Could you help me understand the psychology of these people?

They belong to the “something-for-nothing” crowd? : D

Either they didn’t want your job or they don’t want a job

They wanted work, but not the job you’re offering.

This happens a lot during a placement process. I guess they are either not interested, or idiots.

I don’t want to say that no one can be that dumb, but I’m assuming they just found a different job and didn’t want to deal with the awkward situation of telling you that.

It is surprising, but not atypical.

1) May have been scared of being turned down/rejected, so they decided not to go through with it.
2)Something else came along.
3)Lazy people who decided last minute that work is not on their agenda.
4)Unprofessional, rude for not even bothering to contact.

Selfish, irresponsable and untrustworthy…be grateful they didn’t show up! lol

How many interviews were missed? One or two can be put down to “shit happens”—a flat tire and the phone died, or the bus was late and they didn’t have a phone, lost your number, etc.

Alien abduction?

Interviews for what?

Obviously they are not serious about getting a job.
Natural selection works in the job pool, as well as the tide pool.

@Grisson I was getting ready to say “Natural Selection” and you beat me to it.

As annoying as it is I think it is a blessing of sorts to thin the flakes out early.

I agree with @Coloma. I knew a manager who hired a girl that was 1 hour late. She made up some really lame excuse. She thought her believable because she seemed her so professional. Well she was late (really late) several times after that and one day didn’t come into work because she had car problems (so she said) but she didn’t call in to let her boss know. She was the only one in the office that day, so someone had to be there. She thought it no big deal. Needless to say she was fired. Count your blessings. Plenty people want a pay check but they don’t want to work for it and you got to scratch those off your list. :D

Be grateful they didn’t take up anymore of your time. Don’t think about it for another second.

I would expect that this kind of behavior might vary based on socio-economic background and age. People from less advantaged backgrounds face a great deal more difficulties than those who are better off. They may not be as well-educated. They have difficulty with transportations. Health emergencies and child care emergencies are constantly cropping up.

When these things happen, they often focus on that, and not on the job interview. Later on, they realize they forgot the interview and they give it up, because they assume they have blown it. Perhaps they have.

In other cases, they will already have jobs, and not bother to cancel. Who knows what events get in the way? You’ll never know unless you can interview them about why they didn’t show. Fat chance!

My nephew flew across the country for an academic job interview and was told on arrival for the interview that they had canceled the search! Idiocy seems to work both ways.

@janbb Good point. My former boss scheduled some interviews for the time after she hired some people and never bothered to call these people and let them know the job has been filled. Luckily no one had to fly in for the interview.

Inconsideration and short sightedness. It’s a small world out there, you never know who you’ll meet from where and when so it would have been best to at least call and cancel whatever their excuse was. I chalk it up to a pervasive attitude of entitlement and instant gratification.

I’m with janbb. The last time I was looking for work I was amazed at the number of employers who never let me know if the job was filled. I interviewed for three companies that never contacted me in any way. These were professional positions where the company maybe interviewed 10 people. I sat for weeks wondering if they were still interviewing people, or were contacting my references or some other thing. Seriously, how hard is it to send an email or a form letter, especially to the few people who interviewed?

Are you the interviewer or interviewee?

If you are the interviewer, perhaps they received and accepted another offer.

If you are the interviewee, perhaps they found the perfect candidate and filled the job.

In either case, not calling to cancel or, and minimum, sending a note of apology after the fact is just plain rude. I fear the social graces are rapidly disappearing.

what…all of them?? or just some because that makes a difference….

Okay, thanks for all the opinions.

Here is the story, we are hiring someone for the office, and got 600+ resumes. We went through all of them and picked out 50 who we think would fit the salary range and qualifications, sent out email interview notices, and about half of them replied with a firm date and time.

Eventually, close to half did not show up, and except one, there was no courtesy call or email…frustrating, I guess the job market is so good now people don’t even care for a job that pays 30K+?

Now we only have a few candidates to choose from… have to pull in some more new resumes again…

Could be a myriad of possibilities. Either they didn’t want the position after all, they found a better job elsewhere, they only attended the interview to meet welfare requirements and had no intention of working, they got the day of the interview wrong (don’t laugh), or possibly were sent by your boss to check up on you (if you have a boss). There are many more reasons, I am sure.

I do think that most of them should have given you a call back, saying ‘thanks but no thanks’ as that is the polite thing to do, but people time and again prove themselves to be impolite arseholes (do not claim to be an exception either, but at least I will admit it and I probably would have given you a call to tell you I had found other employment).

What’s the theory here? Find a certain number of qualified people and pick the best? Or just find someone you think can do the job? I mean, why do you need more people to come in? Is there no one in the current group who can do the job?

I’ve seen the same thing happen in the real estate industry. I used to help my Father-In-Law schedule showings. Prospective buyers would contact us, make an appointment, and leave us standing at the home all alone.

The theory is simple: finding the best person to do the job and we don’t think we have found one yet. We did not expect so many no-shows – we could have scheduled more people to come in hence having a better chance to find the right one. But the question is only about the frustration, we will find one eventually.

@boxing – hello, friend!!

I think it falls into lack of maturity and lack of education in how to properly decline an interview. Some people get all excited, say yes to the interview and then rethink the idea and change their minds. I’ve seen it before, had it happen to me before. It is very rude and what amazes me more is that some of those people actually called me to reschedule…a month later! GRRR! Really? Like I should waste my time rescheduling when they didn’t have the courtesy to call and cancel, in the first place?

Some people wind up with multiple offers, put all their eggs into one basket and then when the other interview falls apart, they try again with you. Ugh. Sorry, generally, if they are that disrespectful, I’m not that interested in wasting my time with them.

Hello cak, nice to see you!!

Chances are they either didn’t really want the job, or got another one in the meantime & are just rude.

@anjeffvaderim but considering that employers never acknowledge resumes and applications unless they want to follow up on them—and don’t consider that to be “rude”—then I guess we can’t really say that an applicant who sees greener pastures is “rude”, either. (Except, yeah, I would.)

@timcyanoticwaspewen No, all things being equal you’re bang-on right, I guess its just convention that makes me say the applicant should contact.