In a curious demonstration of sympathy, a recruiter sided online with the candidates who “ghost” them. The Reddit post, from a recruiter at a boutique firm, describes a “new trend” of candidates disappearing after a positive phone screen. But instead of blaming the job seekers, the recruiter points the finger squarely at the companies conjuring the hiring nightmares.
The sentiment clearly resonated, as their post amassed over 7,000 upvotes and nearly 300 comments of agreement and commiseration in the r/recruiting subreddit.
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The original poster pulled no punches in diagnosing the problem. They described clients demanding a five-interview gauntlet, complete with personality tests and unpaid presentation projects for a junior-level role. The recruiter saved particular scorn for the practice of withholding salary information until the final stage, sarcastically noting it might “influence your decision making. As if people don’t have bills to pay,” they wrote.
The absurdity, they confessed, is making them question their career. “I’m spending 15 hours a week chasing people who’ve decided life’s too short for this BS,” they wrote. “It’s making me question if I even want to be in this industry anymore because right now everyone’s losing.”
A recent job seeker chimed in with an anecdote that also illustrated the recruiter’s original point. Although they finally accepted a full-time offer after searching for over a year, when another company they were interviewing with requested another hour-long interview at 5 a.m., the usually diplomatic candidate ghosted. “I was sick of hoop jumping and being ‘Mr. Flexible’ for these places only to ghost me anyway,” they wrote.
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The comment section became a forum for industry insiders to vent and propose solutions. The most upvoted response offered a clear, if drastic, prescription. “If the client is throwing up obstacles that make it impossible for you to get candidates to the finish line, it’s time to fire them,” they wrote.
The original poster agreed, sharing that their firm had done exactly that earlier in the year. “Their interview process was literally taking 2 months for entry level roles and they wondered why everyone dropped out by week 3,” OP wrote. “It was a tough call but our internal team morale skyrocketed after we parted ways with them.”