Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

linkedin.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 157 posts

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#111

Post by fidget »

Buttons840 wrote: post #73
refurb wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's true for all companies. The big, multi-national company I work for keeps all candidate assessment form that have been filled out by the interviewer (even for summer interns). Of course we're trained beforehand to not put stuff in the form that could be construed as discriminatory based on protected classes. You have to keep in mind that if a candidate is rejected and comes back and says it was il…

Are there laws that would allow me to get the interviewers notes?

In the UK, it's as simple as just requesting it from the company

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#112

Post by dragandj »

rbritton wrote: post #96

The timing on this posting is somewhat darkly amusing for me -- I was just rejected by Stripe on Wednesday. I fit the job posting perfectly, so I asked why, and the answers I received were almost identical to those highlighted in the posting. It's unfortunate what the bad eggs in the hiring process have done to make it effectively useless for everyone else.

Maybe the reason is just that they have found the candidate that fits the job even more perfectly.

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#114

Post by spoiler »

wheaties wrote: post #21
jzwinck wrote: post #4

Not only does fear of lawsuits prevent companies from disclosing no-hire reasons, it prevents them from even recording those reasons internally. If you get rejected and don't know why, take heart: a year from now the company also won't know why. You can apply again as if it were Groundhog Day.

We keep a record of all coding exercises performed by people who want to come in for an interview. We reference it for those who reapply to see if there has been improvement. All of our interview questions are in a github repo and peer reviewd so you don't get those brain teaser useless questions. I wish we took notes during interviews. On well. We still remember candidates who apply multiple times.

I assumed all companies did this actually. The company I work for (it's a relatively small one, ~60 employees) does this.

Although, the actual interviews and results are kept secret from the rest of the company—apart from higher-ups—I got insight into them because I was asked to filter out through some final candidates by interviewing them. I realised that they kept notes from past interviews, and based on the fact that one of the interviewees progressed a lot in a 2 year period, I was inclined to put him on top of the list of my recommendation.

I feel like the ability to change is more important than just plain knowledge. More importantly, be mature and accept you "sucked" because {reasons} and work on yourself to improve, rather than be immature and "pridefully" (for a lack of better word) refuse critique.

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#115

Post by blubb-fish »

I am currently in the situation of playing the HR role for hiring a developer in our start-up - for which I am actually working as a Data Scientist.

I not just almost always give a reason for why we decided against a candidate - I even often give advice which might be relevant for future applications.

Why am I not afraid of a law suit? B/c the hiring process I designed is based on a couple of quick tests directly relevant to the position - so it's pretty clear and objective why we decide how we decide.

Most companies though actually base those decision on unsound and subjective information ... of course, those are worried about being blamed for that.

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#116

Post by newjersey »

tomp wrote: post #104
pjc50 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU data protection does, but only if the notes are computerized.

Why would that be so? It's not the candidate's personal information...

If you store I formation about me, it is by definition my information. It may be your thoughts but if there is a link to me, I should get to see it.

Think multi device ad retargeting. How cool would it be to get back information on what the ad exchange thinks I am like...

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#117

Post by tomp »

tristor wrote: post #62

My experience has been the reason that I (and my peers) say nothing is because of a disconnect between knowledge and authority. I've interviewed thousands of candidates in my career and I almost always know before I finish up the interview whether or not we are going to bring that person in for another interview (at which point the team votes if we offer). More than anything else, the number one reason that an otherw…

Wouldn't that suggest that your job specs are rather lacking? I mean, instead of saying "Senior", you could just describe exactly what you expect and require in the candidate.

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#118

Post by dclowd9901 »

jzwinck wrote: post #4

Not only does fear of lawsuits prevent companies from disclosing no-hire reasons, it prevents them from even recording those reasons internally. If you get rejected and don't know why, take heart: a year from now the company also won't know why. You can apply again as if it were Groundhog Day.

Everywhere I've been utilizes some manner of internal app that manages hiring. Computers sure as shit don't forget.

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#119

Post by sreenadh »

blubb-fish wrote: post #115

I am currently in the situation of playing the HR role for hiring a developer in our start-up - for which I am actually working as a Data Scientist. I not just almost always give a reason for why we decided against a candidate - I even often give advice which might be relevant for future applications. Why am I not afraid of a law suit? B/c the hiring process I designed is based on a couple of quick tests directly rel…

You are a rare breed. I wish it was standard practices everywhere. People really need feedback to correct something they are doing wrong. I would love to be interviewed by you just for the feedback.

Re: Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?

#120

Post by paulsutter »

Turn it around. Imagine that you have several offers from different companies.

After you choose one (and you can choose only one), do the other companies have reason to get all mopey and feel offended to hear no reason for the rejection?

Of course they don't. Why should candidates feel any differently when a company chooses someone else?

Post reply on HN