If you have ever applied for jobs before, chances are you've dealt with the ominous world that is job hunting. More than half the time, I have no idea what happens with the job, but so much time has passed that I assume I'm not getting it. It's like my job application went to some black hole where a reply is not necessary. This happens even when I check up on my job applications, too! I won't get any type of reply, which is incredibly disrespectful to me as a prospective employee and fellow human being.
Even a basic rejection letter that is obviously copy-pasted is better than no reply ever.
Please respect the time that I spent applying for this job!
According to my journalism school's career advisers, resumes are supposed to be customized for each position you apply. If it requires a cover letter, that, too, should be personalized for each job. So, that's some serious time that is expected out of the person applying for the jobs, but not much that's expected out of the prospective employer.
The prospective employer should respect that people want to work at their company and should send out rejection responses once they decide to officially hire someone. This seems like common courtesy to me, but a surprisingly large amount of companies don't do this!
I'm not sure why companies think it's cool to not let people know that they didn't receive the position. Most of us are eagerly looking for new jobs and would love to focus our energies elsewhere if we FOR SURE know we aren't getting the position. I like to check in with my prospective employers to see if they need any extra information and let them know how interested I am in the position, so I could be focusing that energy somewhere more productive if I knew that I was actually going to the spam folder because they already hired someone.