Job Seekers Ghosted After Interviews
Job seekers consistently report a frustrating lack of communication and follow-through throughout the hiring process. This includes recruiters initiating contact, promising timelines, and then abruptly disappearing or failing to provide updates, leaving candidates in limbo and feeling disrespected. The experience is marked by broken promises and a general disregard for candidate experience.
SOURCES (60)
“Happened twice to me in the last month. Final interviews too. After 2 weeks and multiple emails I sent one final email telling them about decency and how it’s not only professional but kind to let someone know this information. I debated making a list…”
“Complicated (?) backstory: Applied for a job at a large company, went through four rounds, but didn’t get chosen after final. But the person who would’ve been my manager and is a VP at the company told me they could help put in a good word for future applications and was overall very supportive. I applied to a different role and asked the VP if they could reach out to the hiring manager. They did. Hiring manager asked recruiter to look for my application. Fast forward, had my first interview wit”
“I finished the final interview for a manager-level corporate role last Friday. On Monday, the recruiter emailed saying they were working to finalize their decision over the next 1–2 weeks and asked me to reconfirm a few things: whether I was comfortable with the in-office requirement, whether my compensation expectations were base salary or total comp, whether I currently receive a bonus/when it pays out, and whether I had any remaining questions or concerns about the position. I responded that”
“One of their recruiters reached out to me last week and asked me if I was interested in interviewing with their client because they seen my resume on indeed and it matched what they were looking for. It was a AML role entry level position at JP Morgan Chase. I have a background in compliance and in federal work. I’m a veteran and I have a degree in cyber security, business, and a MBA. They called me everyday for like 3 days prepping me and having me interview with their boss, and then that perso”
“I recently went through a pretty extensive interview process for a job. I interviewed with 10 people over the course of about five hours and completed a case study, which I was told was the best one they received. The next day, the hiring manager called me personally to congratulate me and told me I got the job. He followed up again the following day and said they were working on getting the offer letter finalized. I originally got the opportunity through a recruiter, and the recruiter also told”
“Hi everyone I’m from Venezuela and I attended my interview at the Orlando FO, I’ve been waiting for 21 days already and I wanted to ask you all if it is a normal waiting period, I have seen some of you getting the approval on the spot or the day after, they did not give me any letter at the end and the interview went smooth after the officer saying “You guys are good” I would appreciate any response thanks in advance submitted by /u/Alwaysgethigh [link] [comments]”
“Hi! Background: In February 2026 i got an offer for a SEO role from a major advertising company in NYC supporting a major client of theirs. It was later rescinded a week later because they told me the role is paused because of the client and they’re waiting for client approval. I kept in touch with the recruiter and this week, I messaged the senior VP aka the person i had final round with for the role just to keep in touch/reconnect. He told me no one’s been hired in those roles because it’s bee”
“Today I had the worst interview experience of my life. It was at a GP practice in a nearby town for an admin and telephony role. I arrived and they are 20 minutes late seeing me. Frustrating, but not a big issue, it's a doctor's office, I get there might be delays. Finally someone comes to take me to a meeting room, no apologies for the wait. They ask how my journey was. I said it was good and commented on how the bus stop was right outside the practice, so it was easy to find. She repli”
“Had a final round interview on Tuesday. Everything went great, the team seemed chill, and the hiring manager said they were ready to move forward. Then HR reaches out today asking for three references. Standard stuff, right? Except the email specifically states that one of them HAS to be my current, direct supervisor. Not a former boss. Not a coworker. My actual boss at the job I am currently sitting at right now. i emailed back politely explaining that I haven't given notice yet because the”
“I recently went through two rounds of interviews for an associate-level position at PNC. The interviews seemed to go extremely well. During the process, the managers told me they really liked my background and indicated they didn’t want to lose me if this particular position didn’t work out. They also mentioned potentially sharing my resume with other areas of the company. I followed up recently, and one of the managers who interviewed me told me that the position had been filled. However, he al”
“I’m looking for some recruiter or hiring manager perspective on a long interview process. I left a long-term role in March after being with a company 15 years. In late May, a recruiter reached out to me about a role at a large tech company. Over the past three months, I’ve completed five interviews/meetings: recruiter screen, hiring director interview, local team meeting, senior VP interview, and an in-person coffee with the hiring manager. Its the perfect role for me and I thought I nailed ever”
