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

How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

nathanmarz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 84 posts

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#61

Post by FiddlerClamp »

On the flip side, is it considered okay to simply stop contacting a candidate after three or four interviews, never send a rejection notice, and refuse to answer an email or phone call about the situation?

I've had this happen to me three times in the last five years -- mostly for positions within a marketing department, where you would think communication would matter.

Unfortunately, fear of retaliation or blacklisting keeps applicants like myself from disclosing specific company or hiring manager names...I feel it's disrespectful to not at least send an FOD note of 10 words or less if you've spent hours with them.

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#62

Post by alexgartrell »

I interviewed at a bunch of places and only got two offers. One of the places I interviewed and failed was Microsoft. They had the interviews throughout the day (about 4 of them), and then after that they had an HR person give you the good or bad news.

(It's worth saying that the developers I interviewed with were really outstanding. They were in the Dev Tools group (CLR, Visual Studio, etc.) and were really sharp).

Anyway, I got pulled out, and the woman gave me "the bad news," and the typical HR lines about "not a good fit at this time," and, "we encourage you to apply again later." And then, out of nowhere, she throws out "And you should definitely take a close look at yourself to figure out how you could be better."

The reason I tell this story is to point out that "helpful feedback" is absolutely useless when not actually helpful. Having an HR person (who had, up to that point, been totally disconnected from the whole process), come and give me some "helpful tips" wasted her time and mine.

I also interviewed with Meebo (which was actually a pretty interesting interview, and the people there were pretty cool). I met with the HR guy at the end of the day, and he tried to talk me into doing an internship instead, because I'd be competing with people with "years of experience." I told him I already had some offers and I wasn't interested in an internship. Later, when he emailed to "give me the bad news," he said "we're going with another candidate, but enjoy your summer at Company X!" I'd say this loosely qualifies as rejecting me like an asshole.

I ended up with offers from Facebook and Google though, so life goes on :)

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#63

Post by desigooner »

I think the most frequent complaint of mine is unprofessionalism on the end of the company in getting back to the candidates. It's pretty much being an asshole to not get back to the candidate who takes the time to come and interview with them. I understand that they may have many a people applying for positions and this and that but there are some common courtesies. And I'm not even talking about a hyper competitive job where hundreds apply for a few positions. This has happened when I was one of the 2 people considered for the position and what not. This one time I got an email from HR after a couple of months of interviewing asking me if I was still interested in the position etc.

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#64

Post by iron_ball »

kgo wrote: post #50

For an all day interview, sure some feedback would be nice. For a phone interview, I'd probably think you're a bigger asshole if you went into details about how I failed the interview, what's wrong with me, why I'm unqualified, and how I can go about improving myself. Imagine someone going into the details about why we won't be going out on a second date.

In my less socially adept days, I would have loved that. A sort of dating exit interview? Yes please.

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#65

Post by elliottcarlson »

desigooner wrote: post #63

I think the most frequent complaint of mine is unprofessionalism on the end of the company in getting back to the candidates. It's pretty much being an asshole to not get back to the candidate who takes the time to come and interview with them. I understand that they may have many a people applying for positions and this and that but there are some common courtesies. And I'm not even talking about a hyper competitive…

Completely agree - take the time, even if it's a standard no thank you email, to get back to the candidate. There are plenty of companies that do this, and while I can take the rejection without any hard feelings if that is the outcome, I will lose respect for the company when no response is given.

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#66

Post by nandemo »

ig1 wrote: post #5

A lot of big companies do give feedback on request though especially for developer roles where you can give specific factual feedback (candidate was weak in multi-threading, etc.) It's one of the big advantages of technical interviews. You don't have to rely purely on subjective human judgement.

Do you mind sharing what companies are those?

I've interviewed in several foreign big companies in Japan. After enduring multiple interviews spanning 2 to 4 months (compared to 2~4 weeks in Japanese companies), not once did I get any specific feedback. In one particular case, during the process, I asked HR for the contact details of 2 of the technical interviewers and they refused; I had to send my questions via HR.

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#68

Post by cousin_it »

iron_ball wrote: post #64
kgo wrote: post #50

For an all day interview, sure some feedback would be nice. For a phone interview, I'd probably think you're a bigger asshole if you went into details about how I failed the interview, what's wrong with me, why I'm unqualified, and how I can go about improving myself. Imagine someone going into the details about why we won't be going out on a second date.

In my less socially adept days, I would have loved that. A sort of dating exit interview? Yes please.

You'd have heard a lot of incorrect information. People have no idea what attracts them.

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#69

Post by crocowhile »

Stop_Lurker wrote: post #51

At the end of interviews when they ask "Do you have any questions for me" I make a point of asking what they felt was good about my interview and how they think I could have improved it. Most of the time, they refuse to answer that question. I think it's probably a bad idea for me to do this.

Yes that is a bad idea because you are moving the focus from the job to the interview

Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

#70

Post by follower »

alexgartrell wrote: post #62

I interviewed at a bunch of places and only got two offers. One of the places I interviewed and failed was Microsoft. They had the interviews throughout the day (about 4 of them), and then after that they had an HR person give you the good or bad news. (It's worth saying that the developers I interviewed with were really outstanding. They were in the Dev Tools group (CLR, Visual Studio, etc.) and were really sharp).…

> he emailed to "give me the bad news," he said "we're going with another candidate, but enjoy your summer at Company X!" I'd say this loosely qualifies as rejecting me like an asshole.

Really? Wow. I'd have interpreted that as an attempt at being "friendly", showing at least some personal interest and wishing you well.

I guess that goes to show it's difficult to predict how other people will interpret things. :)

Post reply on HN