This really explains why the last time I did job hunting it was such a stab in the dark for 6 months.
Job hunting in general is terrible.
Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
11–20 of 348 posts
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#12Years ago I interviewed at a startup in SF. It went well except for one ex-FAANG asshole who spent the entire whiteboard interview thumbing his phone while I went down the wrong rabbit hole on the problem he gave me. No attempt to guide me back, critique my approach or anything of the sort. I didn't get the job, as expected. But the memorable thing about the process was that the recruiter made a point of calling me t…
I can understand not giving feedback, but being kind and polite and timely with a response is absolutely something everyone should do.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#13We 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 th…
While that's all very understandable, at the very least give some kind of generic rejection.
This was many years ago, but one time I did an all-day onsite interview (~6 hours long) and I was ghosted and never heard from the company again.
That infuriates me even to this day. At least give me some kind of news that it was a no.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#14> 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 peopl…
> 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."
So, the obvious application of feedback would be that you try to rectify the problem and then reapply.
I suspect companies don't want you to reapply, regardless of whether you've improved. They already said no.
But in that case, what's the feedback for?
Your idea here hits a similar problem: if the company starts giving out the information "we threw away your resume because you have it in Times New Roman, and we prefer to hire Courier people", they just gave away their valuable resume-filtering trade secret. Once they've done that, all of the resumes they get will use Courier, and they'll have to come up with a new filtering system. So they just imposed a cost on themselves without benefiting anyone, themselves, you, or third parties.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#15We 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 th…
While that's all very understandable, at the very least give some kind of generic rejection. This was many years ago, but one time I did an all-day onsite interview (~6 hours long) and I was ghosted and never heard from the company again. That infuriates me even to this day. At least give me some kind of news that it was a no.
Not too many places will straight up ghost candidates that have done on-sites, that's pretty unusual.
Sometimes they'll dangle candidates if they're waiting to hear whether their first choice accepts, but even then it's rare not to communicate at all once you've done an on-site.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#16Years ago I interviewed at a startup in SF. It went well except for one ex-FAANG asshole who spent the entire whiteboard interview thumbing his phone while I went down the wrong rabbit hole on the problem he gave me. No attempt to guide me back, critique my approach or anything of the sort. I didn't get the job, as expected. But the memorable thing about the process was that the recruiter made a point of calling me t…
The one time I got some feedback on why I was rejected it was also over the phone.
I assumed the California ban on recording phone conversations without consent made the conversation legally non existent.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#17> 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 peopl…
I would add to the stalling for time component that they can't know a person's price unless they make an offer.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#18I think most job seekers would simply appreciate a "no thank you" response and not get ghosted.
Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more common to just go silent on candidates. What a cowardly thing to do.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#19Sometimes there isn't much in the way of actionable feedback. The most recent position I was on the interview loop for, after a long filtering process (pre-me), we interviewed 5 candidates and chose one. In the final debrief, there were 3 very much viable candidates and significant discussion to winnow down to the one we ultimately hired. A few butterfly wing flaps could have led to a different candidate being offered the role.
What can we tell #2 and #3 that is helpful? ("You are a very strong candidate and the cosmic die roll came up a 1-2, where your number was 3-4 or 5-6.")
What can we tell #4 and #5 that is helpful? ("Sorry, three other candidates seemed more intelligent, had a stronger demonstrated tech background, and though you made the cut to on-site, you were the one of the two weakest links.")
I'm not sure what the candidates would do to "fix" anything about that; the high order bit (that they didn't get an offer) is the information that I'd need as a candidate. Sure, I want more, but there might not be anything more there.
In other cases in the past, I have given feedback to candidates about why we didn't select them or what I saw as gaps that they could close, but if I don't think there's any reasonable action the candidate could do to change the outcome in a similar interview situation 2 years from now, I'm probably not going to give them any detailed feedback.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#20I'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.
Thank you for sending out a form letter.
A form letter, email, whatever would be better than what I experienced in my last job hunt. It was silence after silence. Was the rec closed/filled? Am I even in the running or was I rejected early on and now I am just waiting for no reason?
A lot of the companies used automated submission systems, which confirmed they received the resume, but they never sent out a notification that the position was filled/closed/rejected. Just a one line email would have been better than nothing. I feel even that common (and super automatable) courtesy has been lost.