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Don’t Ghost Your Job Search

Written by Bernie

Bernie Frazier, SPHR is the Founder and President of CAREERCompass, LLC, a speaking and career coaching firm in St. Louis, MO. She also spent almost 25 years recruiting talent to six organizations across four industries and led the talent acquisition function for four of those organizations, including one global team.

A few weeks ago LinkedIn released an article about how the job market is now so good for so many that many candidates are operating like ghosts in their job search.  Being a ghost is when a person abruptly goes silent or disappears without explanation.  In today’s labor market, unfortunately this practice has increased in popularity with candidates at all levels.

Ghosting can occur at different stages in the process:

  1. When a recruiter reaches out to a candidate regarding a job opportunity and the candidate expresses interest.  Candidates ghost when the recruiter follows up to schedule a phone or in-person interview and the candidate never responds.
  2. When a candidate is scheduled to conduct a phone or in-person interview but fails to show up.
  3. When a candidate has completed the interview process, but never responds when the employer reaches out to extend a job offer.
  4. The worst is when a candidate has accepted a job offer but fails to show up on the first day.  Ouch!
The job market is so good now that many candidates have their pick of jobs and don’t feel the need to follow up or follow through with employers, because another will or has come along.  Some employees are seeing this time as pay back for the poor treatment endured by many candidates from employers over the last 10 years.

Whatever the reason, ghosting an employer is not something I recommend.  It puts you in a bad light with the employer for future opportunities with their organization, and recruiters who move around often remember the really good candidates and really bad ones.  You may decide to pursue an opportunity with a different employer but encounter the same recruiter – bridge burned!  Further, whether you believe it or not, karma is real.  What you put out can and will come back to you.

Until next time….