Most recruiters want their candidates to be happy with their experience and their clients to be happy with the candidates they submit, so they value any feedback received from the hiring manager at any point in the process. However, the behavior of hiring managers can be unpredictable. Some are very motivated to get their position filled and can be very diligent (and quick to respond to emails and phone calls!) in their interactions with recruiters and candidates. Others are hard to contact, can’t make time to review resumes, and provide no feedback after a phone screen or interview has been completed.

If you don’t hear back from a recruiter, keep in mind the situation they’re in. The recruiter was likely hired because the company employees are all busy, and this can lead to playing a lot of ‘phone tag’ between recruiter, clients, and candidates.  As a result, recruiters often have no feedback to give you. If you’ve been waiting a while to hear back from a recruiter, send them a friendly reminder and ask for feedback. Just don’t be too disappointed if they don’t have an update for you.

There are a lot of industry terms in the recruiting and staffing world. If you want to learn more, refer to this glossary of recruiting terms that we’ve been building.

*This content was originally written as a guest post on Mac’s list, available here: https://www.macslist.org/career-happiness/top-misconceptions-about-recruiters-explained