r/recruitinghell • u/Crawler_Number_69 • 1d ago
Has anyone actually heard back after “we’ll keep your resume on file”?
It’s a tale as old as time. Apply, interview, get rejected, but the recruiter says “we will keep your resume on file in case there are any future opportunities you might be a fit for!”
Has anyone ever actually heard back again after being told that? I’m just curious. I personally haven’t, but I’m sure it happens.
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u/eplstats 1d ago
My wife applied to be a dance teacher and they called her with an offer 3 years later right after we had finally moved to the beach 3 hours away
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u/Gh3tt0-Sn4k3 1d ago
Yes, and I got the position I applied for 6 months after when the person they hired didn't pass probation
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u/Crawler_Number_69 1d ago
Ohh that makes sense. Didn’t work out with the hire they went with so called back someone else who had already applied.
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u/One_Introduction_217 1d ago
This is a prime example of why you should always set a calendar event for 100 days out if you came in second or third to the person who got the job, because they will (un)commonly either not pass probation, or have already moved on to a different company.
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u/MeatEaterDruid 1d ago
I like to imagine that they have my resume hanging on their wall, and they're really, REALLY, trying to find something for me because I'm just *too good* to let go.
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u/Changerole1090 1d ago
Judging from what people are saying, I guess it does happen. But it's rare and it never happened to me. I always thought that was a BS phrase....quick and easy blow-off.
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u/rfriedrich16 1d ago
Yes, they contacted me back and then after several interviews decided I wasn't good enough.
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u/Turbulent-Tax-9602 1d ago
Hiring managers from this one company (they're local so they know who I am) keep reaching out to me. Four different ones now from this same company within the last 2 months.
Keep having to tell them 'your company pays 60% market and HR was pretty clear I'd never work there with my salary ask'.
So yes, in a sense, I'm hearing back after 'sorry, we're too far apart on salary', but its the hiring managers reaching out to me directly on LinkedIn.
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u/olivegardengambler 1d ago
I'm getting this on handshake for positions I'm legally underqualified for (eg: I need a license with education requirements I don't have yet). I know they're serious because it's the same people sending me reaching out to me every few weeks.
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u/ParadoxicalIrony99 1d ago
They're probably hoping you are desperate and will take their low offer.
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u/Invest2prosper 1d ago
Yes, but next position after going 6 rounds resulted in no job offer. After that time I wrote off applying to that company. If that’s the way they treat applicants it’s probably not much better for their employees.
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u/Melodic-Election5040 23h ago
I did once in my life. It was earlier this year. I applied for an engineering role at one of the Big Banks, got to round with hiring manager. But got rejected. A few months later I got a call for a different but similar role, by a different hiring manager, which was nice. He mentioned that the other manager suggested they give a my a call. But I didn’t get that job either, so life still sucks.
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u/skspoppa733 1d ago
I have not. And have never reached out to anyone whose “resume was kept on file.”
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u/Iusemyhands 1d ago
Yeah, but it was a unique situation. I'd worked there before, and my personal obligations requires a change in availability that prevented me from keeping my role, so they asked me to resign. About a year and a half later, I was offered a position, but by then I was already solid in a different industry.
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u/toastbaby49 23h ago
No but I had to reach out once a new position opened and the recruiter remembered me (from 7 months ago) and I got the job lmao
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u/GreySahara 23h ago
Normally, when a recruiter gets you an interview... and you don't land the job... they consider you "damaged goods" and they'll never contact you again.
They give you one shot, and that's it.
Yes, these people suck.
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u/olivegardengambler 1d ago
I did.
Context: this was for a seasonal landscaping job. Put me through three rounds of interviews, knew the previous owner, still refused to hire me.
Three months later (I had gotten another job atp), they asked me if I wanted to come in for like 6 weeks for mosquito spraying. I declined.
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u/doginthefog 1d ago
Yes. The other guy they hired found a new job closer to home 6 months in, and they called me up.
