Dreaded MIA Candidate

All of us Recruiters have been through it-the dreaded MIA candidate. We speak with them, feel we develop a great relationship with them, get an interview set up with them and the client and then *POOF* they disappear. I have never had such an issue until I changed markets. I guess the hustle and bustle of a larger city seems to make people think that Recruiters are evil or not human. I tend to pride myself with finding great candidates and developing relationships with them. But when I do not get the same common courtesy back that I show them, I feel like I just got dumped. You don’t want to be the crazy ex-girlfriend however you would like to at least like some closure. All I would like to hear back is “Im no longer interested”. If they let me know that, I can still reach out to them or them reach out to me for future positions. Basically, I have set up a candidate with an interview, and then reached out to that candidate 4 days prior to the day before their interview with no answer by email or phone. I am now stuck with calling and emailing that candidate every day until the day before their interview. As stated I do not want to go crazy on him. I am now stuck with messaging this candidate on LinkedIn and texting. I would like to keep him in mind for future positions. I just need a response.

Any ideas on how to better handle this?

Comment by Rickie Long on November 30, 2012 at 12:44pm: I get people to respond to a yes/no question by text when they haven't responded any other way... "Want me to cancel the Fri "fill in the blank dream job" interview for you if I don't hear from you by 5 today?"

Comment by Pamela Witzig on November 30, 2012 at 1:00pm: It's true Rickie. People will often respond to text when they don't otherwise. It allows them to save face somehow I guess. It can finally get the job done on these weak personalities (just ask me how I feel about them - ha). And giving them that immediate out of offering to cancel for them takes the pressure off so everyone can move along. I'm very glad this is an extremely rare experience for my company.

Comment by Darin on December 3, 2012 at 11:09am: Ashley - If the candidate is employed, call him at work, if they are local meet them for lunch prior to the interview, if you get the feeling that they are giving you "lip service", dont submit them, agree to a set time for them to call you back with there interest level, in a sence - talk them out of the job - this works - if they are serious - they will call you at the arranged time. If they dont - you made the right call.

Comment by Angela R. Furbee on December 3, 2012 at 6:51pm: So true! We have a medical sales candidate that just flaked on us.... couldn't get us his "updated" resume and it has been over a week. Really?? Guess I've been in this business too long and know immediately if something isn't jiving!

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on December 6, 2012 at 7:20pm: Lol @Maisha girl I'm dying to write it but I always chicken out before posting!!! Hahaha

Comment by Kelly Blokdijk on December 6, 2012 at 11:41pm: @Amy - even though I am a huge candidate experience proponent (meaning I think the process should not suck), I am not at all in favor of catering to flakes. Maybe you can write that blog up and share w/ Maisha & me ;)

I was in the middle of training an extremely inexperienced person on phone interviews practices/techniques once and we were calling candidates at their scheduled times. There was one that didn't answer, I left a message and they didn't call back, didin't email - nothing!

I told the trainee, I'm always willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt, if they follow-up w/ a reasonable reason for being MIA, but I'm not going to chase after anyone. We also talked about how to deal with the "weirdo types" without letting on that you think they are frightening and can't wait to wrap it up.

The trainee was completely freaked out and had no idea how complicated something so simple can become - "man, this is SOOOO hard!"

Sometimes, the MIA candidate is way easier than the ones that didn't go missing but you wish they had.

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on December 7, 2012 at 9:19am: @Kelly so true! I've been working w/ a candidate who a recruiting buddy happens to know pretty well... he found out I connected w/ this person and warned of some, well, interesting habits... I'm kinda hoping he goes MIA! :)

The blog is written, I've been editing it for weeks, and I might as well just post it. Won't be the first time I pissed people off. :)

Comment by Amber on December 7, 2012 at 10:52am: @Amy - go ahead and post it!

Every time I hear or see something about "candidate experience" I want to say what about recruiter experience? Or employer experience? I do my best to be sure we treat everyone with respect and courtesy, and think that all people involved in the process should have a great "experience". But if there were as many stories, articles, and posts about "experience" from all sides I don't know which group would come out the winner. (I guess actually the loser?)