[Linux-aus] Ghosted?

[James Tobin]

1. The recruiter had a strong working relationship with the employer’s
CTO, spanning around 10 years;
2. The CTO recently retired, and another manager—who may now hold more
influence—has possibly stepped into a more prominent role;
3. The recruiter had prior negative interactions with this manager,
which were reported to both HR and the former CTO. These issues
included:
a) Unfounded reasons for rejecting qualified applicants;
b) Frequent changes in hiring location preferences;
c) Inappropriate comments directed at the recruiter and allegedly at
candidates during interviews.
4. Despite typically submitting only a small number of resumes per
role, the recruiter consistently maintained a high success rate in
placements;
5. In a recent engagement, the recruiter reconnected with a manager
they had previously worked with—one with whom there were no prior
issues;
6. After submitting two well-qualified candidates, HR abruptly
terminated the contract and declined to provide any feedback—an action
that was out of character for the employer, who had historically
offered constructive input on candidate submissions.

On Sun, 27 Jul 2025 at 03:11, Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen at shikadi.net> wrote:
>
> > 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.