亲爱的安妮：我上一趟找新工作的时候，大约是四年前，求职过程中最让人气馁的就是你申请了某个岗位，甚至还进行了不止一轮面试，可之后就没有任何回应了。现在这种情形又重现了，一家我素来希望能加入的公司有岗位空缺，我申请之后，对方大约三周前打电话找我面试，我觉得面试相当顺利。此后我又用电话和邮件联系对方数次，重申我对这份工作的兴趣，可是没有收到对方任何回应。哪怕一个字也没有。

    同时，另一家公司向我提供了一个工作机会，我估摸着这也不错——至少可以改善我现在的处境——我不知道该怎么做。我本可以接受这份邀约，可如果我真正偏爱的那家公司最终又联系我，那怎么办呢？等多长时间之后我就该推测自己没能获得那份工作呢？——困惑之人

    亲爱的困惑者：这简直让人发疯，不是吗？我经常听到这个问题，有些人甚至是从美国这边飞到那一边，以参加几轮面试，然后还是……全无回应——甚至连一份电子邮件回复都没有，尽管此类回复其实只需20秒钟就能发送，比如可以这么说：“感谢您与我们见面，该岗位已有合适人选，但我们今后有合适岗位时，会优先考虑您”，或者意思差不多的表述。

    而这种绝对的沉默既粗鲁又无礼，让人极为不满。“人们都希望有某种形式的回复，这是人类的天性，”求职申请追踪网站StartWire的首席执行官克里斯•弗曼指出，“如果求职者感到其申请坠入黑洞，特别是在他们投入了大量努力的情况下，不免深感愤怒。”

    “让人干等着”不仅会影响求职者的情绪，对公司也没好处。“人力资源专员和招聘经理什么时候才能开始认识到这个问题呢，不及时告知求职者进展会损害其所在公司的声誉和品牌。”弗曼称。StartWire进行的一份新调查表明，77%的求职者对将其蒙在鼓里的公司评价有所降低，超过一半人还会拒绝购买该公司产品或服务，也不会向他人推荐之。

    此外，互联网指数级地放大了不满求职者散布不利言辞的能力。“互联网诞生之前，如果一家公司对你不厚道，你或许能向10个人陈述该经历，”弗曼指出，“如今，你可以在Glassdoor.com、Vault.com及Facebook之类的网站发布自己的遭遇，并在Twitter上讲给所有关注者听，一次负面的体验可能很快就传遍网络。”

    他补充说，通常，一家大公司每有一个岗位空缺，平均就能收到约30份求职申请。“因此，如果你每年招聘1000个人，那你差不多要和3万个求职者——具体数字或可增减——打交道，疏远3万个潜在顾客再加上他们所有的网上联系人，恐怕不太明智。”

    颇具讽刺意味的是，同样基于互联网，雇主其实可以避免上述问题。过去五年来，多数大公司都采用了完善成熟的基于网络的招聘工具，其中内置有追踪每个求职者当前情况的功能。

    Dear Annie: The last time I looked for a new job, about four years ago, the most discouraging part of the process was applying for a position, even going through more than one interview, and then hearing nothing back. Now, it's happening again. I applied for an opening at a company where I've always wanted to work. They called me in for an interview, which I think went really well, about three weeks ago. I've followed up by phone and email a few times to reiterate my interest since then, but I've heard nothing. Nada. Not a peep.

    Meanwhile, another company has offered me a job that I guess would be okay -- better than where I am now, anyway -- and I don't know what to do. I could accept this offer, but then what if the company I'd really prefer finally gets back to me? How long should I wait before assuming I didn't get that job? — In the Dark

    Dear I.D.: Maddening, isn't it? I hear this question constantly, sometimes even from people who have flown clear across the country for a round of interviews and then have heard…nothing -- not even an email that would take 20 seconds to send, saying for instance, "Thank you for meeting with us. The job has been filled, but we will keep you in mind for future openings," or words to that effect.

    Absolute silence is rude, inconsiderate, and makes people mad. "It's human nature to expect some kind of response," says Chris Forman, CEO of an application-tracking site called StartWire. "And when candidates feel an application has vanished into a black hole, especially if they've put considerable effort into it, they get p.o.'ed."

    Demoralizing as it is for job hunters, leaving people hanging is bad for companies too. "What HR people and hiring managers are just starting to realize is that neglecting to let candidates know where they stand is damaging their companies' reputations and their brands," Forman says. A new StartWire survey found that 77% of jobseekers think less of a company that leaves them in the dark, and more than half would decline to buy or recommend that company's product or service.

    Moreover, the Internet exponentially increased disgruntled candidates' ability to spread the bad word. "Before the Internet, if a company treated you shabbily, you'd tell maybe 10 people about it," says Forman. "Now, you can post your experience on sites like Glassdoor.com, Vault.com, and Facebook, and tweet all your followers. A negative experience can quickly go viral."

    He adds that a typical big company starts with an average of about 30 applications for each opening it fills, "so if you hire 1,000 people a year, you're interacting, for better or worse, with roughly 30,000 candidates. And alienating 30,000 potential customers, plus all their online contacts, is not very smart."

    The irony is that it doesn't have to be this way, again because of the Internet. Over the past five years or so, most large employers have adopted sophisticated web-based recruiting tools, which have built-in features that keep track of the status of each candidate's application.