‘Good luck getting them to answer’: Job seekers share recruiter ghosting stories

A post on Reddit’s r/recruitinghell has articulated something that job seekers have been saying in various forms for years, but rarely as precisely: recruiters failing to follow up with people they have already personally contacted, scheduled, interviewed, and promised to call back.

The original poster drew a clear line between volume-related silence, which was understandable, even if frustrating, and the specific failure to follow through with candidates they have already established a relationship with. “If you’ve reached out to me personally, scheduled a phone call, interviewed me, asked me to complete an assessment, or told me you’d be in touch by a certain date, then yes, I think it’s reasonable to expect some basic follow-through,” they wrote.

They also noted the shift in recruiter communication style that has made the process more unpredictable: the replacement of scheduled calls with random cold calls during working hours, followed by unavailability when the candidate calls back. “Good luck getting them to answer when you call back.”

What Reddit said

The thread produced a range of experiences that escalated with each response.

One commenter described being contacted by a recruiter about attorney positions, expressing interest, and then receiving weeks of silence, including no response to follow-up email inquiries. “It’s nuts. Totally unprofessional behaviour,” they wrote.

Another offered an observation of the status quo: “I honestly think job board websites like Indeed and LinkedIn are doing more harm than good for both recruiters and applicants. They have created a volume problem that did not exist previously. There is no way to sort through all applicants fairly in the time windows companies want.”

One commenter described their unfortunate experience: a recruiter setting up a video interview and failing to join four times. “She apologised after missing the second and fourth, but I ended up blasting out to four lead HR managers at the company with receipts. Obviously didn’t get the job, but she should be fired.”

Another pointed to the particular absurdity of recruiters complaining publicly about job seekers on LinkedIn while exhibiting the behaviour described in the thread. “And yet they are complaining about us as job seekers on LinkedIn. Absolute nonsense.”