Forget ghosting. This is the year of fizzling.

Being a recruiter gives me lots of insights. Most of them useless (I can tell you which coffee shops in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai have plug sockets). This one isn't: there's been a shift in this market nobody's named yet. Ghosting is out. Fizzling is in.

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Ghosting you know. You're deep in a process and then never hear back. Super-frustrating.

Fizzling is what I'm calling the new trend. It’s the recruitment version of lovebombing. Lots of heat early. Meetings, praise, talk of moving fast. Then it fades. It never reaches a yes or a no. It just stops moving.

It's more frustrating than ghosting. Everything says yes. Nothing is a yes.

Two examples.

1. I had a candidate re-engaged for a role with a company that they had previously been connected with. The first time round they'd narrowly lost out at the final hurdle.

This time it was a shoo-in. They'd met the team. Re-met the team and were even pushed to see if they might be able to bring their notice period down. I was asked about their salary expectations.

Three weeks of chasing and promise of an update soon passed before the role was placed on hold.

2. We were contacted about a new role. URGENT. That's the title they used on the email lol. 'When do you need CVs?' 'Yesterday'. A recruitment classic.

Four CVs turned to two interviews turned to second/third interviews in the office. This turned to noises of an offer. This was four weeks ago. The replies have now trickled from daily 'you'll hear back very soon' to weekly 'we are catching up internally'.

I have two candidates who'd been told, verbally, it was good news. Both now disengaged and losing interest.

There is no concrete outcome so we're all left hanging by the thread of a 1% chance that this might still come off. My gut says otherwise.

It's not just my stories that back this up. It's the literal data we have on-hand. Tight markets and uncertainty lead to slow decisions. Our time to hire is up from around 3-4 weeks to 7-8 on some processes.

That's wild. They can appoint a literal Pope in two interviews and one weekend - why do we need 8 stages for a marketing manager?

We all know this is a tighter market and that's created this environment where everyone is terrified to make a decision as no one wants to be the one to sign things off.

Everyone knows what they want from a new hire but the gap between hire and execution is becoming large and leading to frustration on all sides.

What makes this hard to stomach is that on both sides the queries were inbound. They reached out to me! I'm left banging on the door like a crazed ex as I owe the candidate a response.

From my side, I've started to become hyper-critical. Three questions I now ask on every process. You should ask them too:

Be firm and fair without looking desperate. (P.S. If you want the exact messages I send, they're in The Shortlist)

Good intentions are ultimately intentions until something is communicated in writing. That's a good mindset to hold as it gives you leverage to push for an outcome.

Delays and vagueness from an employer = you know they're not serious and can continue with other processes.

Contract delivered = desired outcome.

Until it's in writing, keep every door open. The people who survive fizzling are the ones who didn't go all-in on a single maybe.

If you’re fed up not hearing back I will review your LinkedIn profile today, on video.

This market is tough and you don't have to go through it alone. Right now you're one of 500 applicants for every role and the silence is becoming expensive.

I will tell you exactly what I tell the candidates I actually place. What's working this week. Why you're getting passed over and what to change to start getting interviews.

Thanks so much for reading!

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- Charlie