past people often got rejection letters. I am not sure if that made them feel any better though. Before the internet (yes, I am that old!) letters were always sent - it was considered polite. Then rejection letters stopped being so common due to postal costs rising. For a time the internet seemed to reverse that. Now it is back to many companies not responding to unsuccessful candidates. It's not a trend I like - I think it is rude if someone has spent time on an application to not send any response. But in these days such things are centralised and (often) process driven, and recruiting managers often don't have any control over the decisions about process.

I sometimes get no response from places I did interviews - face2face or via Teams etc.

About the 6-12 month posts. I'm worried that I won't be able to claim JSA next time around. Its the NI credits which are more important