Most Candidates Still Hear Nothing about Job Application Status

 New word from CareerBuilder indicates that the vast majority of job candidates never hear from employers after submitting a resume. The company reports that 75 percent of job seekers applying for a job never heard back from the company despite 82 percent of workers expecting to hear back from a company on whether or not it is interested in a candidate, or even just an acknowledgement of receipt. Companies who were recipients of a Candidate Experience Award fared considerably better with 78 percent of respondents reporting receiving an acknowledgement of application receipt and over half of applicants receiving a note describing next steps.

Regardless of the company, only an overall 53 percent of candidates would apply again with a majority willing to share their experience with their social media networks and blogs. Specifically, 22 percent said they would tell others not to work at a company should they be unhappy with the application process. An additional 42 percent of applicants would never apply to the company again.

“From the second job seekers are viewing your job ad and applying to your company, they are forming an opinion of who are you as an employer and as a business,” said CareerBuilder’s Senior Director of Talent Intelligence, Sanja Licina. “One bad applicant experience can have a ripple effect with candidates not only vocalizing their dissatisfaction with how they were treated, but encouraging others not to apply or even buy products from that company.”

In regards to their experiences, 26 percent of respondents reported a “lack of follow through, inconsistencies from the employer, or poor representation of the company’s brand. The primary cause of a bad experience was never hearing back on a decision after an interview, reported by 60 percent of respondents. Finally, 43 percent said a bad experience was defined by finding that a job did not match its job positing.