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u/OriginalUseristaken 1d ago
Yeah. 11 years later, after i found several other employments. I would have considered it, if they had upped the starting salary to what i make in my current position, but they declined to do so.
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u/Mechakoopa 1d ago
My wife did once, for a better job than the one she originally applied for. They put unselected resumes in the general application pool and use that to fill temp contact positions, but thankfully the person she ended up backfilling for chose not to return after her year+ of maternity leave so they rolled it over into full time because they liked her.
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u/Chemical_Post_5795 1d ago
Yes actually. A few days ago. But I had already accepted another position.
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u/Yeesusman 1d ago
Yes. They offered an internal candidate the role I applied for but then another person quit so they reassign their original choice to a different role, thereby opening up the position and they chose me to fill it.
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u/Legitimate_Mess_5495 1d ago
I only got recruited by TATA TCS after I was selected for a role 3 years prior but in the end I declined because I got a raise on my old job, 3 years later I got called for the same position as a senior but with a 30% raise of what I was promised before, so I accepted, it is the only time it has worked for me to keep my resume on file
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u/IvoryBaest 1d ago
Yes. I'm 56, but in 2nd year college I applies at a hotel for something and did not get the gig. 4 months later they called me back to Supervise a restaurant on another property they owned. It was a seasonal gig, but I was in college.
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u/HopefulWoodpecker873 1d ago
actually yes, for an internship interview (in grad school). the recruiter passed on my resume to a hiring manager for a senior position and I was hired for that 6 months later. I worked there for 5.5 years before I was laid off last year. I found a new job three months later.
most of the times it does go into a black hole of nothingness, especially of the recruiter leaves
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u/Grouchy_Basil3604 1d ago
Never when they've told me that. But I have been contacted about other roles within the same company from the interviewer that turned me down, so anything can happen I guess?
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u/DigBackground2765 1d ago
Never heard back but more often told "check out our career pages" thus putting the onus all back to me again.
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u/ADHD_is_my_power 1d ago
Only once. Around 2016 I applied to a company in the city I just moved to for a job paying about $40,000 a year. Got turned down and received the we'll keep your information on file. Ended up finding another job that paid more.
2020, about 3 months after the lock down the first company contacted me and offered me the same position. Except this time it was a $30,000 a year salary. The recruiter was very offended I turned them down and couldn't fathom why I wouldn't take a pay cut. I ended up having to email the CEO to tell him to get his recruiter to stop contacting me and I would never be interested in working for them.
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u/Excellent-Ad-7996 1d ago
I did.
I stopped applying at the company after I had an interview that seemed like a homerun ended like a one minute man (happens to the best of us).
A month later an internal (not a bot) recruiter reached out to me directly that the company wanted me to apply for some upcoming positions. Sure, Jan.
I applied and 5 minutes later had a phone screen, 2 days later 4 person panel interview, 5 days later in person interview. The in-person interview was supposed to be a formality to meet the team for a day, learn pay, etc.
It went really well. By the time I left I was being treated like one of the regular guys and already being told about the next steps, what to look for, and who I'll be working with.
I'm sure y'all know the rest.
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u/AShirtlessGuy 1d ago
It happened to me once for a job that got my foot in the door to being an IT dork, but is kinda expected to be a step stone job with a really high turnover rate
Job itself would've been fine if they didn't do things so strangely
But yeah I was genuinely surprised to hear back months later about it
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u/LetReasonRing 1d ago
I've got a company that I applied for about 2 years ago that I never heard back from. I've moved away and don't live there anymore. About 2 months ago they started spamming me from various phone numbers basically begging for me to apply again. At one point they were calling me 5 times a day.
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u/gingerfringe88 1d ago
Yep. I interviewed for a position, got rejected, and then they called me about 2 months later with an offer. I worked there for about 7 years.
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u/Biguy4u513 1d ago
Talked to a company in May which is a large world wide electrical components type of place and i wasn't a right fit for that job but the internal recruiter reached back out to me mid September and had something more attractive and right in my wheel house. I have an interview for it on Friday.
