At dinner with a friend, the topic of candidates ghosting interviews or vanishing on their first day of work came up. He’s not in HR tech but already knew about it and wanted to understand what’s causing it. He couldn’t figure out why someone would damage their own reputation by just disappearing.
I’ve written about this before. My team collects and studies candidate feedback to help hiring teams improve their people, process, and tools. At first, I was ready to give him a safe answer based on common ideas. Instead, I told him the truth.
I said the quick answer is: candidates get better offers. But the real question is—why don’t they tell anyone?
I followed up with, “because a lot of employers treat candidates terribly and people are fed up.” That answer came straight from frustration.
“For lower-wage jobs, many hiring processes are automated to the point where there’s no personal contact,” I told him. “People are dragged through long or confusing hiring processes, then offered very little in return. I don’t blame them.”
Candidate Ghosting Interviews Is a Logical Response
In my line of work, I see hiring through the eyes of people applying for high-volume, hourly roles. These folks are serious. They put in time and effort. They imagine what it would be like to work for the company. They believe in the brand. Then they get ignored or handed a poor experience.
They don’t just apply—they put their hopes into it. And what do they get in return? Often, nothing human at all. That disappointment is real.
This happens even at companies that care and with recruiters who want to do right.
What do I see every day?
- Candidates getting offers for jobs they never applied to
- Candidates being sent to interview at the wrong location
- Candidates offered positions far from home with no explanation
- Interviews where the hiring manager never shows up
- 45-minute applications followed by instant rejections
- Good interviews, then silence. No follow-up.
- Low offers after lots of time invested
- Zero updates, no point of contact, no one checking in
That’s poor communication across the board. If someone invests all that time and gets ghosted or offered something that makes no sense, why would they feel like they owe a reply?
Still not sure? A survey run by Survale partner Greenhouse showed that 75% of job seekers have been ghosted by employers. So let’s be honest: what obligation do candidates have in return?
Employers Don’t Know What They Don’t Know
Everything I’ve said above is common in hourly, high-volume roles. But similar problems show up for office jobs too—from entry-level to executive.
The truth is, recruiting teams are stretched thin. And many are still adjusting to virtual recruiting and new tools. Ghosting has been happening for years, yet many employers are acting like it’s something new. It isn’t.
A lot of companies think they’re doing great. They believe they’re treating candidates well. But when they actually collect data, it turns out the experience is often a mess.
Even companies that try to measure candidate satisfaction usually get it wrong. They often:
- Buy tech tools to “fix” the candidate experience but never measure if those tools help
- Only survey people they hire, not the ones who had a negative candidate experience
- Send surveys once a year, long after the process is forgotten
- Hope candidates will remember one hiring process out of dozens they went through months ago
This approach doesn’t work. It gives you vague info. No details. No timeline. No clear view of what’s broken or who’s affected.
Recruiters are juggling more than ever—job boards, scheduling tools, assessments, internal managers, outside recruiters. There are too many places where things can break down. Without feedback at every step, you don’t know what’s working and what’s not.
That’s what’s frustrating. Of course candidates are ghosting. Why wouldn’t they?
If you want to fix it, you need to focus on what the candidate goes through. Not what you think they go through.
Stop Complaining. Start Listening.
Want to fix job ghosting? Focus on reducing negative candidate experiences. Improve communication. Fix what’s confusing. Give people clear updates. Let them feel seen. Don’t just blame the job market dynamics.
Only by tracking the full experience—and caring about the results—can you improve. Complaining doesn’t solve it. Listening does.
FAQs
Why do candidates ghost interviews?
Candidates ghost interviews for different reasons. The most common one is that they got a better offer. But many also do it because they’ve had poor communication from the employer or felt like the process wasn’t respectful. A confusing process or bad experience can lead them to walk away without saying anything.
Is ghosting a candidate unprofessional?
Yes—but so is ghosting a candidate from the employer side. It goes both ways. Ghosting isn’t ideal, but in today’s job market, many candidates feel it’s fair after being ignored or treated poorly themselves.
Is it rude to ghost an interview?
It’s not polite—but it happens more often when candidates feel like they’re just a number. If people feel like they weren’t treated as individuals, they’re less likely to care about responding. Respectful communication encourages respectful behavior in return.
Is ghosting worse than rejection?
Ghosting feels worse for both sides because there’s no closure. At least with rejection, you know where you stand. A lot of candidates would prefer to hear “no” than nothing at all. That silence causes more frustration than a clear answer ever would.
