Recruiters are super helpful in finding work for IT Pros (and others) and candidates for companies, but once there is feedback to give, please do so.

It is perfectly fine if you need to tell a candidate that they did not get the job. Doing so is far better than ghosting candidates.

Not providing feedback or saying anything is plain shitty. I do not know if it is intended that this ghosting is going on, but don’t be that person.

In recent years, recruiters have told me that I ghosted them because I stopped answering the phone. The reason I didn’t respond was that they were chasing a verbal commitment to an offer for which I had asked for a copy of the document to review - send it in writing. They did not do that. I asked again, still constant calling. Then they left me a voicemail that I was ghosting them (and followed up with an email). My response was via email that I was removing myself from the candidate pool because the recruiters chose not to provide the information or documents I requested. I also copied the hiring manager on my email to finish it because I no longer felt the organization intended to continue the process.

Again - people in recruitment should be willing to provide feedback, good or bad, to any candidates for roles they are trying to fill. If you do not wish to provide feedback, maybe you shouldn’t be in the people business.

It seems, in some cases, that once the organization (or the client company for an external recruiter) has moved on, the candidate is a casualty, and ceasing communication is supposed to give some clue that the recruiter or company was moving forward. Tell your candidates - they are also your customer. Represent both sides and have the conversation. When you give honest feedback rather than some cookie-cutter answer, the candidate who is no longer in the running will likely thank you for it.

All of this stuff has happened to me when looking for work in my career, and it is not very fun. However, I had also had great experiences with recruiting / HR departments even when I did not land the role because they bothered to communicate and help me understand how I could improve.

To the recruiters who “move on” when a candidate isn’t the candidate:

Do your corporate clients a favor and be better. Do your candidate’s a solid and be better.

To the recruiters and HR/People/Talent professionals who are transparent:

Keep up the good work - your candidates do appreciate your efforts

It is hard to think of all of the “staff shortage” things I have seen around lately and the “great resignation” things appearing all over the Internet. Now is a great time to put some effort into the people you hire and the people you want to hire. Doing this can make both sides much better and drive companies (and careers) into the stratosphere. Feedback is where all of us should be spending our energy - remember, unicorns do not exist, but extraordinary people do, and they can help your companies kick ass.