Why do recruiters say they will help you and then ghost you?

Most of what you said is true—internal recruiters do have a job to do, and that job is to find the “best” warm body to fill a role for their company. External recruiters are hired by their clients to do the same, but with a layer of customer service on both ends—they’re representing their own agency and their client company to candidates.

When external recruiters ghost candidates, they risk burning bridges. That candidate may not have been the right fit for this role, but they might be the perfect fit for the next one. And let’s be real—external recruiting firms often promote their “deep database” of quality talent when pitching to clients. If they’re not treating candidates professionally, that “deep database” becomes a shallow one quickly.

As for internal recruiters—if they’re working for a company that gets 5,000 resumes per job req, then they absolutely have tools like CRMs and ATS systems that can automate communication. Yes, small companies might not have these tools, but large ones almost certainly do.

So while it’s true that recruiters are busy, that’s not a valid excuse for ghosting candidates. Other teams in the company—Marketing, Sales, Payroll—don’t get a pass to ignore their responsibilities because they’re “too busy.” Can you imagine a marketing team saying, “We were too busy to launch our campaign,” or payroll saying, “Sorry, we couldn’t process paychecks this week”?

Ultimately, candidates can use this behavior as a data point. If a company can’t even follow through on basic communication during the hiring process, that’s worth paying attention to—it says a lot about what working there might be like.