Ugghhh so sorry you experienced this crappy stuff Naush! It seems HR etiquette has declined even further. TBH I tell my mentoring clients to try to network and call and avoid responding to open call adverts. FYI even with headhunters it can take a minimum of 3 months of interactions to get to final stage as you may already know. When I work on career strategies, clients start more concerted efforts at least 6 months in advance - it depends on your industry annual cycle, but some things will never change re strategy/budgets/planning/hiring etc.
Completely agree. Networking is the way to go. It's very hard to make it with open call adverts but in my experience, it has worked a few times so I still tried my luck. Like I mentioned in the piece, I didn't have high hopes but I got called for an interview so I thought well...let's give it a shot. Well...lesson learned...it ain't over till its over and networking is a much safer route. Thanks for your thoughts Victoria :)!
Its Madness and sad at the same time. A lot also to do with internal communication in the company. Mostly people inside the company don’t know much about their situation with the lack of transparency and thus people go out for roles, only to later know there is no budget. If people were open and transparent about situations then things would have been different. The decency here would be a simple communication email, saying sorry. But as you had written earlier about professionalism, maybe they lacked one and it was already a red flag at this stage and better to have been avoided.
Thanks Anzee. Yes, it ultimately comes down to poor communication and lack of transparency. I completely agree. What I don’t get is how a company with a reputation to maintain can overlook such a crucial part of their image. It beats me completely.
I’m so sorry you had to experience this. In thr past 6 months of me trying to find a job I’ve had such incidents… this process is ruthless brutal and honestly so demoralising. It takes a lot to keep going… but we keep going!!
Thanks Yabinda! Yeah its tough and demoralising. I don't see how it does the employers any favours. I guess the biggest lesson for me has been to not get my hopes high until I have a signed contract but that, too, is often frustrating. But....like you said.....we keep going!
Sad but this is a reality at the moment, I was ghosted as well a couple of years back.
The key takeaway is to keep applying elsewhere during recruitment processes, as being ghosted is common and not personal, but reflects poorly on the company's professionalism and communication. Thanks for sharing Naush.
Thanks Tinashe! Yes...it's very common unfortunately. I can't see how and why such companies cannot see how badly it reflects on them. It's ridiculous. You're right though, its not personal at all.
Naush, a couple of comments. (1) I admire your even-handedness in dealing with such bizarrely discourteous behavior; and (2) it's been a very long time (for me), but this reminds me a bit of dating.
Have had the same experience, and it bugged me a lot. I applied for a job on Upwork, got interviewed and then... nothing. The interview reached out again several days later and again, I'm pushed into the oblivion. No rejecting emails, no nothing.
Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry you had gone through this experience! And you're right, if this is how they treat candidates, you can just imagine the culture - so you might have dodged a bullet there. Also even with contract in hand, they can still rescind that for any reason.
This has inspired me to write about a recent experience where I breezed through all 5 interview stages with case studies only to be told "they're going in a different direction". My hunch is they took my consultation services for free under the guise of an interview process. It's rough out there right now and companies are resorting to unethical practices so candidates will also need to protect their intellectual property, but it's quite tricky when you're trying to win a job. 😞
Thank you Janice! Yeah I agree. Dodged a bullet there indeed!
About the contract, yes. I guess one just has to be prepared all the time. It's crazy how, at the end of the day, everyone is just a number on a spreadsheet. So sad!
As for your experience, that sounds painful. It's amazing how corporates can drag candidates to the extremes and get away without any accountability. This is a bad time for jobseekers and with so many people looking for work, it's become cutthroat to an extreme level.
This seems mad and bad! and as bad for the company – I mean what a waste of their resources – as yours, and not good for their reputation.. and it takes SO little to treat people with respect and courtesy.
Exactly. Thanks Lizzie. I don’t get why it was so hard to simply send an email informing candidates that the process was on hold or something similar. Beats me.
Corporate's got worse unfortunately Tanmeet - I hear this a lot. Especially when young recruiters are insufficently/inappropriately trained in their jobs. It reflects on the company culture and standards.
So Yes part of the human condition - for me it's in terms of how the leaders in these companies, and the culture, fails to understand that outwardly facing HR actions echo their reputations beyond their internal ops! Numbers over quality
Ugghhh so sorry you experienced this crappy stuff Naush! It seems HR etiquette has declined even further. TBH I tell my mentoring clients to try to network and call and avoid responding to open call adverts. FYI even with headhunters it can take a minimum of 3 months of interactions to get to final stage as you may already know. When I work on career strategies, clients start more concerted efforts at least 6 months in advance - it depends on your industry annual cycle, but some things will never change re strategy/budgets/planning/hiring etc.