“I am just honestly confused about this whole process and am curious if anyone has had similar experiences. I applied for a position, did a first interview, and was invited to do a second interview. The second interview was on-site and consisted of an actual interview and an accounting exercise, since this position would assist with accounting. I spent about an hour and a half there for both the exercise and the interview. I did my best, left with neutral expectations, and just waited to hear bac”
“Interviewed last Thursday. Was told I'd hear back Wednesday to Mid this week. It is now Thursday. I emailed the recruiter yesterday at the end of the day and haven't heard anything. No rejection. Still active in portal. When I interviewed with recruiter, I got a hiring manager interview on the spot. The interview was difficult but at the end, I was given logistics, onboarding details, and hiring timeline. This is all so draining. I've been interviewing for 7 months. Interviews now ju”
“Hi everyone, I’d appreciate some outside perspectives on an academic situation because I’m struggling to gauge whether I’m overthinking the timeline. A few weeks ago, I interviewed for a Research Technician position in a university research group. I wasn’t ultimately offered the position, but afterwards the PI/professor offered to have a separate 30-minute meeting with me to discuss my career path and potential opportunities. The meeting went much better than I expected. Rather than simply givin”
“Got an interview invite but when I opened the portal there were no available dates. I checked all the months and logged on just a couple hours after getting the email. Did i mess up or did they? submitted by /u/creativeusername1808 [link] [comments]”
“I recently went to a job interview on Tuesday. I got hired on spots,the recruiter was very sweet and she said that she liked me ,We talked about my new hours and my upcoming pay, and she was writing everything down on paper, The recruiter told me what a typical day would be like at the facility and when training would be, after all of that, she said by Wednesday, I should receive an email on the next steps that I will be taking as far as on boarding today is Thursday and I still haven’t received”
“I received the secondary like 1 month ago, they don’t have a specified turnaround date. Should I still get it in before Labor Day. I already wrote it but I need to edit it a bit lol submitted by /u/Past_Environment_192 [link] [comments]”
“so i’m a college student graduating in december, and i landed my first interview for a post-grad position. I was very excited as they got back to me within a week of applying, however, the interview ended within 5 minutes. as soon as i said that i graduate in december in my introduction, they said they needed someone to start within the month and that wouldn’t be a good fit. my education is at the top of my resume. i put what my degree will be in and what my expected graduation date is. i’m gues”
“context: i recently interviewed for a boutique consulting position roughly 2-3 weeks ago, to which I was told that I’ll be moving forward to the second round. ~1 week later (aug. 20ish) I get official confirmation and ill be hearing back in a couple of weeks for the second round details. keep in mind this is for an end of september start. I get an email this morning saying that they’re still working on the logistics on the next steps and I should hear back within 3 weeks. as much as I am thrille”
“I’m in the final stage of my MSc in Electrical Engineering in Europe and have been looking for a Master's thesis for quite a while. Month ago, I applied for a thesis position at a research organisation. The topic was genuinely interesting to me and I was pretty excited about it. After applying, I was contacted by an R&D Team Lead from the organisation. We exchanged a few emails, and I got the impression that my application was being seriously considered. Then there was a funding issue wi”
“Can someone please exsplain to me why hold someone up for 3 MONTHS not to call them in for an interview but to just tell them, no. I'm so confused. And my favorite, part, " please feel free to continue to apply to other postions". Why, so can continue to tell me no? LOL You already have my resume, portfolio and CV. If you like me so much but not for that postions, why not just tell me what postion you WOULD LIKE ME TO INTERVIEW FOR? submitted by /u/Deep-Republic5822 [li”
“I recently interviewed for a PA role at a small-ish legal firm; I was surprised to have made it to a first-round in-person meeting, given I don’t have a legal background (as most firms are understandably strict on this as a requirement), but the job ad said entry-level/ junior, so I applied anyway. For context, I mostly used to work in hospitality but have moved into admin roles over the past 3 years. I brought up my lack of legal experience with the Practice Manager who interviewed me, to reite”
“Do they just assume that everyone applying for this role is unemployed? I can easily justify ducking out for a half hour "appointment" whilst at work but i'm not taking a whole day off for an interview. Fuck outta here with that”
“So I had been interviewing with a semi-government company for a role and have completed 2 rounds out of 4 (the recruiter said my feedback was strong), and they also collected all my documents for a security clearance (apparently you need one for government jobs). My 3rd round was scheduled for Monday at noon, and on the morning of, I got an email stating that due to an urgent matter, my interview needed to be rescheduled (well, fine, life happens), and that they would do so shortly. I tried foll”
