I read an article on RecruitingBlogs today about the resume "black hole" and the general lack of communication between recruiters and candidates. In a perfect world, every candidate - not only the qualified ones - would hear back from a recruiter each time they send a resume or apply for a job. Since this is clearly not the case, the article got me thinking about when this lack of communication becomes unacceptable.
For myself & my company. If you do not make the cut, we call you and let you know that this time you didn't make the cut and their reason was XXX.
I and my company take a few extra steps to show that we are different from other recruiters. Since we provide recruiting up to VP level it's one way for us to maintain goodwill with people who can and do contact us to help them recruit.