Ghosting has become a huge problem because great candidates are getting not just one offer, but multiple. And instead of being honest and upfront with recruiters and companies, they leave them in the dark when they find something better.
Why Ghosting Can Hurt Your Reputation
Everyone will understand if you get a better offer. But just dropping off and not telling a recruiter what happened will only hurt you and your reputation. Accepting an offer from a company but not showing up for your first day of work, is just wrong. You can’t go around pretending you didn’t have people helping you in this process… And when you burn them, you can’t just think that it won’t come back to bite you.
When working with a recruiter they are taking their time to help you find your next awesome position. They do this job in hopes of helping candidates grow and reach their career goals. If you end up ghosting them, all that time, effort, personal connection, working with companies, is wasted. And it stings knowing they put all that effort into you just for you to not show up to your first day of work or never respond to an offer.
What You Can Do Instead of Ghosting a Recruiter
Telling someone you are going in a different direction when you know about all the work they did for you, is hard! But ghosting them is so much worse. You burn a bridge with someone that will be there to help you through your next career moves. If you accepted an offer and ended up not showing up to work, you not only burned the recruiter bridge, you burned a company one as well. Like the saying goes, the world is small, and depending on your career, it can be even smaller.
So, to avoid burning those bridges, be honest. If you have other offers on the table, tell your recruiter! They can then give that information to the companies looking at you. If you’ve decided to go another route and don’t want to leave your current position, tell your recruiter! If you’ve received a better offer, after already accepting one for another company, tell your recruiter so they can help explain what happened to the employer. Never leave them in the dark to get burned.
If you do these things, you’ll never have to worry about your career being hurt over ghosting. It will help you stay accountable and in all honesty, all recruiters want is for you to find your next dream job. And they will understand if that isn’t through them. And if you make sure not to burn that bridge, you never know, they could end up finding you an even better position in the future.