“had a screening call last month in an irish pharma for a data role. screening call went great, connected with the recruiter and built a good rapport. answered ALL his questions perfectly (was over prepared for the call) and he literally said you’ve answered all the questions very well. he said he would pass my cv on to the hiring manager and let me know if my cv is selected (indicated that i will most likely be passing on to the next stage). cut to: two weeks of silence from his end and my follo”
“I did the interview to work for this company through a temp.agency almost 3 weeks ago. They really liked my skills and presentation and said they wanted to bring me on to work for the client under their payroll. The pay rate was good, all benefits and expenses payable starting from day 1. I was excited and had been like, let's go, I can't let down this offer and can start in 2 weeks. I told them I need that time at least to give notice to the toxic job I was currently at and transition i”
“I submitted an application in July; had a phone screen and interview with the hiring manger and their manager all take place by mid August. Silence since then. They told me they had other candidates to interview but my interview went well. Great. How long does it take to make a decision to move people on to the next interview stage? Part of me thinks they will say that the position has been put on hold which will suck big time for me. I am not a good interviewer AND they are really hard on me. I”
“I shared my interview experience on several platforms, including here. My original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/s/uQnN7MByU8 Today, the recruiter contacted me and said the company had seen my Threads posts and wanted me to remove them within 24 hours. Otherwise, their legal team was considering legal action for defamation. I told the recruiter that I also posted about the experience on Reddit and Xiaohongshu (RedNote), that I will not be removing my posts, and that if they want”
“Soo I applied to a job back in May. I tailored my resume and applied, and moved on to keep applying to other jobs. Then last month, I get an email saying the role has already been filled. No Problem, I already moved on!😂 Anyways, today I’m checking my email and I decided to check my trash folder (like I always do), and I see an email from the same company I applied to in May. (It’s a staffing firm). It was a talent advisor emailing me about a job. He claims my experience impressed him and he th”
“I have been speaking with a potential employer about a job that I am hoping to land. When speaking with HR, they mentioned the timeline of interviews and hiring and mentioned they are very thorough in their background checks. I worked for a company from 2011-2013 that has since closed down so there is no HR department they can call to verify. I also looked up my profile on The Work Number and there was nothing on there for my time at that company. I don't want this resulting in a pulled offe”
“Public sector state agency role. Had an in person panel interview four weeks ago. Never heard back from them either way. Now I see the job is reposted. Now slight changes to the JD and salary range (I had saved the old JD to compare). I'm still interested but not desperate. Anyone had experience reapplying to a job? submitted by /u/graymuse [link] [comments]”
“I applied for a role back in June and didn’t hear back until the end of August. The recruiter I did a pre-screening with scheduled a 30 minute virtual interview where I would be interviewed by 3 Directors. TWO hours before the scheduled interview, the recruiter emails me this: “I apologize but some things have changed with the role, and i will need to cancel the interview at this time. We are going to make some changes to the role and the requirements. I want to thank you so much for all the tim”
“I am totally bummed. After a dry spell, I had two final rounds for great companies last week, one on Monday and the other one on Wednesday. I was SO excited because I had awesome interviews, connected, and I thought I did a great job explaining what I had done in the past. So, now it is EOD on Wednesday and still nothing, leaving me realize I likely did not get either one. It is okay. I will recover. But this job market sucks! submitted by /u/Dry_Bird8774 [link] [comments]”
“I was casually approached (Literally at the water cooler) by the HR Manager about a position they have in HR opening up, she said she thought I’d be a good fit, saying I pay attention to detail and I’m personable. I currently answer to the Director of Operations for the company, so I’d really see this as a lateral move. I think I have more opportunity for growth if I stay put and plus my current boss is pretty flexible which is great with two small children. I guess I’m not here to get advice on”
“Spent more than 2 weeks for an Integration Analyst role in Ontario. Initially the recruiter round went for some 25 minutes where she recorded my responses and asked about my experience, what are the challenges I have faced, what I would consider as a success and all. Followed by that, I had an aptitude round. Cleared that and had an in-person interview for an hour with the senior manager and 2 tech folks. The interview went well and after the interview, I asked about the next steps for which the”
