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Getting feedback when a company declines to make an offer

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Re: Getting feedback when a company declines to make an offer

#21
Most of the time there are plenty of people we would be happy to hire, but some other guy was just slightly more qualified or slightly cheaper for the same qualifications.

There are some cases where it's just attitude. Like I feel this person was just blasting her resume to everyone and picked someone whose cover letter felt a bit more sincere.

There are plenty of cases where someone is simply not qualified. Or that I'd get the impression that this person is not very smart and choose not to move forward with the interview process.

Weak English is another major reason. We rarely need someone good with algorithms or a specific tech skill. This is all learnable. What we really need is someone who can build what we want the first time, and not spend 2 weeks building the wrong thing. Or having to hire someone else to read the manual for them. It's really hard to explain why you'd think someone has poor English. Grammatical errors and a few typos are okay. But sometimes it feels like some effort to simply communicate with the person.

Also do note that the person on the other end is human. We don't really want to say why we reject someone, as the reason is often unfair and false. It's very uncomfortable to explain it. Easier to just ghost someone.

Re: Getting feedback when a company declines to make an offer

#23
post #5

In many cases, a company is concerned about opening itself up to potential legal action. It sucks for candidates who really just want to know how to improve, but the safest action for a company is to simply not provide any information, rather than provide something that could be used against them later. It's not dissimilar to why many companies can't provide more info on reference checks than the dates of someone's e…

> In many cases, a company is concerned about opening itself up to potential legal action.

Can you give an example of specific kinds of feedback that would open a company up for legal action?

Re: Getting feedback when a company declines to make an offer

#24
If a firm asks you to invest time in the interview process beyond the initial application and maybe an initial HR call, then it’s deeply unprofessional if they don’t give you some feedback about their decision.

It does not matter if they want to have a no-feedback policy for legal risk mitigation reasons or anything else, it is just simply an unacceptable way to treat a person after taking up their time. And it becomes more egregious as they take more time with more interviews or assessments.

The hard truth is that most companies are bad, in a Moral Mazes sense, and the fact that these inhumane practices get adopted by the majority is not an endorsement that they are in any sense OK or tolerable. They aren’t.

When a company fails to give sincere feedback after taking up your time, just be thankful you get to avoid them, as it seems clear it would be a toxic workplace culture.

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