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Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

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Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#41
post #23
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 notificatio…

Just explaining not defending: That's partially due to the volume seen with online applications. Even 2-5 person companies will sometimes receive ~20-30 resumes a day for an open job, and 90% of them will be obviously inappropriate for the job even just from glancing at their resume. It's a positive feedback loop: People have learned to "shotgun" their resume everywhere, and as a result even small companies have lear…

That doesn't excuse neglecting to send a rejection notice for candidates that were initially considered. If a company contacts me, I expect the conversation to be concluded formally. I do not expect to be ghosted.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#42
post #27

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…

> Did 10+ hours of a challenge project Those things are a hard "no" for me. 10 hours of interviews... I might not like it, but at least it's symmetric. People at the company are putting their time in to the process as much as I am. But with a job, kids, hobbies, volunteer work and so on, I just pass on companies that have day+ long 'coding challenges'.

Don't say no. ask for compensation; after all, you're providing a consultancy service here.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#43
A couple years ago I took a full day off work to interview with a midsized startup that had been after me for months. Halfway through the interviews it started to become clear that they'd expect me to work 60-hour weeks, with regular weekend travel, for less pay than I was making at my 9-5. In the final interview with one of the founders I told him I wasn't willing to do that, so I wasn't surprised when the head of HR emailed me a couple days later to say they wouldn't be making an offer. I responded that I understood this was likely due to my need for better work-life balance and asked if they could provide any feedback. She responded that they could not, as it was against the company's policy. This excuse would have made sense coming from a recruiter, but she was the head of HR--she set the policy. This and the work-life balance thing were enough for me to tell others to stay away from that place.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#44
Candidates that get rejected after spending an entire day on-onsite going through several interview rounds should have the right to get some sort of feedback.

I mean, it is ok to get rejected, it is not ok when companies, basically harassing you for wanting to interview you then all of a sudden just disappear.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#45
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It happens a lot. Even Google ghosted me after an all-day onsite interview in Mountain View in 2015.

Microsoft did the same to me, the same year. Product owner/manager position.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#46
post #10

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 th…

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

This is actually the most common feedback i that i get :D

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#47
post #8

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.

> Candidates want to get into an argument about their skills or performance. curious why you were giving feedback in person if you expect candidates to not say anything back. what were your expectations during this process? did you set expectations with the candidates before the call that they are not supposed to question your analysis?

This is why people don't give candidates feedback, FWIW.

It's a bit like arguing with a potential romantic partner who doesn't want to go on a second date: You might win the argument logically, but you're not getting another date unless there was a comical misunderstanding.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#48

A couple years ago I took a full day off work to interview with a midsized startup that had been after me for months. Halfway through the interviews it started to become clear that they'd expect me to work 60-hour weeks, with regular weekend travel, for less pay than I was making at my 9-5. In the final interview with one of the founders I told him I wasn't willing to do that, so I wasn't surprised when the head of H…

> he was the head of HR--she set they policy.

Head of HR don't set these policies unilaterally.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#49
Working for a large company at this time. We actually rarely even get contact information for the people we are interviewing, probably intentionally because the feedback cycle for applicants that don't make it seems to be locked down (probably due to potential liabilities). I've asked the team to send follow-up on an occasion or two but it's not clear that it's actually happening.

Knowing this, I'll frequently pivot to feedback mode during the interview itself if they clearly aren't going to make the cut. Not sure if that's allowed or exposing us to liabilities, but it does feel better (unless the person is an asshole or seems like they are very likely to use the feedback as leverage against the decision).

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#50
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Candidates want to get into an argument about their skills or performance. curious why you were giving feedback in person if you expect candidates to not say anything back. what were your expectations during this process? did you set expectations with the candidates before the call that they are not supposed to question your analysis?

This is why people don't give candidates feedback, FWIW. It's a bit like arguing with a potential romantic partner who doesn't want to go on a second date: You might win the argument logically, but you're not getting another date unless there was a comical misunderstanding.

potential romantic partners call the people they reject and tell them why they don't like them?

I was asking why gp was doing this ^, seems weird.

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