Recently, I went through 4 rounds of interviews. 3 via teams and the last was in person. The company flew me to their office to interview with the VPs. They said they would have a decision the following week. I asked them to let me know one way or the other, but I haven't heard anything from them. I emailed hr and hiring manager 2 weeks after but they haven't responded. They were very responsive throughout interview process. I've never had this happen to me after a final interview, especially one that they flew me down for (and an interview I did well in)
I'm assuming I didn't get it but was hoping for some common courtesy. Anyone else have this happen to them? It seems pretty unprofessional.

I agree this is frustrating Brian. It has happened to me twice in the past. I would agree that you likely did not get the job and their could be several reasons why they haven't let you know. It doesn't make it any less frustrating, but I've learned to give others grace.

Need to find out if their first choice will take the job and are negotiating with them?

Recently had this happen where it seemed like they ghosted me. It wasn't as long as yours but they eventually responded and let me know they had gone with someone else and I was "really close" so I know I was not communicated with while they negotiated all of that etc.

Another week has passed, what's the latest?

TresPuertas said:

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Its threads like this that make me have no sympathy for companies whose employees leave them in the dust without notice.

We have strayed so far from the days where your work treated you like a human being and like family.

If you want my advice OP, and I know it sucks because you probably need the job, but this is a blessing. Any company that acts like this is not one you want to work for.

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I'd second this sentiment. It may not look like it now, when you might be desperate or bleeding money between jobs. But when you find the spot that pursues you, you'll look back and feel better about the journey.

Keep your head up and just remember your worth.

It's changed so much over the years. Professionalism is gone and I hate to say it but even I am now a very much selfish job seeker. Don't make me jump through hoops. Don't make me take a 3 hour personality test for a low paying job. You can spot the bad companies to work for a mile away by how they treat the interview process. I think it's a different world for people who haven't shifted around a lot (Mr Diesel included). It's tough out there and you just have to look out for you. Period

I've always hated interviewing.

People are chickens when it comes to telling you no, especially when they know they have led you on. In my industry, this is very very common. It's common in sales in general. Early in my career, if someone ghosted me like that, I would incessantly hound them until they returned an answer. Phone and email can be blocked. Use a Google voice or someone else's number to call. If you can get them on the phone then they typically won't just hang up, they have to say something. It should be easier when working with a business. I simply can't allow ghosting.

My wife interviewed with a Fortune 500 company about a year+ ago... Both rounds of interviews went great. She was surprised to never hear back and had to track them down to confirm no offer.

About half year later - via a friend of a friend who works in their HR-- wife came down to the final two, but the other candidate had cheaper salary requirements (based upon current jobs) and they went with that candidate. They actually liked the wife better, but were too cheap to make the higher offer.

Up until then my wife was frustrated why she wasn't offered the position and what she did. Still annoying they didn't have the courtesy to follow up with her promptly.

People have a fundamental misunderstanding of what HR does.

More internally than externally. They are never going to give an opinion about anything, their opinion weighs little to nothing in the process anyway, unless they are telling you "we have some diversity metrics we're behind on.

I run most panel interviews for a F200 company. They used to think they needed HR on those. I quit inviting them, because they could add nothing to our interview process, weren't attuned to make the choices (don't know every individual organization), and were never included in our thought process.

So at that level- I'd work up a recommendation, get it signed off by CFO, who would then forward to HR the approved recommendation. It never mentioned anything about the declined candidates. And unless we were specifically focused on a development need for a high-performing individual, that we were choosing to accept or pass on, HR would have no idea. Just doing what they're told.

People think HR has a lot of involvement with these things. They don't.

If you have an external recruiter, they CAN. Generally more connected with the hiring manager, who can speak more freely with them about who's in the mix, what exactly is being looked for, where the process sits, etc.

Unless you are good friends with upper level people internally, you're going to get little to nothing (and that's smart on HRs part), and they aren't going to tell you exactly what they know about the process (even after the fact). Unless you are the one in charge of hiring, then you can get more from them if you're navigating approval through upper levels.

A counterpoint. My wife just took a new job about a month ago. She left Big Law to do so after about 10 years, and went to work for a major bank. It took her about 5 months of interviews and, after her final interview, we didn't know for about 6 weeks one way or another. During that time, she had one positive indicator she was likely to get the job (an email from the headhunter). She did end up getting the job, it just apparently took an insane number of approvals because her salary requirement was higher than their pre-approved salary band. It did help that she didn't really need to leave, she just wanted to because the stress level is so much lower at a company than a law firm.

