Do email the head of HR. Write a very polite email.
What do you have to lose?
1) You didn't get the job. 2) They forgot and are glad to fix it. 3) They forgot and are too embarrassed to fix it. You avoid working with tacky people.
Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
21–30 of 46 posts
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#22First of all i must applaud you on your level-headedness and self-restraint. It is so common to see people exaggerate and rant on public forums / blogs when confronted with such frustrating situations.
Maybe the HR got laid-off?
Maybe the 3 people who interviewed you are from multiple teams within the organisation and they are now fighting over which team gets to hire you?
Its good that you did NOT name names. So in case this turns out to be a long list of co-incidences that lined-up to create this weird "no-response" situation, you are still on track to get hired and work in a job that you find fulfilling.
> Company X is a very well known company that makes GPUs
If Company X is a 3 letter acronym, their recent quarterly finances might have prompted them to re-evaluate all their future hires.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#23The HR person might have changed jobs / companies. It sounds like this is more an internal screw-up on their part, and that they would be lucky to have you. Definitely email the head of HR. In the email, try and go with "really enjoyed interviewing, but why haven't I heard back, as it's been 4 weeks?" instead of an angry message. I doubt they turned you down; rather, they aren't very well coordinated.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#24If the HR person was fired non-amicably, its possible that your application got lost. There's no harm in emailing someone else. It's unlikely, because if you already met with engineers then they'd probably remind the new HR person about you, but it can't hurt to try.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#25Well, there are lots to hiring someone other than just the technical skills of a candidate. The technical interviewer, sometimes misses a lot on the human element part of it which the HR are more apt in pointing out pretty quickly and accurately. It has been a year every since I joined a friend's company which was acquired by Razorfish sometime back. I've been building and training a creative design and development (…
> HR team rejected them and some of the interesting reasons I found were -- they won't fit in a team setting, they are likely to change really soon and won't stick, and other reasons which I totally overlooked. We don't know if HR was right or just guessing. Maybe you hadn't missed anything and those people would have been great hires?
May be. However, I've learnt to rather not hire and missed the opportunity than to hire and pray that it works out.
It is way harder to fire once hired, than spending a bit more time and hire someone else.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#26Did you have three on-site interviews or were these just on the phone? From your description it sounds like all were on the phone since the interviewers did not know you had already been interviewed.
Phone screen people are just checking if you are worth bringing for on-site. They cannot possibly make a "hire" decision as their output is either "no" or "maybe". So, most likely, you had been rejected either by one of the screeners or for some random reason. But it won't hurt asking somebody higher up if you really want to work there.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#27I had similar experience 15 years ago interviewing for IBM Canada - got a good tech interview, followed by a complete radio silence. Crossed it off the list and moved on. The best part was that the HR did eventually surface, not 5 months after, and the lady seemed genuinely puzzled, almost offended, that I had no interest in pursuing position.
So, yeah, tech interviews and the HR are two separate cans of worms, especially in larger companies. I wouldn't bother with reaching out to the HR, you are clearly not a priority to them. Your best bet would probably be to try and speak with your tech interviewers. However, I think they aren't interested in your either, because otherwise they would've pushed the hiring through the HR and/or contacted you directly already.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#28First of all i must applaud you on your level-headedness and self-restraint. It is so common to see people exaggerate and rant on public forums / blogs when confronted with such frustrating situations. Maybe the HR got laid-off? Maybe the 3 people who interviewed you are from multiple teams within the organisation and they are now fighting over which team gets to hire you? Its good that you did NOT name names. So in…
To be honest, there is only two major PCIe GPU makers now.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#29"the HR lady" - you mean the recruiter.
Re: Ask HN: Technical interviews went amazing but HR is not answering my emails now?
#30This is not a unique situation. Many things could have happened. There could have been a better candidate that popped up. There could no longer be no longer a budget for the job or the team decided to make a change that made this hire no longer needed. People that interviewed you could have left the company. A more senior person could have felt threatened by you and actually wanted someone less talented. Those are th…
That is understandable, but after making me go through 3 technical interviews they could at least have contacted me to let me know they are not interested in hiring me, especially after I contacted her later on.
My recollection is that no company has ever contacted me to tell me they decided not to hire me. Not one time.
I've had a similar experience with a company I tried to go back to after leaving a few years prior. I had a couple of interviews, it was great, other people at the company were reaching out to welcome me back, etc. but after my interview nothing happened.
It is frustrating, but if it's really been 3 months since your interview, and you're not getting a response from HR anymore, then you're probably not getting the position. You should move on.