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Struggling with Behavioural Questions in Interviews?
They are the most common and also the toughest for many candidates.
This free E-book shows you how to answer them with confidence.
They are the most common and also the toughest for many candidates.
This free E-book shows you how to answer them with confidence.
Career Reshaped Episode 35: Are You Ghosted by Recruiters? No Call & Email? Here’s Why.
Ever felt like sending your resume was enough to get noticed—only to be met with silence? You’re not alone.
In this episode of Career Reshaped, Pauline and Natasha unpack why a resume on its own often isn’t enough, and how smart, well-timed follow-ups can make all the difference in your job search.
For many candidates, following up feels awkward—like you’re bothering the recruiter. But here’s the truth: it’s not pushy if you do it right. In fact, it can be your “second chance” to get noticed, clarify your strengths, and stand out among dozens (or hundreds) of applicants.
Drawing from years of experience, they share why you can’t always assume your resume was seen, the role a single phone call can play, and how to make that call without crossing the line into pestering. You’ll learn the right frequency, the best ways to reach out, and how to keep communication professional yet personal.
Pauline and Natasha also dive into why recruiters aren’t your enemy, how to think like a candidate who’s “selling” their value, and the importance of building genuine relationships that open doors now—and in the future.
If you’ve ever wondered how to follow up without feeling annoying, or how to make sure your application doesn’t disappear into a black hole, this episode is your practical guide to staying top of mind.
🎧 Listen in — and turn that follow-up into your next opportunity.
Discussion Overview
A resume gets you in the door, but it rarely tells the full story. Pauline and Natasha explain that recruiters and hiring managers want to see initiative, communication skills, and genuine interest—things a piece of paper can’t always capture. Following up gives you a chance to highlight these qualities.
Cutting off communication leaves a poor impression and can close doors for future opportunities. Even if you’re no longer interested in a role, letting the recruiter know keeps the relationship intact.
The hosts share that a single, well-timed call or email can be your “second chance” to get noticed. It shows you’re engaged, proactive, and serious about the opportunity—qualities recruiters remember.
Recruiters are there to match the right candidates to the right roles. While not every recruiter operates the same way, building trust and respect with them can lead to better placements and stronger career connections.
Pauline and Natasha highlight that reconnecting with people you’ve worked with—or interviewed with—before can spark new opportunities. It’s about keeping the conversation alive over time.
Being upfront about your needs, availability, and career goals prevents misunderstandings and helps both the recruiter and candidate focus on the right fit from the start.
Feedback helps candidates improve and better position themselves for future roles. For recruiters, it builds goodwill and strengthens long-term relationships.
Successful hiring is built on trust and rapport, not just filling vacancies. When both sides see it as a relationship, placements are more successful and lasting.
Effective processes help recruiters track, follow up, and nurture candidate relationships. For job seekers, it means better communication, clearer timelines, and more opportunities.
Podcast Transcript:
| Time | Transcript |
|---|---|
| 00:05 | If you think about business in general, let's go business. Someone's trying to |
| 00:09 | sell something, they're going to be active out there. They're going to |
| 00:14 | promote, advertise, talk to you. You know, it's how else are you are going to |
| 00:21 | show people the product or the service? You're the candidate. You are |
| 00:26 | effectively are selling yourself. How else is someone to know that you are |
| 00:30 | interested, that you can do the job without putting yourself in front of |
| 00:34 | them? And I always tell u my our clients that you need to call and a resume is |
| 00:40 | just not enough because like you were saying before, perhaps on paper, they're |
| 00:44 | just not selling themselves. That phone call gives them a second chance. As a |
| 00:48 | recruiter, you are their second chance, but if they don't have a good recruiter, |
| 00:52 | then they have to advocate for themselves. So that's a second chance to |
| 00:56 | say did you get my resume? Uh perhaps I didn't explain it clearly. I just want |
| 01:01 | to go over whatever it is ABC or perhaps because there are so many applicants |
| 01:07 | that their resume was not even seen like 100 applicants. I always tell people |
| 01:12 | that you have to assume that you're dealing with the laziest recruiter out |
| 01:17 | there and then you will always win. So, you can't just assume that they're going |
