06/10/2026
I saw Michelle Raue's video talking about recruiters and the "ghosting" phenomenon and wanted to post a reaction.
I've been hearing this from a lot of people recently, not just Michelle. To be honest, I could spend an hour talking about this topic and what I think is really going on here.
A couple of points I didn't make in the video that I want to be clear about.
There are bad apple recruiters out there.
From where I sit, these people are more often on the agency side, either over-extending themselves for more commission at the expense of candidates, or they are generalists recruiting in an industry they know very little about. They reach out to every claims examiner they can find without knowing the difference between general liability and auto liability.
Most recruiters, even ones who do ghost people, do not wake up in the morning with the intention of making people feel this way. Recruiters in a lot of cases, but especially on the corporate side, meaning they work as an employee for the company they are recruiting for, have little to no say in the process.
No recruiter thinks it is a good idea to have a six round interview process, or to keep a candidate on the hook for three weeks, or to low ball someone.
These decisions, or lack of decisions, are made by hiring managers and leadership teams who often have little visibility into how their process is actually being experienced on the other side.
The recruiter is frequently the last person in the room with any power to change it and the first person to get blamed when it goes wrong.
The real issue is not recruiters. It is companies not taking ownership of the candidate experience as a reflection of their brand.
Curious where you land on this. Have you experienced this as a candidate, a recruiter, or on the hiring side?
Drop it in the comments, I would love to hear your perspective.
