[yholio]

You don't have a relationship with the recruiter or the prospective employer. They haven't "ghosted" you, they are simply uninterested in what you have to sell, just as you "ghosted" the luxury store yesterday by looking and never buying any gold watch.

You are a luxury item, many will look, most can't afford you and will settle for something inferior and cheap. You have the good stuff and you need to continue to sell it until the right customer comes along.

[kelnos]

I don't think most people object too much to a recruiter simply ignoring an inbound email from someone looking for a job. Often candidates take a "spray and pray" approach anyway, and aren't expecting responses to most of their cold emails.

But if there's any kind of back-and-forth at all after that, especially if a candidate has gone through a phone screen or interview, I think everyone is owed some sort of closure in the process. Just as if the candidate accepts another job, they should let the recruiter know, a recruiter should let the candidate know if they're being rejected. There's no legitimate excuse for not even sending a canned one-liner rejection email.