| 01:23 | to be committed about their jobs. Like, your agency is amazing. It's unique. I |
| 01:28 | wish all recruiters were like you. I think then honestly, I think that people |
| 01:33 | will be so much happier in their work because they'll be in the right |
| 01:36 | companies. They'll feel more at ease. They feel like they've got that person |
| 01:40 | behind them supporting them. I just wanted to quickly add that even though |
| 01:44 | yes, we do tell our clients to call the recruiters, I want to assure you we also |
| 01:49 | tell them not to bombard the recruiters with phone calls. So just just just put |
| 01:53 | you at ease there. Yeah, you're scaring me. No, I'm |
| 01:55 | kidding. Yeah, once a week is also good. And I we |
| 01:59 | always say like, you know, you can try first with a phone call, but if you |
| 02:03 | can't get through, then you can just follow up with an email cuz an email is |
| 02:06 | sort of it's noninvasive. It's easy. They can read it when they're ready. in |
| 02:11 | if you're in process, it's going to be a little bit different. Um, but if you're |
| 02:14 | not if you've not actually been represented for a role yet, then it's |
| 02:18 | good to just clarify like the communication times and time frames |
| 02:21 | around that because that we keep an extremely clean database. So like we |
| 02:26 | know who's available like we can do a quick search and bring up a list of |
| 02:29 | people instantly. So you won't actually be missed it from us. If you've not had |
| 02:34 | a call, it is genuinely because there isn't a role that would suit your skill |
| 02:38 | set that's come in. Um, and that is that's factual. Like over 80% of the |
| 02:42 | roles we fill come from our database because we keep it clean within an inch |
| 02:46 | of its life. Um, which is incredible. Like I've never seen anything like it. |
| 02:51 | No. Like when I worked for an agency, we did not have that. We did not have we |
| 02:56 | had um the only database we had were the candidates that we put that were |
| 03:03 | accepted for the role. Then we logged them in as that's that's our candidate. |
| 03:09 | Bam. Um, anyone else were all over my inbox and in different folders. So |
| 03:15 | there's no way I would be able to process them. And you I forget like I |
| 03:19 | would have in my mind like they were really good for this. Definitely when a |
| 03:22 | role comes up, I have to remember them. But you meet so many people and you |
| 03:26 | forget. And only one time was I really able to fulfill a promise like that |
| 03:32 | where really sorry but this is not the right position for you but should |
| 03:37 | something come along I will get in touch with you and I heard like the defeat in |
| 03:42 | this person's voice like you're like you're right like I've heard this story |
| 03:46 | before and it was just lucky that literally two two days later the |
| 03:51 | position came up so he was still fresh in my mind especially the defeat I felt |
| 03:56 | so Sorry. Yes, I was able to follow it up and put him forward and he was |
| 04:00 | successful and that just made it sweeter for both of us, I reckon. But |
| 04:05 | yeah, without that database, it made it really hard as a recruiter for me to |
| 04:11 | fulfill that. Um, but it's just so important and I'm glad that you guys |
| 04:17 | have a database and I hope other recruiters do. We had a small boutique. |
| 04:21 | It's not something that was even thought of, I don't believe, which is a shame |
| 04:24 | because it's a waste of all these resources, all these people. Um, |
| 04:30 | I think a big issue with a lot of organizations that do their own |
| 04:34 | recruitment, um, like TA teams for example, is they don't have, um, |
| 04:40 | anything in place to be able to re-engage with people that have shown |
| 04:44 | interest in their organization sort of 12, 18 months prior, even 3, four months |
| 04:48 | prior. So every single time they're recruiting for a role, they're putting |
| 04:51 | up an advert and they're hoping that the good talent comes through there. But |
| 04:55 | what is their actual way of re-engaging with talent that has shown interest in |
| 04:59 | their organization six months ago? Um there's nothing. So the re-engagement is |
| 05:05 | just not there. Whereas we re-engage all the time. We've got, you know, HR |
| 05:09 | candidates that have um joined with us when we started nine 10 years ago and |
| 05:14 | now they are in CPO level roles. Um but we've got their CV on file for when they |
| 05:20 | were um an you know an HR admin. Um and then we kind of send that email and then |
| 05:26 | it comes through and they send us their updated CV and they're good to go. Like |
| 05:29 | that is re-engagement like you've never seen before. So, with that, um, what are |
| 05:34 | a few ways that candidates can build those long-term recruiter relationships, |
| 05:39 | even if they've got jobs and they're not actively job hunting, but just to have, |
| 05:43 | like you said, you know, 9 years ago and you still have that. How can a candidate |
| 05:47 | make sure that that relationship is still building? |
