You’re scrolling on LinkedIn and see your dream role. You take hours refining your CV to suit the job description and work on your cover letter to explain why you’d be such a good fit for the company… only to submit your application and never hear anything back.

We’ve all been there – desperate for a reply from a potential employer who never responds. And, while ‘ghosting’ may typically lend itself to describing matches on Hinge who never message you back or the person you start texting who just stops replying, the concept has found its way into the world of careers, too.

It appears to be such a prevalent issue that CV Genius has published an ‘Employer Ghosting Report’ after finding that 56% of UK employers may have ghosted job applicants during the recruitment process. If a candidate is unsuccessful, many hiring managers said they just wouldn’t bother getting back to explain why, with two in 10 saying they “don’t have a problem” with ghosting applicants.

While popular jobs will always have lots of applicants, expecting a hiring manager to respond doesn’t seem like asking for the world – most of us would say it’s common courtesy. “It’s an incredibly frustrating experience to put effort into your CV and job interview only to have the employer disappear on you,” says Seb Morgan, a careers expert at CV Genius. “Employers might not always have the time to write personalised rejection letters, but job seekers deserve better than just radio silence. We need to address this trend and help job seekers stay resilient in the face of it.”

Aside from poor communication skills, the research outlines that other factors may be at play, with CVs never reaching the right hiring manager for the job due to complicated processes or the position never being filled also leading to applicants being ignored. If you have submitted a job application and are still yet to hear back, career experts at CV Genius recommend the following three steps:

1. Follow up. Send an email or make a phone call a week or two weeks after you’ve submitted the application.
2. Ask for feedback. Hiring managers are often busy, but there’s no harm in asking for feedback on your application, especially as this could help you make changes for the next tole you apply for.
3. Keep looking for other roles. It can be easy to get hung up on what you think is the ‘dream’ role, but you should always be proactive in your job search.

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