Completely agree. Networking is the way to go. It's very hard to make it with open call adverts but in my experience, it has worked a few times so I still tried my luck. Like I mentioned in the piece, I didn't have high hopes but I got called for an interview so I thought well...let's give it a shot. Well...lesson learned...it ain't over till its over and networking is a much safer route. Thanks for your thoughts Victoria :)!
Its Madness and sad at the same time. A lot also to do with internal communication in the company. Mostly people inside the company don’t know much about their situation with the lack of transparency and thus people go out for roles, only to later know there is no budget. If people were open and transparent about situations then things would have been different. The decency here would be a simple communication email, saying sorry. But as you had written earlier about professionalism, maybe they lacked one and it was already a red flag at this stage and better to have been avoided.
Thanks Anzee. Yes, it ultimately comes down to poor communication and lack of transparency. I completely agree. What I don’t get is how a company with a reputation to maintain can overlook such a crucial part of their image. It beats me completely.
I’m so sorry you had to experience this. In thr past 6 months of me trying to find a job I’ve had such incidents… this process is ruthless brutal and honestly so demoralising. It takes a lot to keep going… but we keep going!!
Thanks Yabinda! Yeah its tough and demoralising. I don't see how it does the employers any favours. I guess the biggest lesson for me has been to not get my hopes high until I have a signed contract but that, too, is often frustrating. But....like you said.....we keep going!
Sad but this is a reality at the moment, I was ghosted as well a couple of years back.
The key takeaway is to keep applying elsewhere during recruitment processes, as being ghosted is common and not personal, but reflects poorly on the company's professionalism and communication. Thanks for sharing Naush.
Thanks Tinashe! Yes...it's very common unfortunately. I can't see how and why such companies cannot see how badly it reflects on them. It's ridiculous. You're right though, its not personal at all.
Naush, a couple of comments. (1) I admire your even-handedness in dealing with such bizarrely discourteous behavior; and (2) it's been a very long time (for me), but this reminds me a bit of dating.
Thanks John!
On 1, guess I learned that over time. I could have let it get to me but that would've made me miserable.
On 2, haha yes it seems to be a common practice on the dating front as well...crazy. I've heard many horror stories of that nature.
Have had the same experience, and it bugged me a lot. I applied for a job on Upwork, got interviewed and then... nothing. The interview reached out again several days later and again, I'm pushed into the oblivion. No rejecting emails, no nothing.
A simple "no" would've been suffice.
Exactly. How hard is it to simply communicate. I can't get why it has to be that way. Well...it's their loss I'm sure. Thanks for sharing Lee!
Uggghhh - tells you something about their work culture! 'Close shave - save! phew!' in my book
For sure! Imagine how rough it would be to work for such a company.
Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry you had gone through this experience! And you're right, if this is how they treat candidates, you can just imagine the culture - so you might have dodged a bullet there. Also even with contract in hand, they can still rescind that for any reason.
This has inspired me to write about a recent experience where I breezed through all 5 interview stages with case studies only to be told "they're going in a different direction". My hunch is they took my consultation services for free under the guise of an interview process. It's rough out there right now and companies are resorting to unethical practices so candidates will also need to protect their intellectual property, but it's quite tricky when you're trying to win a job. 😞
Thank you Janice! Yeah I agree. Dodged a bullet there indeed!
About the contract, yes. I guess one just has to be prepared all the time. It's crazy how, at the end of the day, everyone is just a number on a spreadsheet. So sad!
As for your experience, that sounds painful. It's amazing how corporates can drag candidates to the extremes and get away without any accountability. This is a bad time for jobseekers and with so many people looking for work, it's become cutthroat to an extreme level.
This seems mad and bad! and as bad for the company – I mean what a waste of their resources – as yours, and not good for their reputation.. and it takes SO little to treat people with respect and courtesy.
Exactly. Thanks Lizzie. I don’t get why it was so hard to simply send an email informing candidates that the process was on hold or something similar. Beats me.
Naush, it makes me so mad to hear ghosting happens in this setting as well! Makes me think that ghosting is just part of the human condition sadly!
Corporate's got worse unfortunately Tanmeet - I hear this a lot. Especially when young recruiters are insufficently/inappropriately trained in their jobs. It reflects on the company culture and standards.
So Yes part of the human condition - for me it's in terms of how the leaders in these companies, and the culture, fails to understand that outwardly facing HR actions echo their reputations beyond their internal ops! Numbers over quality