How Indecision Turns Into Ghosting
A few years back, I had a candidate in the final round of a search. He interviewed the day before the stretch between Christmas and New Year’s.
I figured we wouldn’t hear anything until the holidays were over, but I pushed my client for an answer anyway. None came. When everyone was back, I still didn’t have one. So I waited. I told myself I’d hear something tomorrow, and then I’d call him.
Tomorrow kept not coming. The holidays, an indecisive client I’d worked with for years, and my own “I’ll surely hear by tomorrow” thinking all stacked up, and the silence just kept growing. I knew better.
I’ve built a career on telling companies not to do exactly this. But I let it ride, one more day at a time, and the candidate heard nothing from me for far too long.
He eventually wrote me a scathing email, and he was right to. I apologized. And then, a full week after that email, the client’s answer finally came. The wait I’d been protecting was never going to be worth it. I lost the candidate for good, and I don’t blame him.
Silence Is a Decision
When a decision maker goes quiet and won’t give you an answer, the candidate hears it as an answer anyway, the worst possible version of one.
Now I do something I didn’t do then. When a client stalls past the point of fairness to a candidate, I create the “no” myself. If the behavior tells me the answer, an indecisive client, a role that’s cooled, weeks of nothing, I close the loop for the candidate on my client’s behalf, even without a formal decision in hand.
I’d rather deliver a clean no than let someone twist in silence waiting on a company that can’t make up its mind.
I’ve been doing it that way ever since, and I haven’t been wrong yet.
Closing the Interview Cycle
The last few years have been challenging for employers. Hiring has been uneven, and turnover has run higher than many expected. Many teams responded by investing in employer brand, and it worked: applications went up and pipelines expanded. Then the market shifted.
Instead of a few applicants per role, there are now hundreds. Pipelines are fuller, and it’s easier to bring multiple candidates through the process. That part improved. What hasn’t kept pace is how the process ends.
Candidates go through multiple rounds and then hear nothing. No update, no response, no closure. For many, that experience stands out more than the interview itself. Most candidates who make it through several rounds see ghosting as one of the worst parts of the process, and that reaction isn’t surprising.
Most people have faced job uncertainty at some point, with real financial pressure and stress, especially when timelines stretch and communication stops.
Just Close the Loop
At a minimum, every candidate in your process should get a response. Let them know when the process has concluded and share the decision once it’s made.
The message just needs to be clear, especially in a process that’s supposed to reflect how the company operates, something experienced software sales recruiters pay close attention to.
It can be as simple as this:
“Thank you for the time you invested in the process. We’ve decided to move forward with another candidate. We enjoyed getting to know you and hope you’ll consider us in the future.”
It takes a few minutes. In the moment, skipping it doesn’t feel like much. There’s no metric tied to it, and it rarely shows up in reporting. But candidates remember how they were treated, and that memory carries forward.
Why It’s Worth the Few Minutes
How you end the process affects your brand, your Glassdoor reviews, your reputation, and your future hiring outcomes. It also shapes how candidates judge the full experience, from interview through onboarding and early employee experience, especially when the process feels inconsistent from start to finish.
Avoiding ghosting just takes consistency about how you finish, and sometimes a recruiter willing to create the answer a client won’t. I learned that the hard way, from one candidate, one holiday season, and one silence I should have ended myself.
