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'ghosting' happens because our world these days is way too litigious. Any type of rejection email or phone call could be used in a lawsuit against the company or recruiter.

People hate to be rejected for any reason and many just want the person/company rejecting them to suffer.

This isn't anything new. It's been happening for as long as I've been working (30+ years) and probably even before this.

You're absolutely right about fears of lawsuits and litigation.

Here's the problem - "I guess that's you're problem" isn't an acceptable answer for the applications, many of whom were at least reasonably good candidates, especially after intense and lengthy interviews. It's especially galling when a company then turns around and complains about a critical shortage of qualified applicants.

This has happened to me. I applied for a job, through a recruiter. First, a 2 hour java quiz. Then, still through a recruiter, their 5-7 hour programming project. Then... crickets chirping for almost a month, followed by a one-line recruiter brush off ("we've decided not to continue at this time...").

If they want to act like this, fine. I'll never apply to their company again, and I'm certainly deterred from applying for any tech jobs at this point, considering how much time and effort you have to put in, only to get ghosted later. But hey, my choice, they don't owe me a job.

But here's the thing - the world certainly doesn't owe them any workers, either. Personally, I think that an industry that acts like this should stop acting surprised that people with choice aren't are choosing become a developer in the valley. Quit it with the shortage talk, that's the market's answer. Don't like it? Ok, change it - I recommend you start with your recruiting tactics.

We need to oppose any immigration scheme that denies immigrants the essential right to participate as free and full participants in the labor market. That means immigrants, like people born citizens, get to decide what they wish to study, where they wish to live, what they wish to work on, and that corporations should not be allowed to dictate these choices as a condition of living and working int the US.