By Aoibhinn Mc Bride
If you’ve been operating under the assumption that “ghosting” is just a modern-day dating phenomenon that only affects app aficionados, think again.
ADVERTISEMENTThat’s because the concept of ghosting—the practice of ending a relationship without any warning or explanation—has infiltrated the world of work, and job seekers are increasingly having to grapple with it.
A recent survey of hiring managers byResume Geniusfound that 80 per cent have subjected job seekers to ghosting practices during the recruitment process.
3 jobs hiring across Europe this week
- IT Administrator, HERO Software GmbH, Hannover
- Internal Audio Senior, Coinbase, Dublin
- (Senior) Consultant Sustainable Finance, Mazars GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin
While there’s never a good enough excuse for ghosting—for dating apps or otherwise—the respondents who participated in the survey shared that uncertainty about whether or not a candidate was the best for the job was their top reason for ghosting.
Why are you being ghosted?
Some 33 per cent of hiring managers said they ghosted candidates if too many people had applied for a job and they felt overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, 32 per cent said they ghosted if the candidate wasn’t the right culture fit, 31 per cent ghosted a candidate whose salary expectations were too high, and 31 per cent ghosted candidates once the position had been filled.
ADVERTISEMENTThe size of the hiring organisation is another reason for ghosting, with smaller companies more likely to ghost candidates if they’re still deciding on the hire.
In larger companies, candidates are more likely to be ghosted if they do not fit the company's culture or are not the right fit for the specific role.
"2024 has been a tough year so far, with more layoffs making the job market even trickier. As companies trim their budgets and reduce staff, a lot of people find themselves looking for work again and are facing more competition than ever,” said Ed Huang, co-founder and executive director at the CV company Resume Genius.
“Add to the mix a surge in AI-generated resumes leading to a flood of applications, hiring managers are increasingly overwhelmed — making it tough for them to respond to everyone personally. As a result, ghosting has become more common, often leaving job seekers stuck in an unfortunate waiting period that leads nowhere”.
Bolster your application
While ghosting is an incredibly frustrating part of the job-hunting process, the good news is that there are several things you can do to boost your application.
For starters, don’t copy and paste directly from AI-generated CVs or cover letters. While there’s nothing wrong with leaning on a chatbot to help create your CV framework or tailor your CV to the job description, direct copying and pasting can usually be detected.
“Everything is about your experience so I’m starting to see more similar looking CVs that are AI-generated,” said Leigh Horn, recruitment manager at UK television network ITV.
She said many of the 800 apprenticeship applications were AI-generated.
“On the tech side, I was looking at candidates for our cyber apprenticeship and there were a couple of questions about what cyber attacks they had seen in the last 12 months that changed their way of thinking or what their interpretation of them was. The number of people that copied and pasted the same paragraph… I used ChatGPT myself to check and [the same answer] came up,” Horn said.
3 roles to apply for this week
- Client Delivery Lead, Octopus Energy Group, Paris
- Head of Finance (Hybrid), Jobbio, Dublin
- Training Manager - EU Policy Implementation and Programmes, ICF, Brussels
It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to accept being ghosted by a recruiter—maintaining contact checking in, and asking for updates is perfectly acceptable once you’ve progressed to the interview stage and have completed a phone screening interview or one-on-one interview with HR personnel or a recruiter who has been tasked with filling the role.
ADVERTISEMENTBut whatever you do, refrain from airing your ghosting grievances in public, AKA on social media. A separate study found that 70 per cent of employers have screened potential hires via their own social media accounts.
