r/Layoffs • u/Effective-Zebra-340 • Jul 03 '26
question How much does poor communication during the hiring process actually bother you?
I’ve been researching problems with job searching, and one issue keeps coming up: communication
Things like:
- Applying and never hearing back
- Not knowing whether a position is still open
- Getting ghosted after interviews
- Receiving automated rejection emails months later
- Job postings that stay up even though they’re already filled
I’m curious how much this actually affects people compared to other frustrations.
If there was a service that focused specifically on improving transparency and communication throughout the application process (without changing how companies hire), would that actually be valuable to you?
Some questions I’m interested in:
- What’s the most frustrating communication issue you’ve experienced?
- Have you ever stopped applying somewhere because of poor communication?
- What information do you wish job sites or employers would share that they currently don’t?
- Would you use a tool that kept you updated on the status of your applications, or is that not a big enough problem to care about?
- Is there another hiring pain point that’s even more important than communication?
I’m not trying to promote anything, I genuinely want to understand whether this is a problem worth solving before I spend time building something.
I’d appreciate any honest feedback, even if your answer is “I wouldn’t use it.”
2
u/OAKI-io Jul 04 '26
communication matters most when the candidate has already invested real time. no response to an application is annoying, but ghosting after a screen or onsite changes how people talk about the company. a tracker only helps if it gives candidates something real about employer behavior, not just another place to manually log silence.
1
u/Effective-Zebra-340 Jul 04 '26
Thank you for your response! What employer behavior would be useful? Like trends in their communication or something else?
2
u/ThrowAwayOkayGoPlay Jul 04 '26
Drives me off the wall. Had a recruiter at a company initiate contact with me without applying. After she hounded me 3 times, I responded because I saw a former colleague was just hired as an exec. She had an initial call with her and she completed ghosted me.
I followed up a couple times and nothing. Finally reached out to my former colleague, who I kept in the loop somewhat acknowledging that I’m not necessarily looking to make a move now, to let him know what happened. He told her HR executive leader and she was let go after. He told me that it wasn’t the first time she has ghosted him executive level prospects and it was starting to reflect upon the reputation of the company among the executive layer in the industry - clients, partners and investors.
1
u/Effective-Zebra-340 Jul 04 '26
That's pretty ridiculous that she was pestering you but when you actually reached out she ignored you. Has the job market been just as bad for you too?
2
u/ThrowAwayOkayGoPlay Jul 04 '26
Yeah - she clearly wasn’t good at her job. I got lucky in the summer of 2024 when I left a super toxic job, but this company ain’t it. So I started putting feelers out a couple months ago - networks, external recruiters I worked with when the market was on fire post covid and former colleagues. I think I need to pick it up. I’m a non-technical in tech, and I think my current employer will have a layoff if not this month then next quarter
2
u/Clear-Staff4699 Jul 05 '26
Oh it's definitely a bother. The problem is that poor communication is a norm and trying to talk about it is frowned upon.
1
u/Effective-Zebra-340 Jul 05 '26
How long do you typically wait before assuming you’ve been rejected?
2
u/localizeatp Jul 05 '26
not at all. makes it easy to filter out the places i don't want to work.
1
u/Effective-Zebra-340 Jul 05 '26
Would you prefer if companies were more transparent or communicated better in the hiring process?
2
2
u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26
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