| 05:50 | Yeah. I mean, look, there's there's a few ways um that they that they can. |
| 05:55 | Like I said, when we use our database, we'll reach out to quite a lot of uh you |
| 05:59 | know, we'll we'll reach out to different people and they might not be looking for |
| 06:02 | anything right now and that's fine. But I think just respond um promptly like |
| 06:07 | even if you're not actively looking, it won't take you too long out of your day |
| 06:10 | just to be like um you know, just to be clear about what your job search status |
| 06:14 | is and what your preferences are and provide feedback even like just be like, |
| 06:19 | Oh, look, I'm not looking at the moment, but um you know, that looks like |
| 06:22 | a great role. Um, I've heard about this being similar and you know, you can say |
| 06:26 | whatever you want. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of |
| 06:29 | this topic, we just wanted to check in and say that if you believe that you |
| 06:33 | need some assistance and that we could help you, reach out to us today. Check |
| 06:38 | out our website, join our newsletter. We'd love to be in touch. We wanted to |
| 06:41 | quickly mention that subscribing to the podcast is the best way to support the |
| 06:47 | show and ensure you never miss an episode. It's super easy. just click the |
| 06:52 | subscribe button whenever you're listening. Thanks for tuning in. |
| 06:56 | You can also like you can even refer a friend. That's what we we love. Like, |
| 07:00 | you know, you can be like, "It's not for me just now. I'm really happy where I |
| 07:03 | am, but got a friend that I know is looking to leave from, you know, |
| 07:07 | whatever company." I mean, what we would love is like you attend our events, you |
| 07:11 | you attend things that we do and you show up and support us in that way. And |
| 07:15 | look, if anyone follows any of us um or lotus people in general on LinkedIn, um |
| 07:21 | we're huge on LinkedIn. So um you know, engage with our content, like our |
| 07:26 | videos, like our you know, our posts. Um that's obviously going to be really |
| 07:30 | great for us. Like that's just showing support. But yeah, I think like it |
| 07:34 | doesn't have to be anything. It can be a thank you, but not just now if if a |
| 07:39 | recruiter engages with you. Um but yeah, like the communication, like I said, um |
| 07:44 | can go can go both ways, but I think that's probably the main things that I |
| 07:47 | would say. So, um what does an ideal relationship |
| 07:51 | look like between a business and an agency? We touched on it a little bit |
| 07:55 | before, but what can both sides do to make it really successful and a |
| 08:00 | long-term partnership regarding business and agency? I think for us like we |
| 08:04 | genuinely pour our heart and soul into our recruits and we want to get the best |
| 08:10 | possible outcome for both parties. Um, and I think like just treating us as an |
| 08:16 | equal like knowing that it's a two-way relationship. It's not us serving, you |
| 08:22 | know, the client, it's us working with the client. You know, treat us as an |
| 08:26 | extension of your internal team. um and treat us as if we were someone that |
| 08:31 | worked with you on a daily basis. I think if you can hold those sort of |
| 08:36 | standards, then um you're always going to get the best results from your |
| 08:39 | recruiter. Take the time just to give us a thorough job brief. You know, it it it |
| 08:44 | would only take half an hour, but we have things that we need to know in |
| 08:48 | order to make sure that we're getting you the right person. That saves hours |
| 08:51 | and hours and hours of work of of the working week. Um you know, we we don't |
| 08:56 | just have job briefs to find out about the job. We have job briefs to find out |
| 08:59 | how you want to work. So, how do you prefer to work? What's your preferred |
| 09:03 | mode of communication? We set timelines to make sure that everyone's in in line |
| 09:07 | with the process. We are happy to adapt to the st our style depending on the |
| 09:13 | client's needs, but they just need to understand how we like to work too. I'd |
| 09:18 | say another big thing would be like timely feedback where possible. agencies |
| 09:22 | are often working um you know with candidates in like multiple processes |
| 09:27 | across the market and other clients are moving quickly and um they're moving |
| 09:31 | through their processes you know at a good speed and if we're working with |
| 09:35 | people that are taking days to come back when we've sent CVs like in order to |
| 09:40 | remain competitive we we need like we've agreed these timelines we've told you |
| 09:44 | when the CVs are going to be um you know coming in your inbox we'll stick to them |
| 09:49 | so it's like a clear two-way communication on expectations. I'm going |
| 09:53 | to slip this one in there because um I feel quite strongly about moving towards |
| 09:59 | a retained shared risk model as opposed to just working contingently all the |
