From Ghosting to Stolen Identities, Jobseekers Share Their Spooky Candidate Stories

Hear candidates recount their scariest candidate experiences — and discover how you can avoid frightening potential employees away.

We’re huge fans of Halloween here at Jobvite, and with the spooky season being just a few days away, we wanted to get in the spirit by asking around to see if any of our staff or customers had any scary candidate experiences worth sharing.

Here’s a roundup of some of the most terrifying tales we heard, and how you can make sure the boogeyman of a poor candidate experience doesn’t darken your organization’s door!

*Some of the stories have been edited for clarity or length

A couple of classic ghost (ing) stories:

“I was once interviewing with a large pharmaceutical company and thought I had a great interview with the hiring manager. At the end of the interview, she walked me out, and said “I’ll talk to you soon,” which made me think that I was going to be advancing to the final round of interviews or receive an offer. I never heard back from her after several follow-up emails and a handwritten thank you card. I also didn’t hear back from the recruiter.  After a few months, I received a generic automated email saying that I was not selected for the position.”

— Katie R., Indianapolis

“I had an interview a couple of years ago. I took a 40-minute train ride to get there and spent a few hours preparing. Even though I was asked to meet with the hiring manager right away, she acted as if I had just popped in without a scheduled meeting and was intruding on her day. She finished the “interview” in less than 10 minutes, and then I never heard from the company again. And I was kind of happy I didn’t since it took me longer to get to the interview than the interview itself!”

— Mason N., San Francisco

With new anti-ghosting technology, you can rest easy knowing that your candidates won’t suffer from disappearing acts.

Talk about the ultimate ghostbusting tool, Jobvite’s bots ensure that neither candidates nor recruiters get left in the dark. By harnessing the power of AI, bots can anticipate questions candidates may have or recommend relevant content for recruiters to share with candidates like links to testing sites, a map of the interview location, etc. It may seem like a small thing, but when you can send the right information at the right time, it greatly decreases ghosting.

Plus, sending them fun, cultural employment branding content like videos and podcasts means they’re excited to meet you and become part of the team, which means recruiters aren’t haunted by a missing candidate.

The Case of the Stolen Identities (And Referrals):

“My high school friend, Shannon, referred me to work on her team at her company. Things were great, and it was a blast working together! But after a few months, we found out our manager, Christine, was fired for changing timecards, payroll, and stealing money from the company. She had also changed the referral form to her own name, instead of Shannon’s name for my hire, so she could receive the referral bonus.”

— Katie T., Ohio

With automated employee referrals, you can assign referrals to the right employees and increase retention and satisfaction.

Katie’s experience of stolen money and time by her manager is a true horror story! Thankfully, we don’t hear stories that extreme often. But it’s not the first time we’ve heard about missing referral bonuses. The good news is that using responsible technology brings a level of accountability and honesty during the hiring and retention process that we’ve not had before.

Our Employee Referral capabilities give you the power to manage all of your referral incentives without messy spreadsheets or calendar reminders, which means you can grow and track your referred candidates with precision. We provide the best possible referral experience to your employees by keeping them proactively updated on the status of their referred candidates, and you have control over where you want to generate referrals within your organization, focusing on high growth and hard-to-fill positions.

The Bloody Interview:

I was interviewing with a big company that had sent me an email when I was first asked to interview with helpful things like a parking map, directions, etc. Our interview was rescheduled a couple of times, so almost a month later, I went to this huge campus before realizing the directions to my interview location weren’t working. I called the number of the person I was communicating with several times and received no answer. I walked around asking for my interviewee’s name when I was finally directed to a building and an office…only to be told they just switched offices…to another building. By the time I found the right place, it was close to 45 minutes into my interview time, and I looked down to see that my high heels were filling with blood from breaking a toenail and walking around on it for almost an hour.

— Angie M., Texas

With AI-powered texts, you can schedule text reminders to candidates leading up to interviews and assessments.

How do you end the nightmare of the decreasing show-up rates for interviews? On average, 1 out of 10 candidates aren’t showing up for interviews, and for certain industries, like healthcare, that number can be even higher!

But sending AI-powered texts means that you can 1) Communicate with candidates wherever they are via mobile and 2) Use smart automation to guarantee they see relevant reminders at the most pivotal moments. Schedule reminders for upcoming interviews for 1 day, 3 days, and one week in advance. Send calendar or registration links so candidates can sign up for required testing in a regular cadence, so they feel informed, prepared, and don’t miss any opportunities. And when they do arrive, please make sure they know if you’re office has moved!

The Candidate Who Was Never There:

“My resume had my wrong phone number on it, and I handed it out at a career fair at college.”

— Jamie L., San Francisco

With an end-to-end recruiting platform, you can meet candidates wherever they are.

We thought we’d end with a scary story that isn’t a result of a poorly executed candidate experience. After all, sometimes even the best candidates can be their own worst enemies. Life happens, and we should be willing to build candidate journeys that are as versatile, adaptable, and forgiving as our candidates’ lives can require.

This is especially true now that we have the technology that enables candidates to submit their resumes and applications across their preferred channels — at any point in their recruiting and hiring process — and encourages quick text exchanges between candidates and recruiters in case a mistaken number is discovered.

Reach out today and discover how we can take the scary stories out of the recruiting world and leave them for the Halloween season where they belong.