[franga2000]

> If I didn't get a reply, that's a lot of information already. That's all I need to know.

This goes beyond manners - wanting a concrete response is a matter of practicality for me. Most of the time, interviewers don't give you a concrete time by which to expect a reply and when they do, they intentionally exaggerate it in case something stalls the process for a bit. I might be waiting for a month and a bit to hear back, even though the hiring process might've already concluded after 2 weeks. Those are 2 weeks I could've spent getting/doing more interviews.

I've never been part of the hiring process, but I can't imagine sending an automated rejection email would be too difficult. There's got to be some sort of kanban board (like Trello) with a rejection pile at the end. As soon as a card is dropped there, the email can be fired out and those people can know for sure that they should look elsewhere. It might even be good for the company - how many great engineers didn't apply for your listing because they were still waiting to hear back from the first batch? You might be missing out...