Recruiting Hacks: Why Ghosting Matters

People are generally busy.

Like, very busy. To the point where they’ve got very little time to even exist themselves as human beings.

This applies to almost anyone, but there’s certainly a category of people that’s way busier than others on all accounts: Recruiters.

Recruiters are the busiest people on earth.

It doesn’t matter if they’re junior, mid-weight or senior, work for a small business or a corporation, are internal or from a recruitment company — they’ll always be overwhelmed with work. Like, they had to hire a thousand employees in one day, or the most talented creature the universe can provide. Which entitles them to act with severe disdain towards whoever wanders in the circle of applicants of Dante’s Inferno.

Their approach to candidates is though very informal and polite, indulging them to believe that for once they won’t be treated like a number or cattle animals. It all sounds so convincing at the start when they send you those job specs they think you should analyse as it was a precious literary manuscript and not simply read (like a normal person would do), to then discuss it over the phone at a suitable time that’s never suitable to you.

Beware!

Should you ever spot a typo in the job specs or anything you don’t quite understand, make sure you never bring it up, otherwise, you shall go over the entire process again. That is, ending the call you’re having (because there’s no way they can explain things further on just one call), waiting for them to rework the specs, sending them back, arranging a new call at a suitable time (for them), and discussing the job in even more detail. You might wonder how much detail is needed that you didn’t already get and you’d even be right to do so, if only they weren’t constantly afraid that they could be wasting their time on you — you naive, hopeful and skilled candidate. So you need to be understanding: after all, they’re very, very busy.

An important part of being a recruiter is to play catch or, to use technical jargon, Ghosting.

You think that being highly responsive to their requests would be enough to receive professional treatment. You fool! Once you send them a copy of your CV along with references, samples of your previous work, letter of intention, criminal record, and tell them about the last meal you ate and where you see yourself personally and professionally in 2,000 years, they collect the information and then retire into their evaluation chamber in wait for an epiphany to happen. Which may take a few days as much as a month or two!

Because they’re very, very busy.

That’s why they need broad expertise in the art of Ghosting. They’ll draw you into a spiral of oblivion where you’re torn between wanting to send a follow-up and respectfully giving them time to go back to you. They’re smart! This “process” should increase your desire for the job, potentially even grow your interest (which if you didn’t have in the first place, why continue with the application…but go tell them…), and eventually take you to the miserable realisation that you either weren’t a good match or they forgot about you. Yeah, because they were busy. Very busy.

But they won’t care too much about it, they’ll just do their job. They don’t care if you studied the company inside out, thoroughly researched the business, took time to put together references, contacts, a tailored cover letter and much more. They need to give you the illusion that you will easily get the job.

And that’s why ghosting matters.

If it didn’t, everyone would apply for that job and they’d have hundreds of candidates to screen and narrow down to an elite of ultra-experienced gurus that trained with the top-notch masters of the population of Uranus.

Essentially, the art of Ghosting serves to test your patience, and your endurance. The more you can wait, the more you can grieve, the more you can suffer in silence and the more you can hide it and maintain composure, the more eligible you’ll look to recruiters.

Despite your positive attitude though, and accepting that your effort and time are worth less than your dignity, you’ll sit there wondering when and if you’ll ever get a sign back from them. Weeks go by and you lose hopes in the role you were so excited for. Who knows what happened, if they hired somebody else, if they put it on hold, if they felt you were a fit but not quite enough to get an offer — plenty of questions to mull over.

Suddenly, you receive an email notification and rush to check it. You find that finally, the recruiter has come back to you, which reignites all your hopes and expectations. And that’s how the email reads:

“Hi there,

Hope you’re doing well.

I’d like to thank you for your interest in the role of … but THE POSITION IS NOW CLOSED.

I’m sorry I made you wait this long,

I’VE JUST BEEN VERY, VERY, VERY BUSY.”