Catfished!

Not just a dating issue…Ghosting, catfishing and submarining rife in recruitment

Research reveals the top ten recruitment sins jobseekers find a turn off

We’re all accustomed to describing bad dating behaviour with terms like “catfishing” and “ghosting”, but according to new research, these days you’re just as likely to encounter these behaviours in the hunt for your dream job as you are for your dream date.

The research* from JamieAi, a UK based HR-Tech start-up, found that a shocking 90% of job hunters have experienced nuisance behaviour when dealing with recruiters. The ten most commonly encountered bad recruiter behaviours are:

1. Kittenfishing (experienced by 30% of job seekers) – Making the job seem a bit better than it really was to grab a candidate’s interest.
2. Catfishing (29%) – Making the job seem a lot better than it actually was, to the point where the job description didn’t match the reality.
3. Rostering (25%) – Keeping the candidate waiting for ages before letting them down because they were actually the second-choice candidate.
4. Slow Fade (24%) – Gradually paying the candidate less and less attention over time.
5. Ghosting (23%) – Suddenly ignoring the candidate and cutting off all communication.
6. Submarining (23%) – Ignoring the candidate for a certain amount of time, then reappearing like nothing happened.
7. Player (21%) – A recruiter which promises someone they are the lead candidate while actually speaking to lots of others.
8. Cushioning (19%) – Promising they were the only candidate but was actually speaking to others on the side.
9. Being clingy (16%) – Contacting the candidate too much/won’t leave them alone.
10. Stalking (15%) – Knew all about the candidate from their social media feed even though they’d never spoken. 

It wasn’t all bad news for recruiters as 22% said they found recruiters to be laid-back, helpful and constructive, known as “breezing” in the dating world. However, according to Adrian Ezra, Founder and CEO of JamieAi, there is a growing disconnect between what job seekers want and how recruiters operate.

He says: “The recruitment industry regularly gets criticised for lack of focus on the job seeker’s needs, but our research demonstrates the true scale of the issue. These days we have a lexicon of terms for describing bad dating behaviours, and their similarities to the bad recruitment behaviours are too close to ignore.”

According to Ezra, the future of recruitment lies in AI and machine learning that will massively increase efficiency both for job seekers and hiring managers.

He says: “The recruitment industry has been much slower than other industries to tap into the potential that AI offers, but we’re aiming to change that. By combining AI with human expertise, JamieAi has created a hiring experience that is better than any human recruiter can give, setting out to radically disrupt the recruitment sector, dragging it into the 21^st century. Hopefully then we’ll see the end of ghosting, catfishing and stalking; making people’s job hunt much easier and enjoyable.”