Ask HN: What do I do with those employers who stopped replying to me?

One reason that I suspect for the silence isn't that they're actively snubbing you or ignoring you but that the person doing the hiring might be doing development as well and if they need to spend an hour interviewing or an hour coding a feature they'd rather work on the feature. I feel like this is particularly likely at startups since they don't have excess manpower. Even in larger companies it might be that they want to move forward but it just keeps getting deprioritized from above and they don't want to tell you to move on and lose you since they still hold on to the delusion that they'll successfully reprioritize it.

I wouldn't retaliate (though I understand the desire for vengeance... er justice :), though as RogerL suggested Glassdoor might be a good route. If it starts impacting their applicant pipeline then they'll start being more responsive.

As someone who has been in this industry awhile, I can assure you: You'll cross paths again and tables often turn. They'll get what they have coming to them, karma will take of it, you don't have to worry about that.

You can't control other peoples' behavior. If I were you, I would focus on you. Try to be your best self, and leave them with a stellar impression of you. Someday, it very well might pay off.

And if they're really being a douchebag (to an extreme or offensive level), you should tell them so. Nobody is above being called-out for their bullshit.

It will make the world a better place when you find a job where you are welcome and can work with people you click with. What is your skillset?

Back in 2012 this happened:

>I interviewed for a job in Austin. I had 2 phone interviews, a 7 hour in person interview with at least 10 different people including the CIO, VP's, directors, and team members, then a follow-up interview with a senior person. Then I hear NOTHING again. I call for a follow-up and leave a message and they don't return my call. So I just assume they hired someone else. I just get a call from a head hunter trying to fill the position that I interviewed for. Obviously the company is still looking and glad to have some closure (I apparently wasn't what they were looking for) but kinda disappointed that they didn't call me to tell me themselves.

A friend of mine got a little fired up about it and replied to my Facebook post:

>I think that is ridiculous! Sometimes I wonder who raised these people because it is NOT hard to send a couple-sentence email saying "Thanks for applying. We have chosen another candidate. We'll keep you in mind in the future." Heck - I'd rather get an email saying "F-U" than NOTHING. I know "they" think there are sooooo many applicants that they don't have to show people common decency, but it's JUST PLAIN RUDE. The reality is you may be looking for a job from them right now, but one day they may be wanting your business or looking for a job themselves when they get laid off or fed up; their company may be bought by one you own or even just work for; they may be on the "needy" side of the equation one day, and you won't forget how poorly they behaved. What if you weren't right for this opening, but they want you for something else in the future? Or what if they thought you weren't perfect, but they just never find perfect and decide they DO want you? Do they just think because you need a job you will completely forget about all of that? Even if they never need anything from you in their lives, I don't know how people sleep at night knowing that people like you are out there, just wondering what happened, at their mercy. {O.K. Apparently, I got a little fired up.} I don't know...fine if they don't want to hire you; fine if they don't have time to spend hours telling you what would have made their decision different; NOT fine to not respond at all. Period. Silver lining: Just be glad you DIDN'T get hired because you would have found out what they were really like when it was too late!!!

People, in general, have trouble sticking to promises surrounding interpersonal plans. This is not just a business thing, it's a "I can barely deal with the world" thing. People have their issues, and operate at the selfish, reptilian level the majority of the time(regardless of self-image). Rather than call them jerks for behaving like what they are, figure out how to tame them instead. That's the most noble thing you can do.

I'll use ample amounts of time to socialize and give advice. But when it's time to discuss paid work and livelihoods are at stake, I cut out the flake-outs really quickly. Filtering and hedging happens at the stage of these early meet-and-greet communications: If they say they're interested, do they also indicate that they'll work to reach you? If they want to schedule something, do they actually give date and time options? Red flags of effort/reward can appear all over this stuff. If they want you to do a test project and the scope and spec indicates some possibility of theft of work, either walk or design in a (non-destructive) time bomb that forces them to contact you again to negotiate payment for a fix.

I got introduced through a mutual friend to someone who had a minor programming job - something so trivial that outsourcing would actually be the appropriate choice, but I gave him a quote anyway. He got back to me almost an entire month later with a vague voice mail message saying "uh, tell me when you're downtown next so we can meet." I haven't replied - because in those two interactions, he's signaled a lack of research and poor ability to efficiently move things forward. It might be for a friend, but for the money, it'd take too much of my time to get to the invoicing stage relative to other things I have going. If I have to meet him again, I'll point him to eLance.