I have read a lot of posts from other forums, linkedin, glassdoors etc as well as from experiences from friends - it is not uncommon for HR or recruiter or hiring manager to ignore the candidate after interview, or even after initial phone screening, with some of them telling the candidates that he/she will get back to them but never did so.

For me, it is very a bad work ethics from the recruiter/HR, especially during a pandemic during this time. As much as the recruiter/HR can be overwhelmed with tonnes of workloads, they do not have the time to reply to each and everyone. However, as a recruiter/HR made a verbal promise that they will get back to the candidates, they should do so. Being silence or ignorance is disrespectful to the candidates who spent time on preparing for the applications or interviews. Lots of people has lost their job during pandemic and are diligently applying for jobs, taking time to prepare for the interview etc, only to be ignored or silenced of from the recruiter. Not cool.

What are your takes on this? Do you have any similar experience? Would like to hear more on this hence opening up this post for discussion.

Yes those who said will update but never did are the most unprofessional, worse than those who don't reply at all. I've faced countless of both scenarios.

There's nothing we can do to change their work ethics so I just set my own timeline/benchmark of acceptable turnaround time of 2 weeks after the interview. If no communication is received within that 2 weeks period, I just emotionally detach myself from that position I interviewed for. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be applying any other jobs or attending any other interviews during that 2 weeks period.

So far that 2 weeks timeline/benchmark has been accurate for me for all cases except my current job where I met up with my recruiter and understood that she actually negotiated with the hiring manager to open up an additional position to fill me in, meaning there was already an offer issued to someone else who is my colleague now. Hence more than 2 weeks, but it is still consistent with my timeline as an offer was issued within that 2 weeks, but not to me. My offer was an afterthought.

TS, recruiters, they r definitely not your best friend.

Recruiters = Real Estate Agent

that is at least my take.

They want commission. So if they think u r not worth their time, they just move on to the next mission. Just the same as Real Estate Agent.

Yeah I gotta agree with u, they at least need to be more professional. But they not bothered, that is why their reputation suffered. Their skills in choice of candidates r so bad, that they often make mistakes and choose the wrong candidates for the job. Always mismatch.

Sometimes they r so bad, they overlook your asking pay, and again mismatch with their customers.

Companies also not trust them entirely for recruitment, that is why they would engage these recruiters while at same time advertise in LinkedIn or even jobstreet.

My take ? you can try recruiters but don't put too much hope on them.

Treat it as take it or leave it for the recruiters, not much can be done to change their attitude

I only experience this issue with some local companies.

All the foreign companies I applied, always give feedback.

Kena ghosting is a normal thing haha

I do not think recruiting firms nor HR departments in Malaysia had change at all, let alone now is pretty much employers' market.

Well. I dunno. This is what I face all the time.

It's a reflection of the integrity of Malaysia. Now you understand why government is so corrupted. This kind of integrity is reflected in almost all areas.

It's amazing how recruiters can behave like this. I dunno. But then the same recruiters will still asked you when there are other opportunities even after treating you like this.

It really tells a lot about how people are being brought up in general. Really bad.

I am in technical field and technical interviews are very difficult. I am very shocked that those recruiters actually do not understand the difficulty of technical interviews. Taking technical interviews nowadays is akin to doing actual exams. In fact, I will say possibility of passing them is pretty hard nowadays. That's because when those people ask you questions, they may ask based on their expertise but not yours. so you will be in a rut then.

The thing is, if you are applying for reputable companies, there is a high possibility that you will not make it. because of the difficulty of the questions. It's not in like in the past whereby they ask basic questions and your experience. Now they scrutinize you like crazy.

You really have to prepare for those interviews even harder then you prepare for your exams. It's crazy. If you have been in a company for a long time, you will probably not be able to even pass the interview because you think you do not need to prepare much for the interview since the interview is just about your experience. It's not. You have to deal with questions that are much tougher. One would think a fresh graduate probably has to prepare much more. But right now, they will expect you to remember everything that you have done before.

But then most recruiters do not really have a clue of the situation. And I say most recruiters are pretty stupid as well. For example, most of the time, we try to delay the interview because we have not really prepared much. But then, the recruiters cannot catch the gist. You see, despite being in the recruiting business for more then 6 months, they still do not get that candidates really need to prepare for the interview otherwise they are going to fail it. But then, the thing is, they seem to not understand this and even ask the candidates to go for the interview the next day. You would think that with their experience, they will at least ask the candidate if they are well prepared before scheduling the interview date right?

Sometimes, I wonder if going to recruiters will actually hinder my chance. Let's put it this way. If say I went for interview and there were similar candidates in say jobstreet. Why would I pay a fee to the recruiter. In fact using recruiters will actually hinder you from getting the job if say you apply again. Because those companies normally have records of your previous application.

