Rejected, then recruited for the same role
After 12 years with one employer, a senior software engineer rebuilt 96 days of recruitment from a LinkedIn export and email records. The count reached 106 applications and 112 tracks once recruiter-led approaches were included.
Only 16 made it as far as an assessment, screening call or interview. Three ended in an explicit rejection. For 104 tracks, the author could find no conclusive outcome — missing data, they stress, not evidence that every company deliberately ghosted them.
One rejection covered a Senior Software Engineer, AI role. Fourteen days later, a recruiter from the same company appeared on LinkedIn about the same title.
An application count understates the work here: recruiter-led approaches brought the author’s total from 106 applications to 112 recruitment tracks. Sixteen moved beyond submission to an assessment, screening call or interview.
The 104 inconclusive tracks measure what the author could recover from LinkedIn and email records. They do not establish employer intent; the author explicitly distinguishes missing outcomes from proof of deliberate ghosting.
The same-title approach 14 days after rejection left the author’s records showing two conflicting signals from one employer. Alongside assessments required before meaningful human contact, it shows how much candidate effort can accumulate without a coherent human process.