“I already interviewed with HM and I think it's a go which is why they scheduled me with the HM again along with principal Engineer for the company in India. I haven't interviewed cross countries so I don't know what to expect. Does anyone know what and how should i prepare for it. Recruiter said it shouldn"t be anything unusual. And after this round there will be a director round. Any tips will take me a long way. Thank you in advance submitted by /u/No-Aide”
“If it was a digestive issue or something like IBS it might be embarrassing to share the details. We shouldn’t always assume the worst of people”
“Yeah my last job was 3 contact attempts over 3 days using 2 different mediums (Ie, phone and email)”
“Got an email this morning saying that I’ve been selected for an interview. I schedule the interview, and not even 4 hours later, I notice that it’s been cancelled. No email or ANY correspondence about the cancellation btw. I then reach out to the organizer and was met with this. Please do NOT share my resume with your division managers if this is how you conduct business. I want nothing more than to tell them to actually go fuck themselves submitted by /u/Angryr3ceptionist [link] ”
“As the title says, my husband who has been looking for work in this god awful job market, was ghosted during the interview process. Landing the interview felt like such a win. He was excited because he fit the role perfectly, and he spent a lot of time and emotional energy preparing beforehand. When the recruiter didn't show up, he reached out via email and even sent them a message on LinkedIn to check in. Two days later he received a generic rejection email. What the hell is this? Is this n”
“This is a new one for me and I’m wondering how strict others would be with this situation. It feels ridiculous asking for feedback on this, and I am meeting with them tomorrow for a write-up. I’m wondering how far others would discipline for this and if I’m being too harsh as I consider termination. New recruiter (right at 90 days) has been caught misrepresenting their recruiting to me, the HR director, and the new recruiter asked my other, tenured recruiter to lie on their behalf about a hiring”
“I went to this jobs interview weeks ago and they gave me the typical rejection email. Then 3 weeks later they repost it and it says i already applied? How does this happen submitted by /u/Motor-Appeal-2368 [link] [comments]”
“I’ve been interviewing for a position I really want for about a month. I’ve completed multiple interviews, including with the hiring manager and director, and I also completed a required assessment. I was expecting another interview with senior leadership, but the recruiter reached out and said the team decided my previous interviews were the final step for me. The recruiter then told me they still have one other candidate scheduled to interview late next week, and they want to complete that int”
“I mean, at least it will all be done at once and you'll know quickly lol I've had 2 places do this. They had multiple interviews, but just did them all back to back and basically blended it with an offer on the spot, orientation and onboarding. I'd say its a good sign if you actually want the job , they are looking to hire NOW now or they wouldn't be doing this.”
“3 times in a row this has happened, all large companies. Company will reach out wanting to set up call/interview, I respond promptly - and then silence. I follow up, even try linked in but just nothing. Before this I was actually getting interviews, but the fact that it’s 3 times in a row has me very confused. Anybody else? submitted by /u/GretaGerwig [link] [comments]”
“I applied in July 28th. Got an interview with the recruiter a week later then an interview with hiring manager. Now 8 business days have passed since the hiring manager interview and he said that we will be in touch next week. But nothing. They are building a new team by the way and I will be joining a new team . I’m really interested in this job and it has 4 stages ffs.🤦♀️ I don’t know what to do. I emailed both recruiters but got no answer. Has anyone had a similar experience? submitte”
“Booked an interview with a recruiter after they reached out to me about a role. I showed up 5 minutes early and was genuinely excited. The position sounded interesting, and this was my first interview in over a month after sending out hundreds of applications. The recruiter had already moved the interview time once, which wasn’t a problem because I was still available. Then the interview time came... and they just didn’t show up. I waited in the meeting, emailed them to make sure I had the right”
Applied for this job ages ago, seems to be feigning interest for responses. Didn't respond to the first email and then they proceed to still contact me. "We are moving forward with…
“I got a call from a recruiter it was a screening call it lasted 10 minutes, he asked everything how would i like to commute ,whats my salary range, what tech stack would i prefer But he asked me when he would like to call me again I said tomorrow i.e. today but still i haven't recieved a call from him he seemed genuinely interested in me Am i overthinking a bit or he's moved on to other candidates ? submitted by /u/Pleasant-Drag-5039 [link] [comments]”
“I had applied for retail store post at apple that to two months back now I got this email saying for virtual interview, now what should I do? What kind of interview it will be they didn't specially mentioned it will for sales job or whatever submitted by /u/Commercial-Paper749 [link] [comments]”