Back in March, I began the interview process with an organization in Arlington, VA. Their mission aligned with my aspirations and values, so I was certainly excited.

So went the process: video conference with the HR manager, followed by another video conference with who would have been my immediate supervisor and then, finally,  a second meeting with said supervisor and the organization’s executive director in person. The time table of these three meetings was between March 11th and April 18th, with the organization informing me that they would let me know of their decision one way or the other. “We don’t leave candidates hanging,” the HR manager, told me. “We just don’t do that.”

Sadly, after those meetings: crickets. Every email sent to check on the status of the position was a one-way conversation in a cemetery. All correspondence had ceased. I was effectively ghosted. However, towards the end of April, I discovered the position posted again online, and reached out again for clarification, but never receiving a response. For me, that was the official confirmation that they decided to look elsewhere, and that I should to. So, I continued doing what I have been doing since 2020, while also starting the application process for grad school.

But then an unexpected message from the dead arrived in my inbox.

On the 28th of June–more than two months of ghosting me–the organization finally reached out to finally inform me that they decided to pursue someone else.

Ghosting job candidates in such a horrific market as we are in now is already one of the most humiliating actions that we can’t seem to shake from our hiring processes.

But to come back from the dead after so much time ignoring inquiries–especially after knowing that the candidate knows that you posted the position again–to inform them that they didn’t get the job is beyond humiliating. I dare say it is unethical and inhumane. Ghosting needs to go away.

However, if you are going to continue this God-awful practice of ghosting candidates, don’t suddenly come back from the dead with bad news. Your silence answered their multiple inquiries very clearly. Just stay dead.

As the great Stephen King put it in Pet Sematary:

“Sometimes, dead is better.”