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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.wsj.com/articles/job-interview-etiquette-isnt-just-for-the-applicants-11562578204\nMitch O'Connell\nWork & Family\nJob-Interview Etiquette Isn’t Just for the Applicants\nIn a tight hiring market, it’s more important than ever for employers to avoid poor behavior like ghosting job seekers after meeting with them\nSue Shellenbarger\nSue.Shellenbarger@wsj.com\nJuly 8, 2019 5:30 am ET\nIllustration: Mitch O'Connell\nEmployers are battling to hire skilled employees in one of the tightest labor markets in 50 years. So they must be courting job seekers, wooing them with care and consideration—right?\nSome hiring managers apparently didn’t get the memo.\nA growing number of job applicants are being ghosted—interviewing for jobs, then getting no follow-up response from the employer. Others say employers’ dismissive handling of their applications or interviews is leaving them cold.\nYechiel Kalmenson took a full day off a previous job, without pay, to interview at another company. Then—nothing. He got no replies to a series of emails to the company for weeks, says Mr. Kalmenson, a Brooklyn software engineer. He finally gave up.\nMr. Kalmenson considers such behavior toward applicants a sign of how an employer is likely to treat its employees. “Being ghosted may be a disappointment, but it probably saves you from a more lasting disappointment down the road,” he says.\nEmployers often complain about job seekers who disappear, but companies’ vanishing act does serious damage too, with lasting effects on their reputation on the labor market, says Brian Kropp, chief of human-resources research for Gartner Inc. “If you treat candidates poorly during the recruiting process, they’re going to tell their friends. You could get away with that in 2009, but you can’t get away with it in 2019,” he says.\nIt also damages companies’ image among consumers. More than 3 in 5 job seekers say being treated badly would make them less likely to buy the company’s products, according to a 2017 survey of 438 job seekers and 616 employers by Future Workplace and Career Arc. While 91% of employers agree that candidates’ experience can affect their buying decisions, only 26% bother to measure how well they’re doing.\nGhosting by employers isn’t new, but changes in hiring practices are making it more common. Employers are taking nearly twice as long to hire new people as they did a decade ago. By the time companies make and negotiate an offer with their No. 1 choice, so much time has passed that it’s easier to neglect notifying Nos. 2, 3 and 4.\nAfter an interview for a job at a university, Lori Bumgarner repeatedly emailed and called her contacts there for weeks—but heard nothing.\nPhoto: Maria Gloer\nThe extended hiring process also raises the stakes for applicants, who must invest more time and energy. Many are asked to show off their skills by creating plans or presentations. Lori Bumgarner was asked during interviews for a university job to come up with an idea for a new program. “I felt like I’d nailed it,” and interviewers seemed excited, says Ms. Bumgarner, who has experience as a college career advisor.\nAfter she went home, she repeatedly emailed and called her contacts there for weeks—but heard nothing, she says. The position she had applied for remained unfilled for more than a year, says Ms. Bumgarner, a Nashville, Tenn., career coach.\n“It made me wonder, did they hold interviews just to get ideas?” she says.\nOf course, hiring is fraught for employers too. “It’s actually quite hard to say no to somebody you like, who has good skills, and tell them that you’ve picked somebody else. It’s a lot easier not to return a phone call,” Mr. Kropp says.\nMany employers overlook that applicants would rather have closure than be left in limbo. “‘Yes’ may be best, but ‘no’ is better than ‘maybe,’” says New York career coach Judith Gerberg.\nWhat job-seeking or hiring advice would you pass on to others? Join the conversation below.\nOnly 2 out of 5 front-line managers are trained in how to make the hiring process a positive experience for candidates, a 2017 CareerBuilder survey says. The training they do receive tends to be defensive in nature, on avoiding charges of illegal discrimination. This can make them doubly reluctant to contact losing candidates, for fear that in delivering the news, they’ll open themselves somehow to charges of race, gender or other bias.\nEmployers are stepping up use of video interviewing to reach a more diverse pool of applicants. This is a good thing—but it can reflect badly on the company if its interviewers aren’t comfortable using the gear. One job candidate at a Midwestern university logged on with a recruiter who fumbled the video connection, then seemed baffled by the interface, says Mary O. Scott, a West Hartford, Conn., consultant who conducts campus research for employers.\n“She kept telling him that his head looked too big,” Ms. Scott says. “And she was looking up questions on Google.” Such stories spread like wildfire on campus. Students often conclude that the employer doesn’t care to invest much in the recruiting process or in them as candidates, damaging the company’s reputation, she says.\n“ When a company made an offer and then withdrew it, ‘it was a huge emotional rollercoaster—and a turnoff.’ ”\n— Software developer Ryan Farney\nOther employers confuse applicants by changing their hiring goals midstream. Software developer Ryan Farney received an offer last year from managers who told him they needed to assemble a team quickly, says Mr. Farney, of San Rafael, Calif. Then they withdrew the offer, saying they’d decided to look for a more experienced candidate. Two weeks later, Mr. Farney was signing an offer from his current employer when the first company called him again, with another offer. “It was a huge emotional rollercoaster—and a turnoff,” he says.\nOther companies alienate applicants by posting misleading job descriptions. James L. Nicholas says job postings he encountered during a recent search appeared to be full-time jobs, but turned out to be temporary or contractor positions. When he arrived for an interview, he was hit by a sales pitch: “You’d be blessed to be here, you’ll be with the best of the best, you could make so much money,” says Mr. Nicholas, of Clarendon Hills, Ill. “They sounded like Alec Baldwin in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross. ’”\nIt’s difficult for job seekers to avoid being ghosted or mistreated, but there are a few things you can do to lessen the risk. Research the prospective employer carefully, talking with past and present employees. Ask early in the interview process about the employer’s timeline, whether it’s firm, and if they’ll be contacting people who aren’t offered a job, as well as those who are, Ms. Bumgarner says.\n“And if you still get ghosted,” she adds, “be thankful that you probably dodged a bullet.”\nA Job Seeker’s Bill of Rights\nEmployers interviewing candidates should strive to:\n* Make sure your job postings accurately describe the openings.\n* Acknowledge applicants’ resumes soon after they’re received.\n* Train hiring managers to treat all applicants well.\n* Keep candidates informed about where they stand.\n* Let applicants know if you change course in the middle of a search.\n* Leave the losers as well as the winners with a positive image of the company.\nWrite to Sue Shellenbarger at Sue.Shellenbarger@wsj.com\nMore Work & Family\nWork & Family Mailbox: Sue Shellenbarger Answers Readers’ Questions January 1, 2020\nShow Conversation Hide Conversation (83)"