This summer, Michele Rousseau applied via LinkedIn for a technical content writer job in AssemblyAI, an artificial intelligence-based company that applies applied to that she joined in the following 2 weeks she explained the messages appeared to be from automated systems and poured into her inbox and demanded that she complete different tasks.
The longest-running part of the interviewing process, she claimed that it was a writing task, which was described as which was an “ultimate guidance” for “speech-to-text recognition” which was to include in addition to the background of the technology. The company claimed was an option for “expediting your application” in an email sent by AssemblyAI that was reviewed through HR. The following week, Rousseau had completed the writing task and described it via email, as an “pretty complex, time-consuming commitment” along with an interview in one direction, that was stated by AssemblyAI as a “optional however, it was rewarded by offering a speedy evaluation of the application.
The feedback on the video interview, which included Rousseau responding to questions by speaking through her webcam – was likely to arrive in the next 48 hours after the submission of the assignment.
The feedback was not forthcoming from AssemblyAI, according to Rousseau who claims that she has never heard from anyone, human or not at AssemblyAI yet despite attempts to contact them. In an email addressed to HR, Rousseau expressed regret over the whole process that came at the cost of her self-confidence and time. “What do I have wrong in me that I didn’t even give a ‘thanks’ but not a thank you”? Could it be because they noticed that I was older in the video I gave them?” AssemblyAI’s CEO, Dylan Fox, told HR in an email that “some messages are now automated” with regards to interviews. He also said that “We’ve seen a significant increase in our staff lately, and we’re trying to improve our process for recruiting.”
Rousseau’s experiences are not uncommon. Ghosting, which is the act of breaking off all communication with someone at any time and without warning, is a common occurrence often between job applicants and employers. Recent studies suggest that employers are ghosting job applicants, and applicants are retaliating with indignity, leaving each other in a state of confusion without any explanation or warning. Although Rousseau did not speak directly to a human in the course of the process, and some of her correspondence via email with AssemblyAI was approved by a recruiter–she believes that her experience is ghosting.
Ghosting can occur for a variety of reasons, and it speaks about the ways that recruiters do not be accountable, as per Jeff Shapiro, senior director of recruiting talent at the radiology imaging company RadNet. “Recruiters aren’t obligated to giving the candidate complete closure. This is a requirement, but nobody’s actually measuring it.”
The experience of being ghosted…can be a nightmare
Matt Rooks, a commercial real estate lawyer in Atlanta and a former interviewer, recalls one experience as a gauntlet. Following his first interview at an Fortune 500 company, he “proceeded to conduct an additional nine interviews with eleven individuals of more senior positions” in a roughly eight-week time frame. After receiving an offer to hire was coming and “on the one-yard line” several delays ensued up to the point that the manager who was hiring did not respond to messages and voicemails as he stated via email.
Rooks is able to speculate about what transpired as he was not provided with any reason. “I was extremely unhappy and felt that the rug was taken away from me. I was at the time feeling and am still feeling that this was completely insensitive, regardless of for the failure,” he explained to HR .
Rousseau also expressed a similar feeling of anger, exacerbated by the humiliation feeling of hanging. “It’s okay if you say ‘thanks but no thank you. However, at the very least acknowledge that these things were done.”
For Shapiro There’s no reason to believe that applicants should go through the hurdles only to receive nothing in response. “Part that we have to recognize is that anyone who is seeking employment is…a individual. It’s not enough to ignore them,” he said.
Everyone hates ghost(ers)
If a company gets reputations for ghosting applicants this can harm the company’s reputation both financially, Shapiro said. Anyone who is exiled from a business is “unlikely to ever apply for an opening at your business and again in the near future and possibly in the future. time, they’re also likely to be not a client for your business.”
“The chances are that they’ve informed their relatives and friends about this terrible incident,” Shapiro speculated. “And the possibility is that they will not be be a client of yours either. This means that ghosting can be affecting your profits regardless of whether you know it or not.”
However, people can ghost-recruiters as well, 39 percent of employers believe that ghosting candidates is worse as it was two years earlier according to an April Robert Half survey of 2,300 employees and 2,400 managers in the United States–Shapiro claims recruiters have no excuse.
“Candidates will ghost them,” Shapiro noted. “They do not owe you anything. It’s a lot worse for the recruiter to ghost a job seeker than for an individual job seeker to ghost an employer. Because recruiters represent an entity .”–SB