Apparently, these situations can work out positively, although I know it is disheartening as hell to go through numerous interviews and then get (or feel like you will get) ghosted. HR was not helpful in our situation, they're a nightmare at large companies.

EDIT: She loves her new job, so in the end it was worth it for her. Still doesn't like to deal with their HR though.

HR is a control function. They don't run a hiring process. They support it. A hiring manager runs it. Hiring manager makes most of the choices and ultimately has to sign off… everywhere, they have to be the ones run it. Bad hiring managers don't realize this.

There's a harsh reality here. Nobody is obligated to get back to you after an interview. Personally, that's not the way I do business but since nobody has to get back to you… you have to go in expecting people not to get back to you most of the time.

Yes had this happen to me years ago for a job that I saw right here on this board. Two Aggies in charge of the hiring. Went thru four rounds of interviews, met the team, got a tour, etc. I thought things went well and emailed the director a week later just to check in. Never heard another word from them.

ATM9000 said:

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Nobody is obligated to get back to you after an interview. Personally, that's not the way I do business but since nobody has to get back to you… you have to go in expecting people not to get back to you most of the time.

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When did it to become normal for companies to expect the highest level of professionalism and loyalty while not having any of their own toward employees and potential employees?

If anyone (suppliers, employees, lending institutions) provided the same level of interaction, there would be hell to pay. And people wonder why big bad corporate is now becoming the devil in politics and society.

People don't get back to anyone anymore because someone in HR decided it was less risky to not provide feedback so that a company didn't admit they were violating a labor law. So that's now the norm instead of ensuring you aren't breaking a labor law and providing quality feedback to candidates that want to work for you. So the hiring process gets worse communication, more convolution, and less "human" touch every day. And of course that leads to a broken process and the companies complaining about not getting the talent they want to apply. Even if they did and bad AI and ignorant HR employees and policies rejected them before a hiring manager would know.

Funny how that works. As soon as a person no longer needs something from someone, they don't follow up. Definitely frustrating when you're looking for a job - when you at a minimum have your hopes up, but more frequently are somewhat desperate - but the lack of follow through, especially in an uncomfortable situation, is more common than what we demand out of HR/hiring managers.

Still, I hate HR.

AgLA06 said:

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ATM9000 said:

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Nobody is obligated to get back to you after an interview. Personally, that's not the way I do business but since nobody has to get back to you… you have to go in expecting people not to get back to you most of the time.

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When did it to become normal for companies to expect the highest level of professionalism and loyalty while not having any of their own toward employees and potential employees?

If anyone (suppliers, employees, lending institutions) provided the same level of interaction, there would be hell to pay. And people wonder why big bad corporate is now becoming the devil in politics and society.

People don't get back to anyone anymore because someone in HR decided it was less risky to not provide feedback so that a company didn't admit they were violating a labor law. So that's now the norm instead of ensuring you aren't breaking a labor law and providing quality feedback to candidates that want to work for you. So the hiring process gets worse communication, more convolution, and less "human" touch every day. And of course that leads to a broken process and the companies complaining about not getting the talent they want to apply. Even if they did and bad AI and ignorant HR employees and policies rejected them before a hiring manager would know.

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for starters, I don't think companies expect loyalty… and employees let alone potential employees shouldn't expect 'loyalty'. Professionalism, ethical behavior… yes, expect those. Loyalty though? No.

People not getting back to folks has everything to do with folks being scared of hard conversations and nothing to do with HR. I get back to folks who don't get jobs and tell them why as a hiring manager. My HR department neither asks me to nor tells me I can't and I suspect that's the case everywhere because a mandate like don't give people feedback would be a ballache to manage. Most HR functions send a form letter out when a candidate has been rejected in their internal system automatically.

When people don't hear news back from a company, it is almost always a lazy hiring manager. It's the ones who moan about HR not doing their jobs because they only get bad candidates and expect the right people for their jobs to just be delivered on a neat silver platter. And it's the same type of folks… they all take months to hire simple positions, do jack**** to keep up their own network so don't even know what they are looking for and then never call folks back to hold their networks in the future because they are so exhausted from letting the hiring process own them that they have no energy to call people and give them bad news. You can usually tell in an interview process if they know what they are any good just by asking what their main objective with the hire is. And if an application to interview process takes months and months? That's also a sign of a bad manager.