---
id: A-001
type: artifact
title: "Complete silence after submission"
lang: en
registry: 2026.08.2
canonical: https://hoba.work/artifacts/A-001
json: https://hoba.work/api/v1/artifacts/A-001.json
---

# Complete silence after submission

No automated receipt, acknowledgement, rejection, or recruiter outreach is received following application submission.

> **On the canonical path** — [Search closed, and everyone told](https://hoba.work/process#WF-003-closed)
>
> A search can legitimately stop: the need changes, the budget goes, someone internal turns out to be right for it. What this path requires is that the posting comes down and every candidate still inside the process is told within days.
>
> This entry is one of the ways that commitment stops being kept.

> **What made this ordinary** — [A fixed number of seats](https://hoba.work/eras#E-004) (2024–2026)

## At a glance

- Stage: Intake, Sourcing
- Evidence: supported

## What it looks like

Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here.

**ATS status history** · exported by the candidate on day 41 — *reconstruction*

```
  day 0, 18:22  Application received — Senior Backend Engineer
  day 0, 18:22  Status: Under review
> day 41, 09:00  Status: Under review
```

*What to notice* The record shows one state change and then nothing. Silence here is the absence of an event, not an event with a hidden meaning.

**Follow-up message to the listed contact** · two attempts, three weeks apart — *reconstruction*

```
  day 14 Candidate  Hello — I applied for the Senior Backend Engineer role on the 3rd and wanted to check the application went through. Happy to send anything else that helps.
  day 35 Candidate  Following up on the note above. If the search has been paused or filled, that is completely fine — I would just like to close the loop on my side.
> day 41  — no reply —
```

*What to notice* Two polite, dated attempts and no response. What is established is the absence of a reply, not a decision about the candidate.

## From each side

The same entry from inside each position that meets it: what reaches them, what it means from there, and what happens next given what they control.

### Candidate

- **What reaches them:** One status line on day 0, the same status line on day 41, and no reply to two dated follow-ups sent to the listed contact.
- **What it means from there:** The record establishes that no reply arrived. It does not carry a reading of the application, because no event after submission is in it.
- **What happens next:** Records the confirmation ID and both follow-up dates, checks spam and quarantine for the receipt, and keeps other processes running to their own timelines.

### Recruiter

- **What reaches them:** The application sits in a queue whose depth exceeds the week's screening capacity. A follow-up sent to a listed address may not be attached to any requisition.
- **What it means from there:** An unread application is a position in a queue, not a decision that has been taken and withheld.
- **What happens next:** Works the requisitions closest to their fill date first, because time-to-fill is measured and time-to-clarity is not.

### ATS vendor

- **What reaches them:** A record whose status has not changed since ingestion, and an expiry timer running against the threshold the customer's configuration sets.
- **What it means from there:** An unreviewed record approaching its expiry threshold. Whether the profile was read, or was readable at all, is not a field the platform holds.
- **What happens next:** Expires the record at the threshold and sends whatever the customer's notification settings specify, which may be nothing.

## What this observation does NOT establish

- Does not prove the application was reviewed by a human.
- Does not prove the role was cancelled or already filled.

## Diagnostic probes

- **PROBE-A-001-1** (low) — Check email spam and security quarantine folders for ATS automated acknowledgement tokens. → Confirms whether application was ingested and generated a confirmation ID.

---

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