| 10:04 | time. We will always get the best results for you. But at the end of the |
| 10:10 | day, a good example would be, you know, you engage someone like external. You |
| 10:15 | would quite often pay up front if you've got like a big piece of work coming in |
| 10:19 | from anywhere, right? But recruiters literally do not get person until that |
| 10:23 | person literally um you know is through the door. But we're like retained would |
| 10:28 | be like paying on engagement, paying on successful short list and then paying |
| 10:33 | when the person's in the role. But that's like a mutual respect thing where |
| 10:36 | it's like we will get you that person but like pay us for our time along the |
| 10:40 | way. Um so that's something that I would really like to see happening more. Um |
| 10:45 | and then finally I'd probably say just have a mutual respect for the terms of |
| 10:49 | business. They're in there, they'resigned, they're there for a reason, and |
| 10:53 | they're in place before the start of the process to protect both parties. It's |
| 10:57 | not just for our benefit, it's for for your benefit as a client. And you know, |
| 11:01 | changing fees um at the last minute and and things like that. It's it's just a |
| 11:06 | bit messy to be honest. I have heard many stories where they've fees have |
| 11:11 | been changed or it's a we'll do a different fee for each different role |
| 11:16 | instead of just a set fee or it's a they want maybe like a guarantee. Guarantees |
| 11:22 | are fine but some is you know a full refund if it doesn't work out. |
| 11:27 | It's it's just you know we'll we'll we do guarantee periods. We do replacements |
| 11:31 | of course like that's fine. Um but full refunds are are are difficult, |
| 11:36 | especially if you're a small business. Um |
| 11:38 | you've done all that work. Yeah. Like we we we obviously we're a |
| 11:42 | small commercial business. Um you know, we we work for um you know, we we don't |
| 11:48 | just work we can't work for free to be honest. Um but luckily we are really |
| 11:54 | lucky with our processes and everything like it's rarely something that we have |
| 11:57 | to deal with. Um but it's always going to be something that comes up in |
| 12:01 | recruitment. Well, one thing I've learned through my time in recruitment |
| 12:05 | and HR is that people are unpredictable. Um Oh, yeah. It just Oh, and I've had |
| 12:13 | the most interesting people come through um from like really bizarre characters |
| 12:18 | to some of the most inspiring individuals. And there's a lot that you |
| 12:23 | can even learn from a candidate. Like you can learn a lot just from the people |
| 12:27 | that you connect with and hire and all that. you can't you just you can't fully |
| 12:31 | trust 101%. That's why having those really good processes in place is great. |
| 12:37 | Um I know for me like yes I I did recruitment with an agency but I went in |
| 12:41 | HR I did internal recruitment and then your client becomes the different |
| 12:46 | departments like management departments and the biggest obstacle I had was |
| 12:52 | communication and constantly changing |
| 12:58 | the um who they want what they want how they want it and they tell you look I'm |
| 13:04 | looking for someone with XY Z that's great you find exact exactly that person |
| 13:09 | like yeah you know what no actually I want ABC instead like that's really and |
| 13:14 | then not telling you exactly about the position like that some people aren't |
| 13:18 | very good at explaining and communicating and conveying what it is |
| 13:21 | that they want what it is they'll be doing one thing I found that was um |
| 13:25 | really helpful and I wasn't able to do that with every position and with every |
| 13:30 | company but actually spend the day sitting there so one of our clients was |
| 13:36 | the atto O and during the um tax time period end of financial year that's when |
| 13:43 | we need to hire a lot of people for the call center and to sit there with a few |
| 13:49 | different operators and listening to their phone calls and the questions that |
| 13:55 | they will get from individuals calling about their tax and all of that. I start |
| 14:00 | to understand what the role really means, what kind of customers they're |
| 14:05 | going to get, what challenges, what the day is going to be like. It made that |
| 14:09 | much easier for me, not only to identify the right candidate, but to actually |
| 14:13 | tell the candidate what to expect in that job. So, that was also great cuz |
| 14:18 | when the candidate knows what they're going for and what they're interviewing |
| 14:21 | for, there's no surprises. Well, this is not because how many times |
| 14:26 | do you read a job ad, go for an interview, and then it's like those two |
| 14:29 | don't match. You're like, "This is not right." And it's only because someone |
| 14:33 | couldn't communicate properly. So, it's so important. |
| 14:38 | Can't do that. That's why you need a really good brief. |
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