Why candidates ghost recruiters and employers
Recruiters love to tell stories about “the one that got away” – the perfect candidate, the absolute “shoe in” who aced the interview, possibly even enthusiastically accepting the offer, then simply vanished.
No polite decline.
No awkward phone call.
Just radio silence.
It’s tempting to chalk it up to bad manners, but is ghosting just rudeness, or has it become part of modern recruitment, fuelled by a job market that gives candidates more power and by communication habits that make it far too easy to disappear?
From taboo to commonplace
Not long ago, the idea of ignoring a recruiter or employer would have been unthinkable. Jobs were scarcer, companies held most of the power, and candidates wouldn’t dare risk burning bridges. Today the market looks very different. In many sectors, good candidates have multiple opportunities. They know their skills are in demand, and that confidence makes it easier to disappear if something else comes along.
Technology plays a role too. Digital communication makes it simple to vanish. If you don’t want to answer the phone, you don’t. If you ignore an email, it’s buried within a day. The personal accountability that comes with face-to-face interactions is weaker in an age of LinkedIn messages, WhatsApp, and automated scheduling.
The mirror effect
It would be easy to blame candidates entirely, as many posts on LinkedIn take pleasure in doing, but ghosting often mirrors the way organisations behave. For years, employers have kept jobseekers waiting without feedback or quietly dropped them from a process without explanation. Recruiters, under pressure to move fast, sometimes treat people like data points rather than individuals. Candidates notice. When they feel like a number in a transactional process, they are more likely to respond in kind.
This doesn’t make ghosting acceptable, but it may explain why some jobseekers feel little sense of obligation when they change their mind. Courtesy is a two-way street, and the recruitment industry hasn’t always been on the right side of it.
A shift in workplace etiquette
Ghosting isn’t just a recruitment issue; it reflects a wider change in workplace etiquette. We are living in a culture of instant communication but also instant disengagement. People unsubscribe, ignore, mute, block, and switch off without a second thought. That mindset has spilled into work. For some candidates, ignoring a recruiter’s call feels no different to ignoring a marketing email.
The irony is that work relationships are not disposable. The job you walk away from today may lead to a better one tomorrow, and the recruiter you dodge could be the one holding the keys to your ideal role in six months’ time.
What can reduce ghosting
We probably can’t eliminate ghosting altogether, but we can reduce it. For recruiters and employers, the answer lies in building genuine relationships and communicating clearly. Candidates are far less likely to vanish if they feel respected, seen, listened to, informed, and valued.
Simple steps help:
- Be transparent about timelines and decision-making
- Give feedback, even if it’s brief
- Keep processes moving quickly – interest fades fast
- Provide updates, even advising you have no news is better than ignoring
Candidates, on their side, could remember that honesty, even if uncomfortable, is almost always appreciated. A short note saying “I’ve gone with another opportunity” or “I have decided to stay put” might feel awkward, but it keeps doors open and leaves a better impression than silence.
A more balanced view
Ghosting is frustrating, but it isn’t a sign that professional standards are collapsing. It’s a by-product of a market where candidates have more options, employers have sometimes cut corners in communication, and technology has made disappearing too easy.
Instead of lamenting the loss of manners, perhaps we should see it as a reminder: recruitment is about people, and people are complex.
The challenge for recruiters and employers is to create an experience where vanishing feels unnecessary. And for candidates, the challenge is to resist the temptation to slip quietly away.
After all, jobs may come and go, but reputations have a habit of sticking around.
