Ours does to internal applicants. Or at least used to when interviewees came in in person. Otherwise it would be a rude shock to see an external applicant come in for the next round of interviews while you still think you’re in the running for the job.
And yes, that does mean that you can get pulled back in and even offered the job as the second of third choice candidate.
I’m not saying it’s not good practice; just that it seems much more common to never hear you’re not in the running.
We absolutely ghost external applicants!
That said, when I got the job here about 20 years ago, the time between my first interview and when I was called back for the final interview (with CFO) was over two months.
I suspected (and later confirmed) that their first choice candidate had bailed after accepting their offer.
I did once get a rejection letter 18 MONTHS after the interview!
There are a few factors here:
The second one is what really bothers me. You asked me for a resume, I went to the trouble of creating it, and you want me to re-enter all that information into an application? With pen, on a paper form?
No, I’m sorry. In a tight labor market, I don’t have to do that.
I was just at my cardiologist last Wednesday, and she read my list of meds. I was going to stop her when she came to baby aspirin to say I wasn’t taking it any more. But before I could she said I didn’t need it since I had started taking Pradaxa. Which I had already deduced and had stopped taking the aspirin, but she was able to delete it from my list of meds because I didn’t think of it. Since it wasn’t prescription it sort of slipped my mind.
I had something similar last year. My primary had told me to reduce my Metformin from two tablets a day to one, so I did. When I was reviewing my medications for my next appointment it still showed I was taking two per day, but my only option was to confirm the listed dosage or delete the medication completely. So I confirmed it, and then reminded the doc that my medication list needed to be corrected.
That’s inconvenient that she couldn’t change the dosage.
Yeppers.
I’m fairly certain I’ll get flamed for saying this, but here goes:
It seems that there are some cultural differences with some members of the southeast asian community, their approach to getting jobs, and performance on the job. Sometimes they engage in using imposters in getting the jobs, as mentioned above. Maybe they figure we can’t tell them apart? And if they DO get hired, they rely on fake-it-until-you-make-it, and crowdsourcing within their personal network to try and muddle through the actual work. I’ve seen a handful fail to make it through probation. Maybe they figure that they’ll do that a few times until they’ve learned actual skills? 'dunno. Heavy sigh.
So, the OP’s news story of being required to hand write an application and job history could be strategy of the employer to identify imposters.
About one in ten of the companies I have applied to through Indeed have sent a form rejection email.
After a interview, that jumps up to about 33%
I admit I have heard of this, but always in a FoaF way (Friend of a Friend). I am not saying it has never happened, but methinks more UL than common. 
He did change it after I reminded him to correct the record.
More annoying, he had just written a refill order for the old dosage, so CVS keeps trying to get me to order another 90-day supply when I still have 90 days’ worth on hand. Fortunately, I was able to deactivate the auto-refill option with CVS.
Not an UL, but even if it’s not common, folks try to develop strategies to prevent it.
I’ve had dozens of coworker and subordinates in my 28 years of management who have not had the skills they claimed to have or were supposed to have for the job and who have had to get help from other employees to perform the minimum requirements of their jobs. 100% of these folks have been white and they never get fired.
You know what I’ve never seen in all my years of management? The mythical Affirmative Action Minority Employee who was hired despite being unqualified and survives because people are afraid to fire them.
A few years ago, I wrote “See resume” on an online job application (in the spaces for “Education” and “Employment History”). A few days later, I received a snippy email informing me that I had been disqualified from further consideration for doing that.
I didn’t know whether to be annoyed at this bureaucratic pettiness, or impressed that they actually told me instead of simply ghosting me.
Yeah. I even commented on those old white guys when I first started working. They never seemed to do anything much, and when they did do anything they did it badly. But no one even demoted them.
Hey, a trifecta! That line is ageist, racist and sexist in one sentence! But maybe you are being sarcastic?
When I’m talking about specific men who were white, old and seriously incompetent? I wasn’t talking about the old white men who were great workers and awesomely talented that I also knew.
Yes, because their race, age and sex had nothing to do with their competence.
But it did have to do with why they weren’t disciplined for it, which was the whole point.
It had everything to do with their survival!
Thank you, @Mighty_Mouse !