[joe_the_user]

I've had a zillion bad experiences in the job search world. But I just want to echo that recruiters as such aren't the problem.

I'd divide the job search into two parts. 1) Send out "pings" of different sorts, get back expressions of interest of 2) Each side expresses interest, each side invests a little more in learning about the other, until things work-out or they don't.

An explicit or implied "no" can happen at any point here and whether that happens by ghosting or by form-letter-level no really shouldn't matter to you. That's part you should legitimately just toughen up to even though it's challenging. A formulaic "sorry but it was great to meet and you have great skills but they aren't the skills we want" can be just as infuriating as ghosting imo. Get used to the "frenemy" relationship with your employer. Professionalism is only gloss on that, though it's a useful gloss. Lack of professionalism isn't good sign but it's just a sign.

The one thing that I think people often are angry about and should be angry about, is situations where an employer sets up a situation that requires the job seeker to invest far more energy in the job-search than the employer. For example, suppose an employer sends each of a thousand applicants a quiz that takes a day to complete and then filters the best 10 results by whether some underling likes them, maybe hires someone, maybe not. That employer has wasted a lot of time of a lot of people. And that's different from a detailed onsite quiz from the people you might work with in a situation where they might indeed hire you. The company still might not hire you based on purely subjective criteria but then you've invested your time knowing there's a legitimate possibility of being hired, since they're investing their time and money so demonstrating sincerity.