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I applied to a summer internship position online some 3 months ago. A few days after submission, my application moved to the "review" stage and since then, I have heard nothing from the recruiter. Though many online advertisement are indeed application black holes, I reckon this one is legit as I personally know people with very similar profiles to mine who successfully applied last year.

Therefore, I decided to contact the recruiter by email some two weeks ago. In the first two weeks, I sent two mails per week, one early and one late in the week. This may sound slightly excessive; however, when I first wrote to this address 3 months ago to make an edit to my application, I got an answer within minutes, so I don't think I should be blamed for that. Having obtained no response, I tried to contact the person whom I thought was in charge by LinkedIn. I say "thought" because the mail address is a generic one (not personal), but he was the guy who answered to me 3 months ago. Anyway, he ended up ignoring my message. This prompted me to adopt a more "aggressive" approach this week, with daily mail reminders. But to no avail...

What do you believe I should do in these circumstances? Should I also send a reminder to the guy on LinkedIn? Switch to two mail reminders per day? Try to reach them by phone?

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I'm sorry this did not work out the way you'd hoped, but you've done all you can. Either they are waiting until a deadline to start deciding, or, I suspect more likely, you are not under serious consideration. Any further inquiries will annoy the decisionmakers, and reduce the scant chance you have at being selected. Once or twice a week for a limited period is fine; your 'agressive' daily reminders are just counterproductive.

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  • Thanks for your response, it does help to hear another person's view! Do you think it would make sense to insist about getting at least some feedback? I don't know whether it's fine to compare oneself to former successful applicants, but I did that anyway before applying to assess my chances and my profile (academics, extra-curricular, projects, research output) compared very very favorably to theirs. I'm therefore stunned at the difference of treatment and it feels fair to ask at least for one reason why they ignored my application. Is there a way I could convey that politely?
    – mezgenon
    Feb 24, 2021 at 22:39
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    No, you have no standing to “insist on” anything. Call them, ask status, ask for feedback, move on. You’re well on your way to becoming “that guy” with the nag emails and there is no up side to creating a negative impression on them.
    – mxyzplk
    Feb 24, 2021 at 22:59
  • mxyzplk is very right. You seem like you have tonnes of information already about how you compare, so the risk:reward of bothering them is poor. There are lots of reasons not to be selected, and many are arbitrary or even random.
    – Michael McFarlane
    Feb 24, 2021 at 23:11
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What do you believe I should do in these circumstances? Should I also send a reminder to the guy on LinkedIn? Switch to two mail reminders per day? Try to reach them by phone?

Since electronic communication has not been working, I would try reaching out by phone. If you continue to receive the runaround then remove this company from consideration for your internship.

Hopefully, you are actively searching for and applying to other companies for your internship. Continue to do so and don't waste anymore time with this company.

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  • Yes, I have sure applied and am still applying to other companies. The issue is, no matter the outcome with this one, I'd like to get a form of feedback at some point. Even if I don't get the position -the most likely outcome given the circumstances, it's important that I understand why since based on former applicants' experiences, I did have good chances. The way it turned out shows I must have done something very wrong in my application and I definitely need to know what to move forward. Is it something I could communicate to the recruiter?
    – mezgenon
    Feb 24, 2021 at 22:56
  • @mezgenon '.. I'd like to get a form of feedback at some point' Unfortunately, such feedback is rarely provided by recruiters because that would result in a lot of follow-up work for them..
    – iLuvLogix
    Feb 25, 2021 at 9:24

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