[Linux-aus] Ghosted?

[Adam Nielsen]

> 1. The recruiter wants to give feedback;
> 2. The employer is opting not to provide any feedback;
> 3. The employer abruptly cancelled their recruiting contract (in
> effect for some time) as soon as I was introduced;
> 4. The employer historically provided feedback to the recruiter for
> other candidates they introduced to other jobs.
> 
> Is this how employers should behave?

My own employer once abruptly cancelled their contract with a recruiter
after they sent us a number of people who looked good on paper but it
quickly became apparent after they started that they didn't know what
they were doing.

Turns out the recruiter had been given some questions to ask potential
applicants (like a sort of test) to see if they knew their stuff, and
despite being told not to, the recruiter had been giving out the
questions to applicants so they could go home and Google all the
answers.  No surprise they came back looking so great.

No employer would cancel a recruiter's contract because they received
one poor application, so it's very unlikely to be related to your
application.  The fact that the recruiter's whole contract was cancelled
means there's more to it - the employer must've been very unhappy with
the recruiter's performance for some time, and it was just unfortunate
you happened to get involved right at the end.

Have you heard from the employer directly?  If you're only hearing this
through the recruiter, I'd be willing to bet they never submitted your
application before their contract was cancelled, and they're just trying
to blame the employer to save face.  It would make sense that the
employer supposedly can't give any feedback, if they never received your
application in the first place due to the recruiter's contract being
terminated.

However unless you signed any contracts yourself with the employer
there's nothing you can do (aside from going down the rather difficult
discrimination path as others have mentioned).  This is why we always
tell our applicants to never resign from their current position until
they receive an official offer letter of appointment, because up until
then there's no guarantee of anything and the employer could walk away
at any moment for any reason without penalty.

If you still really want to work for that employer, find out who their
new recruiter is and apply through them, and maybe this time your
application might make it through.

Cheers,
Adam.