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Comment by mamidon | Hacker News Reader

I recently did a few interviews & was shocked at how often I would complete an entire loop (coffee chat, tech screen, full-day 'onsite') only to be completely ghosted. I'm totally fine with rejection, I don't think I've ever done better than 50/50 for an offer, but it's super unprofessional to just ghost someone who's given you 5+ hours.

It's not that hard to just send a "thanks but no thanks" email.

To name names: Flymachine.io, Boulevard, and Pepper.

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Even an automated email is better than no reply. Past companies that I interviewed that ghosts me, I would never apply again in the future. It’s just basic manners. Having too many candidates is not an excuse. Especially if you want to hire senior programmers because we always remember. HR is usually the first impression candidates have with the company and it’s a lasting one. This is also why HR and recruiters are viewed so poorly with many programmers.

Naming names, AWS ghosted me after a full day of interviews. Actually that entire process was a charlie foxtrot. Not that I think I earned an offer in that interview, but they didn't earn an acceptance either.

I had the same experience with Adidas in Europe. I went through 3 rounds of remote interviews, then went to Herzogenaurach for an onsite, two days, then nothing. I understand if they didn't like me or they liked someone more, but ghosting at that point makes you feel like shit.

I have a theory that companies do this when they don't trust their own hiring process. They're waiting for you to ring them and say, "Hey, I've got an offer from X? Are you guys going to get off the pot?"

More straightforward explanation is that the candidate is perfectly fine for the role so they don't want to send a rejection email, but then they have another candidate or idea for the role so they want to wait and see how that pans out first.

A month later, they've forgotten they've still got a candidate or two to say no to, or figure you're probably not waiting on tenterhooks for an answer.

I once followed up and the manager invited me onsite just to explain me in person that I get rejected... I took a day off for that.

hate to say it but I've been trained to assume it's a no unless I get a yes within a week.

You're not wrong, same assumption I make too.

I’ve only ever had positive responses with 24 hours (usually a lot less) or nothing at all. The nothings are usually not a surprise.

I always ask potential employers to walk me through the process they need to follow to make a decision on me (visualisation = realisation ?) and also ask for quick feedback (but not with any BS about competing offers).

I think this shows them you take their offer seriously and have plenty of experience of the hiring process, so maybe you’re less likely to get messed about ?

to name names - Microsoft, its been over a month and no response after onsite loop.

Boulevard actually reached out to me & apologized, apparently the 2 people working with me both left the company. If there's a good reason for someone to fall through the cracks, I suppose that would definitely be it!

I can say that I've otherwise had a great experience with Boulevard.

Thanks for sharing the company names, I respect that!

Never heard of any of those names, so you dodged a few turds!

There are hundreds of thousands of tech companies in the US. There are bound to be good companies many of us have never heard of. Name recognition seems like a poor filter function with numbers this large.

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