Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

I had an interview with Facebook and was eventually turned down. I asked for feedback at least twice, and even from a person on the inside that I know personally if they could get any from the recruiter. Nothing.

Then a few days later they sent me an email asking for my feedback! I n/a'd everything and made sure to list all of my interviewers names.

> Too Much Data > It becomes virtually impossible for the company to get back to everyone who submits their résumé.

This one seems like "blaming it on the victim" to me. You get too many candidates, you're unable to give each of us an in-depth review, you may as well say a single sentence like "You resume was quickly filtered out based on this one requirement." It's like they're ashamed to admit they pre-filter people based on hasty criteria to deal with the deluge of candidates.

> Stalling For Time > There is a belief by corporate executives that there is an abundance of qualified candidates. They erroneously believe that if the HR department waits longer, they will eventually find the perfect person suited for the role for a cheaper price.

This explains why we don't initially get feedback, but not why we often don't get it at all.

Experienced this at a local tech company that will remain nameless. They're in the logistics space. They enable fast shipping for merchants.

Did 10+ hours of a challenge project - something I would have charged $5,000+ for, including a channel-specific attribution model (with defense of my choice), a complete onboarding campaign flow with timing, and sample email creative, lead scoring model, and a bunch of pedantic questions about my background and history. 15+ pages, presentations, etc.

Did three virtual conference calls. Met the head of engineering and CEO. Went over; great, energetic conversations.

Received a call from the recruiter, poor thing, and she could barely get the words out to me.

Them: "I'm so sorry... uh, but... but it was a no."

Me: "I completely understand! Not everything is a fit. Do you have any actionable feedback for me?"

Them: "Uh, they... I mean, we... just... are looking for, more? I think."

Me: "Um, okay. Thanks for the opportunity."

They still have not filled their head of marketing role. Two months later.

(I suspect their young founder didn't like me - not a problem, but not something you can tell a candidate.)

This article resonates.

I'm a software developer turned temporary recruiter for a startup (just hired last position yay!). The number one reason why I don't give feedback anymore is the candidate's response. It is almost universally negative. Candidates want to get into an argument about their skills or performance.

Now, everyone gets a form letter, and I don't deviate from that.

We interviewed a lot of hiring managers/etc. while we were working on a previous business in the hiring space. As part of that, we asked them this very question.

The fear of litigation was by far the biggest reason we heard, but there were some other popular reasons (mostly relating around conflict avoidance):

* Notably, giving feedback feels like an opening for the candidate to submit a rebuttal instead of ending the conversation (e.g. "You didn't do well on X" "Well here's a list of reasons why I didn't do well, and here's me demonstrating I actually understand X").

* It was just a personality conflict that few people would admit to in writing (e.g. "You're kind of an asshole, I don't want to work with you" isn't something you tell a candidate).

* There just isn't much actionable feedback to give. "Nobody felt excited to potentially work with you" isn't really actionable feedback, and sharing that just feels kinda mean for no reason.

* Someone better came along to fill the role and nobody wants to tell a candidate "We found someone better than you".