Recruiters Repeatedly Ignoring

Curious to hear what everyone would do in this position. I am currently looking around for internship opportunities, with no specific plan in mind. I found a role that I am interested in here at a bank in the Netherlands and reached out to the recruiters to learn more.


I initially emailed, with a very small cover letter and CV on March 12th, and received a reply one week later asking me to send an email to a colleague, who was cc'd. I should include here for context - I was very much just putting out feelers, and at the time still doing another internship, so I did not respond to this for a month. I figured, at least for a while, that the other recruiter would see my email in the thread due to being cc'd, and follow up - but that never happened. 


On April 12th, I sent a new email to the correct recruiter, which went unnoticed. A follow-up on May 4th, just the same. I managed to get a WhatsApp number from a page on the bank's website, and although I haven't called, I have sent two messages that were seen but also ignored. Finally, one week ago, I responded to the initial recruiter asking for another contact, shockingly, still waiting for a response.


All messages were polite, so I can't imagine it's spiteful. I don't mind the rejection, perhaps my profile just isn't the right fit right now - but a response is a small courtesy, allowing me to then move on to focus on other positions. 


Has anyone been in this position before, what did you do? My concern is that should I give up prior to being informed of a rejection reason - I am giving up what could potentially be a large opportunity, all because of a small interaction with just two people.

 
Most Helpful

I think the advice here is to move on - the role was likely filled by the time you responded (one month later), or you weren't the right candidate. Recruiters care about recruiters and getting paid - if you were right, they'd have acted. It isn't nice for them to not respond, or professional, but it's very common, especially at the junior level. Don't pester them and risk being remembered in a bad light.

As a bit of "tough love" advice, it was neither polite of you to ignore their message for a month, whatever the reason. I know internships can be busy, but it does indicate a lack of interest on your part (or it might make the recruiter think you're playing "hard to get", which will only antagonise them), which might have been a red flag. I'd always suggest to reply promptly and make their lives easy.

Good luck finding other roles!

 

Literally no one will give you a reason for rejection. It's a legal issue so you don't sue.

You were dinged because you took a MONTH to respond to the recruiter, this isn't rocket science here. 24 hours is acceptable, 48 hours if you must - if you come back a month later you are getting deleted.

Seriously stop reaching out, it's creepy at this point. Also most jobs you will never hear back from so if they don't respond after maybe 2 follow ups, just move on. 

 

Thanks for your response. I think the crucial point here is that all information was included in the original email, which the second recruiter would also have seen. As such, being relatively impartial to the outcome, I felt I had fulfilled my duties as an applicant. I agree that the timeline was perhaps a little extended in hindsight, but I'm interested to hear why you think I'm entirely at fault given these circumstances. Would you ignore an email in your inbox just because you were cc'd and not directly mailed? I wouldn't

 

Recruiters are busy and they have literally hundreds of candidates to deal with. The month to reply thing is a total dealbreaker - when there are 50 candidates who respond to emails within the hour, as a college student (or early career) you are just giving them easy reasons to ding you at that point.

As for not responding, your resume was probably not quite what they were looking for and she's not going to type out a long rejection on the spot.

Also I'm not clear if you CCed her initially or if the other recruiter added her, but either way, the onus is on you as a prospective candidate to reach out. These are not executive recruiters looking for a CEO and you're some exceptionally qualified person. You are someone with no to little full-time experience trying to get them to give you a job, it's on you.

I maintain that you're at fault with this one - but hey, lots of learning to take away from this. Be responsive to a fault, be proactive if someone gives you a person to reach out to, and don't follow up excessively/on multiple platforms as that's standing out in a very bad way. There are plenty of other jobs out there and you can apply some of this to your next recruiting process

 

Food for thought, recruiters are your best friend if they think they can make money off you. And they talk. You're gonna get ghosted, a lot, especially in this market. You piss one off, it can carry to others... it's like every few years someone's ridiculous cover letter makes waves around every bank on the street.

Hard not to take personally, but humbling when you realize how many phenomenal candidates there are. I'd suggest answering sooner, and if they don't answer a follow up email, drop it.

 

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