Seven rounds of silence

A recruitment process can demand hours of a candidate’s time and still offer no human answer.

The account behind “I am tired!” says the search has lasted six months and 500 applications: “I’ve been job searching long enough (6 months, 500 applications).” The number is stark. The rest of the post shows what those applications cost.

One process reached seven interview rounds. The candidate says: “I completed 7 interview rounds (incl. 3 hours in person) and met 13 people, only to be ghosted for five weeks before receiving a generic rejection.” Seven rounds can involve a lot of employer attention. Five weeks of silence is a decision to withhold even a basic update.

Another process ended with less effort from the employer and more uncertainty for the candidate: “I completed 6 rounds somewhere else and received the rejection from an automated system.” The system delivered the answer. Nobody appears to have delivered the conversation.

The burden also shows up before an interview. The post describes forms that “require you to manually enter every job, date, qualification, and responsibility from the résumé you just uploaded.” Uploading a résumé and then retyping it turns an application into unpaid clerical work.

The assessments keep multiplying: “I have completed personality tests, cognitive assessments, and games involving so many squares, triangles, and circles that I now resent basic geometry.” Each test may be presented as a filter. Together, they make the candidate carry more of the process while learning less about the role.

The post’s closing request is basic: “But surely we can agree that candidates are people, seven rounds are too many, scheduled calls should be honored, and ‘careful consideration’ should take longer than it takes to reheat a cup of coffee.” That is the measure. A recruitment system can automate messages and add assessments, but it still has to account for the person waiting on the other side.