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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

#91

Post by rleigh »

yborg wrote: post #80
alistairSH wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't expect to be contacted again after a screening conversation or a simple application, but if I am interviewed in-person by multiple people I consider it common courtesy to provide at least a from letter "No". This is becoming very uncommon these days for the various reasons given, as well as the fact that there is little downside to being rude - it's not like the candidate can do anything to the interviewing c…

I agree with all you've said, but for this point:

> it's not like the candidate can do anything to the interviewing company

It's true to a point. However, when you ghost someone, you've effectively as a company burned your bridges with someone, all for want of a simple and not at all burdensome small amount of courtesy. Even if you're not interviewing them in person, a simple notification that the application will not be considered further means they aren't left hanging on pointlessly.

If you want to hire them in the future, they might just blow you off.

If they pass on their bad experience to others, your reputation has suffered and you'll make it harder to recruit others in their social circle.

You might be immune to the effects of rude behaviour in the short term, but it will come back to bite to some degree later. As an example, after some really rather abrupt telephone interviews with Google, and a really rude on-site interviewer, I told them never to contact me ever again. I have no intention of considering them again in the future.

I think your point about considering the long game is spot on. I had the dilemma of interviewing with two companies and getting two good offers. The company I ended up rejecting were really nice, made a really great effort to sell themselves, and I left with nothing but positive feelings. Nearly a year later, they would still love to have me on their team. Should I need to in the future, I'm fairly certain I could give them a call and start work the next day, all because they did a really good job of building a good relationship.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#92

Post by lostapathy »

kova12 wrote: post #84
kilroy123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But the company too spent at least 6 man/hours to interviewing you. Whatever reason they had to not call you back, they didn't come out of it unscathed, interviewing someone is not cheap.

That in no way absolves them of the responsibility to treat you like a human and give you a simple "no thanks."

This attitude it toxic and feels like you're looking to turn an interview into a lose-lose situation. It doesn't have to be.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#93

Post by sideshowb »

hinkley wrote: post #53
wgerard wrote: 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…

We give people actionable feedback at work because we expect the team to benefit from the feedback. What's the benefit of feedback to someone you already decided won't be on the team?

Just basic politeness? Or is that not sufficiently important to the bottom line. Of course. How silly of me.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#94

Post by ativzzz »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #34
shadow-banned wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside: marketers, engineers, whomever. Don't do free projects for companies. It's never worth it. I monitor their site to make sure they never use the work I presented. Waiting to pull the trigger on a lawsuit!

> Don't do free projects for companies. It's never worth it. In my experience, I'd never get hired if I took this approach. Work samples are quickly becoming the interview standard for engineering. In fact, I find they're often completely replacing all day onsite interviews. I'd much rather do 8 hours of self-directed, self-paced work than get grilled on a whiteboard during an on-site.

The company I work at pays a lowish rate for our 10 hour take home project, which is also the last step of the interview process. I think this is a great practice, as this shows that we're taking this seriously and are willing to compensate for your time.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#95

Post by beezle »

kilroy123 wrote: post #13
wgerard wrote: 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…

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.

This is a societal problem and not just employer/jobseeker. "Friends" and aquaintances do it now. Vendors/contractors/trades people do it. Only a matter of time before our pets ghost us too.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#96

Post by freshbagels »

ggambetta wrote: post #5

They are especially scared to give negative feedback to candidates out of fear that it might be misinterpreted as discrimination. And this is why we can't have nice things.

That bit made no sense to me.

I think the opposite is true; when given no concrete feedback, one begins to hypothesize why they were rejected, and their mind will often point them to discrimination as the reason.

If one is given clear, concrete feedback ("We rejected you because you didn't come up with a simpler algorithm, and you lack experience with framework x"), there is little room for them to think they were discriminated against in any way but their skills/experience.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#97

Post by lostapathy »

wgerard wrote: post #23
djhalon wrote: 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…

There's a difference between ignoring a resume and ignoring somebody who took the time to interview with you. I can see why you wouldn't want to reply to a bunch of resumes you just trashed, but if you bring somebody in for an interview, be a human and tell them they didn't get the job so they can move on.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#98

Post by sideshowb »

wgerard wrote: 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…

If a rebuttal allows you to identify a good candidate you would otherwise have missed, that's actually a positive thing though? (I appreciate many rebuttals won't be in this category).

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#99

Post by lostapathy »

tpmx wrote: post #73
rconti wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what's hard about the typical "unfortunately, we cannot hire everyone who expresses interest in this position..." boilerplate?

In this case, the failed candidate started detailing things we had done "wrong" in a very detailed and also entirely incorrect way. (Again: our problem was that we were mostly recruiting from a small, geographically localized online forum.) People in general are naturally curious about details of what's supposed to be a block box procedure. So they'll be drawn like a moth to flame like to something like this, even if…

Do you really think the failed candidate wouldn't also have lashed out at your company had you just ghosted him after the interview and not told him he was rejected? There's a good chance he/she would have been even angrier by the time they decided they were out of the running.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#100

Post by catalogia »

wgerard wrote: post #54
dominotw wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, people frequently request justification when they're rejected romantically. This is also why people get ghosted while dating nowadays. Many of the same reasons at play.

> people frequently request justification when they're rejected romantically. This is also why people get ghosted while dating nowadays.

I'm not sure I understand this. I'm under the impression that ghosting people while dating is a newish phenomenon. Is requesting justifications a similarly newish thing? If one didn't change, why would the other? It doesn't seem like we've gotten to the root of the matter.

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