Absolutely demoralizing. I applied and waited three weeks just to hear back. When a recruiter finally reached out, he went on PTO before our scheduled screening, so I ended up speaking with someone else. She was kind, professional, and I genuinely wish I had continued with her instead of the original recruiter, who lacked basic follow-through and professionalism.
I was later passed to the hiring manager, who came across as disorganized and spent most of the time speaking negatively about the last person in the role. She asked questions like whether I knew how to use MS Word, which was honestly insulting. I prepared thoroughly for STAR-based behavioral questions, and none were asked. The entire interview felt thrown together.
She mentioned she would be going on PTO but wanted to move things forward and even asked for my availability for a third interview, then completely ghosted me, even after two well-written follow-ups. After hearing nothing for weeks, I finally reached out to the original recruiter again. He assured me I was still being “highly considered,” so I sent an updated resume, a new certification, and a recommendation letter. I followed up one more time and was hit the next morning with a generic auto-rejection email.
Two months of effort, down the drain. No closure, no professionalism, no compassion. This experience showed me how disorganized and careless the internal team is when it comes to candidate communication. If I had been offered the role, I would have seriously reconsidered accepting based on how poorly this was handled.