This post has been edited by sickjoker: Feb 23 2021, 09:00 PM

Actually, I notice that this is a recent thing.

In the past, they have much more integrity. Maybe I did not have so much failed interviews in the past.

Well the reason why companies would advertise in Linkedin or even jobsteet is because it is much cheaper.

I cringed sometimes at how much companies pay recruiters for a successful hire.

It isnt just Malaysia. Singapore as well. The recruiters or HR are practicing ghosting culture literally across these two countries as I gathered from my friends' experience.

For the past few years, I have personally experienced a fair share of dealing with external recruiters (outsourced recruitment firms) as well as internal recruiter/HR. Some external recruiters were quite proactive in updating me with the progress or feedbacks once they have it from the hiring companies. The one I kena ghosted before were unfortunately from the internal recruiter/HR departments actually. It can be a shame but oh wells...

now with Covid situation and no. of unemployment being high, I believe respecting the candidates time are crucial and like you said, it reflects how someone was being brought up. I believe those recruiters/HR were once a job seeker themselves, hence they should put them into the candidates shoes and understand how it felt like being ghosted. Sometimes talents are gone just because of incompetent recruiters as well.

I dunno. I thought external recruiters ghost you as well. My experience is that external recruiters will always ghost you once you did not pass the interview. Of course some of them will give you feedback but then will ignore you after that.

Well. I dunno. It's something I just experienced recently. In the past, those kind of ghosting is pretty rare.

That is the reason why I call them less then animals. Unfortunately, most people in Malaysia are just that.

Pretty much agree with this.

HR and recruiter are calling dozens of ppl every day to fill up vacancies in a said company. Once that position is filled up they move on to next vacancy and so on.

Personally if im an HR rep and there are 30 applicants applying for a same role, i wont be calling every one of them to tell them the role has been taken.

If the hr is too lazy to give back feedback to each and every candidate (which is understandable btw), at least send an automated message to confirm that you were not successful but they don't even do that.

That's the HR's own problem. It'll reflect negatively upon themselves and it's his/ her own issue to take care of.

As the candidate - if you have the direct contact of the interviewer (ie, your potential superior who interviewed you), then contact him/ her to check if HR has no reply.

Meanwhile, without a reply from the company, take it as a NO first and move on with other interviews. Companies will automatically come to you fast if they really want you or when they're desperately in need of people.

Either way, nothing good comes out of mocking the HR personnel for lack of response. You can't force someone to give you a reply and there's nothing you can do about the situation that's not in your control. Move on.

Mocking? Which part of my post was making fun of the HR/recruiters? Nor I have laughed abt this.

I m not a HR, but why TS is so sour about this?

As a candidate, just call to follow up after 1 week. It is that hard to call to follow up?

And i thought the unspoken rule or norm is, if no feedback in 1-2 weeks, just move on? Follow this unspoken rule, and trust me, your life would be better.

if they didn't call back u can take initiative for it

If you read my post properly and the choice of words, I am not being sour. I am creating this post simply out of curiousity to gather thoughts from fellow lowyat forumers after reading and hearing stories from others on what they hav to go through in looking for jobs during this difficult times, and perhaps share some of their own experience in the past. this thread centers around the discussion on the attitude of the HR/recruiters and how they should treat candidate better in view of current climate. It is understood that alot of applicants for a single job opening can be overwhelming for the HR/recruiter, but if the HR has done a phone call with the candidate or interview was conducted, courteousy wise, they should inform the candidate if they have passed or failed getting the job though they might not be obliged to do so. Not cool for staying silent about it. I believe candidate would be appreciate if they can learn abt what went wrong or any constructive feedback/area of improvement should they failed the interview.

For me, no response is just not a great culture to practise generally. If I turn the table around, lets say the HR offers the job to a successful candidate, but that candidate has accepted another offer elsewhere and not giving any response to the HR, is this great in the HR point of view? If any HR or recruiter out there read this, i hope this can create some sort of awareness. As much as the HR/recruiter spend time to screening resume or working on recruitment issues, all candidates spend lots of time making the application and preparing for the interivew or test.

Whether to move on or not, its up to the individual/candidate and it'd be great they can try to apply to more jobs and not put everything in one basket. But thats not the whole point of this thread.

Actually, just reading the post in this thread, you should realize why people are behaving like that nowadays.

As I have said many times, people in the past seldom behave in this way.

I have a great interest in this as I have been to a number of interviews recently and I am shocked that recruiters can be so responsive pre interview but then post interview, they will just ghost you totally.

And the stupid thing is, sometimes, you fail the interview not because of your ability but rather because you probably did not prepare hard enough or the interviewers themselves ask questions that you happen to not prepare for.

And I implied in my earlier post, those recruiters really show their incompetency themselves because when they ask someone to go for interview, most of them time they never even take into account that people have to prepare for the interview despite the fact that have been in this recruitment business for a while.