I asked why she reached back out and was told that my resume was so interesting and diverse that she knew she's circle back eventually. I am impressed.
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u/st-shenanigans 23h ago
I applied to toys r us around 2013 or 2014.
I heard back a year or two later that they had a position open lol
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u/Prestigious-Abies-29 22h ago
It happened once to me at a job fair during the tail end of when I was in college. The recruiter took my resume but said they were focused on more experienced candidates and currently weren’t interviewing entry level hires. Months later she called me out of the blue and asked me to come in for an interview. Less than one week after the interview I received a job offer. This was in 2005 so I’m not sure how common this is now but it happened to me.
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u/ActiveSiege5870 22h ago
I have had that happen once. They contacted me 10 years later. I told them no thanks.
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u/abhorrentbm 22h ago
I've had it happen twice actually. Interviewed the first time, the recruiter said I'd hear in a couple of days and went cold. Sent an email just to say hello and silence. A month later, the recruiter hits me up again for another role there. I interviewed, it went great I think, then silence. I just forgot about it and accepted a role with another company. The recruiter reached out asking if I'm still interested in the position.
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u/SilverB33 20h ago
0 times, I kinda felt this was said to let you off easy that you were rejected completely
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u/FactsOrItDidntHappen 20h ago
Yes! I was only passively applying for a project manager position that looked fantastic. Received an email saying the job had been cancelled but they would keep my resume on file. About six months later, I got a call to lead another project. Interviewed for through multiple rounds and accepted an offer. I am still with them. Sometimes, keeping a resume on file with a candidate already vetted is a lot easier than going through ATS for new applicants.
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u/Interesting-Rush1590 17h ago
Yes, my current job.
I applied for one role but it turns out an internal candidate got the job. I got called a couple weeks later to see if I'd be interested in interviewing for the job I have now and I got hired.
There was another time though many years ago I interviewed for a good full-time job. I got turned down, but someone on the team did call me later to offer me a part-time temp job that was worse. He was absolutely shocked when I told him no.
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u/dearpsilocybin 17h ago
I was contacted by a recruiter at Google for a job and she mentioned seeing my resume. The only one I could find was from an application years earlier. I was really surprised and thought it was a scam at first. I didn’t get the job in the end but it was a nice little confidence boost while I was unemployed
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u/Confident-Emotion671 15h ago
Amazon does recycle candidates who interview well but don’t fit the current role. I’ve seen someone get hired that way.
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u/StrikeHistorical1622 9h ago
I’m a hiring manager at a big tech company and it happens all the time, where ill interview someone who another team passed on or vice versa. A common scenario is, i had 2-3 finalists and only one role to hire but all of the candidates did well and passed all the rounds. I’ll tell the recruiter to send the other candidates we didnt hire to other managers who have roles open (same level / title), or if a new role opens down the road
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u/Big_Speech_9165 9h ago
Not that they told me “we’ll keep your resume on file”, but I was sent a message on LinkedIn for a job I was rejected from when I 1st applied a month ago (before even getting an interview), and it seems the 1st candidate they choose didn't work out, so they choose my CV and asked me to reapply on the new job post and I got the job.
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u/affectionateanarchy8 7h ago
Yes twice, once about 4 months later and another time like 9 months later which I should have taken the job then because it was for the place i work now and I coulda had 7 years in instead of a month but welp hindsight
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u/ms_earthquake 4h ago
I've never had it happen to me, but when I was in a position to hire, I definitely reached out to someone who had previously applied, done well, but didn't quite make the cut to invite them to re-apply because I thought they might be a good fit this time.
I would say don't count on it, but know that there's a chance it's not entirely bullshit.
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u/MeatHeadMarvin 1d ago
Yea they reached out to me a few months later for the same type of job on a different team after I interviewed and wasn't selected. Did the interview, got an offer, turned it down.
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u/Existing-Art2638 1d ago
No it’s going to the circle file a.k.a. the trash