“You’ll Hear From Us Either Way.” Here’s Why Most Candidates Never Do,

The Secret Language of Hiring, Part 24

That phrase is in almost every rejection template. And for most candidates it means absolutely nothing – not because companies are being dishonest, but because the person who wrote it has no idea whether it will ever be true.

You interviewed well. The conversation felt promising. Before you left, the recruiter looked you in the eye and said you would hear from them either way. And then, weeks later, you are still waiting. The role was ultimately filled. You know because you found it on LinkedIn. But that call never came.

This is one of the most universally broken promises in the hiring process, and after more than two decades on the inside of it, I want to tell you why it happens so consistently and what it actually tells you about the organizations that do it.

What “Either Way” Is Actually Promising

There are three versions of this phrase, and only one of them reflects a genuine intention.

Version One: They Meant It When They Said It

Some recruiters make this commitment and keep it. They follow up with every candidate, including the ones who did not advance, because they understand that a professional close is part of the process. Those recruiters tend to be experienced, tend to work for organizations with strong talent cultures, and tend to deliver a response within the window they implied.

You can usually identify this version early. The recruiter is specific about the timeline. They give you a name and a direct line. And when they say “either way,” it sounds like a commitment rather than a closing line. As I described in “We’re Just Wrapping Up Final Interviews”, when a process is genuine and well-run, the communication around it tends to be specific enough to be distinguishable from the version that is just filling conversational space.

Version Two: It Was Said to Close the Conversation Gracefully

The second version is the most common. “You’ll hear from us either way” is a professional exit line. It sounds considerate. It implies the candidate is owed a response. And it ends the interview on a note that feels more humane than “we’ll let you know.” But there is no calendar reminder behind it, no system that flags open candidates for follow-up, and no one assigned to make the call that was implicitly promised.

Hiring teams are stretched. Recruiters often manage multiple searches simultaneously. Once a hire is made, the attention shifts entirely to onboarding, the next search, and the hundred other things competing for time. The candidates who did not advance are not forgotten out of cruelty. They are forgotten because the infrastructure to remember them was never built. As I described in “When a Recruiter Goes Silent”, recruiter silence is almost always a reflection of what is happening inside the organization rather than a judgment about your candidacy. The absence of a promised call is almost never personal.

Version Three: HR Has a Policy Against Rejection Feedback

The third version is the one candidates find most surprising. Many organizations have legal or HR guidance that discourages specific rejection feedback to avoid opening the company to challenge or litigation. A recruiter who genuinely wants to close the loop may find that the only feedback they are authorized to deliver is so vague it does not feel worth the call. So the call does not get made, even when the intention was real.

The Society for Human Resource Management has documented how candidate communication practices are often shaped more by legal caution than by a genuine communication strategy. What you experience as a broken promise is frequently the output of a policy the recruiter did not write and cannot override. The phrase “either way” was sincere. The follow-through ran into a wall that was invisible to you.

What to Do Instead of Waiting

Give the process the timeline they implied. If they said two weeks, follow up once at two weeks with a brief, professional note: “I wanted to check in on the timeline we discussed and see if there are any updates.” That is not pressure. It is professionalism.

If you hear nothing after a second follow-up, treat it as a close and redirect your energy accordingly. You are not owed a rejection call, even when one was promised. But you are allowed to stop waiting for one and move forward. As I covered in “We’ll Get Back to You by End of Week”, the candidates who come through this kind of limbo in the strongest position are the ones who kept their search fully active throughout and never let one company’s timeline become the ceiling on their own progress.

The most useful thing you can do in the absence of a promised response is to stay professionally connected to the recruiter. Connect on LinkedIn. Engage occasionally with relevant content. Reach back out in sixty to ninety days if a specific reason to reconnect exists. You are not chasing. You are staying visible. And visibility, as Fast Company has reported, is one of the most consistently underestimated assets in a job search.

My Closing Thoughts

“You’ll hear from us either way” is said with the best of intentions in most cases. It is broken with the best of intentions in most cases too. Understanding why it happens does not make the silence less frustrating, but it does make it less worth spending emotional energy on.

Follow up once. Follow up again a week later if needed. Then keep moving. The answer you are waiting for is almost certainly not coming, and your search deserves your full attention in the meantime.

Let’s Talk About This

Has a company ever told you this – and actually followed through? Or have you been on the other end of the silence, wondering what happened? Drop a comment below. These experiences are impactful, and they are worth sharing with the people still navigating this market.

My free Secret Language of Hiring workbook breaks down the language of every stage of the hiring process, including the phrases that sound like commitments and rarely are.

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