Copier Careers® Poll Results & Comments
Poll: Have You Ever Ghosted During the Interview Process?
Most Say They Haven’t Ghosted
Our recruiters have noticed a rising trend of candidates disappearing during the interview process. So, last month we discussed some of the reasons you shouldn’t ghost along with other bits of interview advice. Because we’ve seen this recent change, we wanted to know whether any of you had ghosted during the interview process and, if so, if you were the candidate or employer. We had a solid turnout of 19,198 votes this month!
Most voters (70%) said they hadn’t ghosted. The largest anti-ghosting group were candidates, taking first place with 36% of the total votes. Employers took second place against ghosting, taking 24% of the total. Another 10% said they don’t ghost but they’ve been ghosted before.
Only 30% of the voters admitted that they’ve ghosted. 23% said that, as an employer, they don’t contact every rejected candidate. 8% said that, as a candidate, if the company makes them a bad offer or they find a better opportunity, they’ll just walk away.
While it’s encouraging to see such high anti-ghosting sentiment among our readers, we are still seeing it happen all the time. We get it – it can be tempting when the decisions are overwhelming to just stop communicating. But you’re hurting yourself and missing out when you do!
Employers can’t afford to ghost when candidates are in such short supply. Candidates have the most to gain with open communication and negotiation right now – ghosting means turning your back on the chance to get what you want.
Here are the full results:
Have you ever ghosted someone during the interview process?
- Candidate – No, I tell them I’m not interested and thank them for their consideration (36%, 6,817 Votes)
- Employer – No, I reject them but thank them for their time (24%, 4,672 Votes)
- Employer – Yes, I don’t contact every candidate I reject (23%, 4,325 Votes)
- No, but I’ve been ghosted (10%, 1,897 Votes)
- Candidate – Yes, if they make a bad offer or I find a better opportunity (8%, 1,456 Votes)
- Yes, everyone ghosts (0%, 24 Votes)
- What’s ghosting? (0%, 7 Votes)
Loading …Some comments from y’all:
Employers
- “Never done this to anyone in the interview process. However, over the past year or two finding a candidate who will respond back to the resume THEY submitted has been quite the task. No one answers the phone or replies back to an email asking to setup an interview for the position they applied for. Out of hundreds of ‘applicants,’ only a few will actually respond when reached out to.”
- “I find it challenging to reach out to everyone I’ve interviewed but make it a point to close the loop.”
- “If we are interested you will hear from us by (a certain day/time), if not, you are no longer in consideration for the job.”
Candidates
- “I don’t like being ghosted as a candidate, even though most employers do it. As a candidate, I feel the right thing to do is to at least let them know I’m not interested so they can press on. Last time this happened I was actually several days from my position ending (division being closed). The company I interviewed with just couldn’t offer me the position I was looking for, nor at the pay range I had been making. Myself and the service manager who interviewed me agreed on that, so I passed. I left with a positive impression of them.”
- “I’m all for keeping bridges built, but that bridge goes both ways! Employers need to reach out more quickly when they move on to other candidates as well. It would also be nice if they could tell us why we didn’t get picked; that can give employees an idea on what to improve on, either in their resume or skills/certifications.”
- “I was a ghost for Halloween once, didn’t affect my employer one bit!”
- “I recently did this. I had a really good interview. Everything sounded great. The recruiter wanted to schedule the next interview. We started talking. About benefits and salary. It was so low I actually laughed. She was adamant about scheduling the next interview and said they would talk more about it then. I agreed but never accepted the invite. I figured it wouldt be worth my time and they wouldn’t be able to come close to what I was expecting.”
- “Employers don’t respect us, not in the process, not in the job. We need to give two weeks notice, but they can fire you or lay you off without notice. We should keep them informed about if we’re not interested, but they can sit on your application for months without reaching out. Maybe employers need to change their view on employees/candidates and show the respect they keep demanding.”