Why Employers Don't Respond After Interviews - LinkedIn

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One of the biggest complaints we hear from job seekers is that employers don’t respond to them. While our audience is people are looking for flexible jobs with options such as TRaD/telecommuting, freelance, part-time or flexible schedules, this unfortunate trend clearly happens in all kinds of job search applications. People send in applications, and if they’re lucky they’ll receive an automated message acknowledging receipt, but just as often as not they hear the online version of crickets.

Now, not hearing back after sending in a job application is one thing, but not hearing back after going through an actual interview? That’s just plain rude. And apparently it happens pretty often, based on the 379 comments (and horrible stories!) we've received on one of our blog post's about the topic. After all, the employer thought you were qualified enough to spend time interviewing you for the position. If you were in the select group of candidates who even get asked to interview, why wouldn’t an employer take the time to let you know you didn’t get the job?

So on behalf of frustrated job seekers, as well as to satisfy our own curiosity, we talked to some recruiters and hiring managers to get their real reasons for not responding to candidates. Keeping all their answers anonymous so they’d be as honest as possible, we got some pretty surprising and candid responses. We’ve incorporated some of those responses with some others we’ve learned, and while they might not make job seekers feel much better about the situation, it’ll at least offer some insight into one of the most unfortunate and disheartening experiences in a job search.

They’re still deciding.

Procrastination exists in the hiring world, too. If the employer has two excellent candidates and is trying to decide to whom they’ll offer the position, everyone who interviewed is stuck in limbo. Until that decision is finally made (whether you’re one of the finalists or not), everyone is made to wait. And wait. And somehow it gets lost in the shuffle and just never happens.

They chicken out.

We all know people who will avoid confrontation or disappointment at all costs, and hiring managers are not exempt. The thought of emailing or calling someone to tell them that they have not gotten the job is just too big of a burden to bear, especially after they’ve met and spoken to the person. So they just procrastinate on the task endlessly, or until it’s just been too long and they think,“the candidate has moved on anyway, no need to bring up bad news.” Clearly, when this is the case, the hiring manager should realize that they’re in the wrong line of work, but it still sucks.

Telling an interviewee they didn’t get the job is a tricky legal limbo to walk.

We live in a litigious society, and hiring managers want to stay on the right side of the employment law. Often times, candidates who aren’t hired will ask hiring managers for feedback on their job application performance. Why didn’t they get the job? What could they do differently in the future? Are there specific changes the employer can recommend for them? Sometimes, hiring managers will opt to not respond at all, rather than opening themselves up to potential liability through inappropriate feedback.

For example, one recruiter told us: “One reason I wouldn’t get back to someone is if I had to tell them something that they couldn’t ‘fix,’ such as their personality. If I didn’t like them, I’m not going to respond back. You don’t want to offend the person—or argue with him—so you stay quiet.”

The job might not be available after all.

The recruiting process can start and stop and be interrupted along the way. Maybe the company started interviewing external candidates but then had a couple internal people pop up. Or the funding for the position has come into question. There are a lot of “structural” reasons that a job opening might fall through that have nothing to do with your quality as a candidate.

The hiring manager isn’t the person deciding.

Sometimes individual hiring managers need to get approval from their teams, superiors, or other teams before responding to a hire, whether they’re offering them a job or not. The authorization for them to give you an answer or status update is essentially taken from them, and so they stay quiet. With different cooks in the kitchen, responding to candidates can get overlooked when they're finally able to do so.

And yes, some people really are just rude.

I’ve worked with hiring managers and human resources professionals all my life, and as with every other profession, most are responsible, upstanding, and kind people. But some are just rude and don’t care. If “you’re not going to be the person they pick, then they move on.” It sounds harsh, and it is, but unfortunately it’s also true. The silver lining? You probably wouldn’t want to work for that person anyway.

Personally, I think that employers who do this are incredibly short-sighted because it gives your company a bad name -- not just in hiring, but in general. Call it karma, but that kind of thing can come back and bite you in the you-know-what, if you ask me. What do you think?

Job seekers, have you ever had this experience, interviewing for a job but then not hearing back? What do you wish recruiters knew about their lack of response?

And recruiters, have you heard of this happening, and do you have any tips for candidates you experience it?

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Sara has been in the online employment field for 20 years, and she is currently the Founder and CEO of FlexJobs, a job site dedicating to making it easier for people to find jobs that offer work flexibility (such as telecommuting, freelance, part-time and flexible schedule jobs), as well as the sites Remote.co and 1 Million for Work Flexibility. Please check out the FlexJobs.com blog for more job search tips and help.

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Share 297 128 Comments Tahmina M Hakim 2y

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Yes Every job seeker deserves to be informed of the decision by the interviewer whether it's a good or bad its really disappointing and its our right to know decision bad or good evry day we r waiting for email or call even you do follow up they don’t answer its soo disrespectful

Like Reply 5 Reactions 6 Reactions Maryellen Tipton 3y

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My question is why hiring managers respond and say they -or another key decision-maker - are out of the office for the week…when they aren’t. I’ve had this happen twice - once at a practice that never contacted me again, and now after a second interview at a practice that went well. I’m glad they contacted me when they said they would, but they said it would be with next steps rather than with a lie about being out of the office.

Like Reply 1 Reaction Kai He 5y

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Every job seeker deserves to be informed of the decision by the interviewer whether it's a good or bad news. I don't mind being told that I'm out for whatever reason especially after I have sent a follow up email on the interview. Just let me know I haven't got this job and I'll move on.

Like Reply 5 Reactions 6 Reactions Dinesh M. 5y

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The article is intelligently articulated with sad reality and insights into the dark patches most of the job seekers come across during their job-hunt journey.

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