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

Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 348 posts

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#141

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #83

As a candidate, I've always preferred polite "thanks, but no thanks" responses in a timely manner. The other kind of feedback that I like is things like, "we need people with a different background / experience than you have." IMO, judgement feedback (you screwed up how you handle your yak shaving, or I don't think we'll get along with each other) is too subjective to be constructive. And, I get it. As someone who's…

> “It's safer to pass on a good candidate than hire a bad employee.”

After a decade of building teams in machine learning, I regard this as one of those hallowed mythical pieces of wisdom that is just totally wrong.

It dramatically over-estimates both the chances and costs of hiring a bad employee, while discounting the huge, huge opportunity cost of not hiring rare, exceptional candidates.

I’d much rather spend a year or two managing someone out as a result of actually trying to hire exceptional people than living with mediocre hires who memorized the right fizzbuzz HackerRank crap and said all the right Team Player catch phrases to get hired.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#142

Post by Koshkin »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #85
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.

This happened to me with RedHat. They were my first choice, so being ghosted by them delayed my job search by several weeks. It was a serious problem for me.

I fail to see why. (Shouldn’t stop looking around, ever.)

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#143

Post by jeffdavis »

monksy wrote: post #138
gwbas1c wrote: post #83

As a candidate, I've always preferred polite "thanks, but no thanks" responses in a timely manner. The other kind of feedback that I like is things like, "we need people with a different background / experience than you have." IMO, judgement feedback (you screwed up how you handle your yak shaving, or I don't think we'll get along with each other) is too subjective to be constructive. And, I get it. As someone who's…

As long as it's not in a phone call. That's a huge waste of time just to be told that they're passing. Google insisted on a call. It's just annoying.

A phone call is considered more respectful than an email. It may waste time, but signs of respect often do.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#144

Post by Koshkin »

adamredwoods wrote: post #122
CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that most of the time candidates just want to hear something that puts the situation out of their control, and therefore wasn't merit based. It's always easier to hear "I'm breaking up with you because I'm moving for a new job and want to concentrate on my career" than "I'm breaking up with you because you're awkward around my friends and aren't interesting".

Rejection is incredibly difficult to deal with. I suspect some people will say they are immune to it, but (anecdotal example) I've been rejected from hundreds of jobs over the past 3 years and every one hurts a little. I felt it never got easier to deal with rejection, but it got easier to interview and move on. Perhaps it's not the rejection, but the energy in creating the next steps I need to take (more resumes, ta…

> rejected from hundreds of jobs

Sounds extreme. Were you applying to random jobs?

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#145

Post by Thorentis »

> They are especially scared to give negative feedback to candidates out of fear that it might be misinterpreted as discrimination.

>There is also the concern over a social media backlash because of something an employee said to a candidate.

This right here, is 90% of it. Sure, the other stuff like too few resources, or too many applicants is partly true, but the crux of it is that people are far too sensitive right now. And if you say "we didn't think you were a good fit for our company culture" to somebody that is even the slightest bit insecure about some part of themselves, you can guarantee you'll be hearing about it.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#146

Post by kmonsen »

gwbas1c wrote: post #83

As a candidate, I've always preferred polite "thanks, but no thanks" responses in a timely manner. The other kind of feedback that I like is things like, "we need people with a different background / experience than you have." IMO, judgement feedback (you screwed up how you handle your yak shaving, or I don't think we'll get along with each other) is too subjective to be constructive. And, I get it. As someone who's…

Interviewed with two fairly large "startups" in SF recently. Both just ghosted after the interview. I actually don't need the feedback, I realized something I had not prepared well for, but a "No thank you" after taking a day of would have been nice.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#147

Post by gwbas1c »

michaelborromeo wrote: post #118
CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that most of the time candidates just want to hear something that puts the situation out of their control, and therefore wasn't merit based. It's always easier to hear "I'm breaking up with you because I'm moving for a new job and want to concentrate on my career" than "I'm breaking up with you because you're awkward around my friends and aren't interesting".

You really want to go through life thinking you’re competent at something? Honest feedback hurts but it’s how you grow. And if people cared at all about interviewees they’d give some semblance of honest feedback rather than “no thanks.”

> And if people cared at all about interviewees they’d give some semblance of honest feedback rather than “no thanks.”

A former Apple architect once gave me "honest feedback" about the languages I work with. It was his opinion about industry direction, that 8 years later, was 100% wrong. (Although I don't think I was a good match for his startup.)

That's why I consider honest feedback flame bait.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#148

Post by shortandsweet »

dominotw wrote: post #28
shortandsweet wrote: post #2

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.

> I n/a'd everything and made sure to list all of my interviewers names. prbly inconsequential . fact is that you cannot do anything but move on after a rejection.

Not entirely true. I can attempt to shape the world how I want and then give up after being satisfied with my efforts. I left it at what I already posted and moved on. I believe feedback is important but if people aren't listening then that's OK too.

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#149

Post by mwilcox »

kmonsen wrote: post #146
gwbas1c wrote: post #83

As a candidate, I've always preferred polite "thanks, but no thanks" responses in a timely manner. The other kind of feedback that I like is things like, "we need people with a different background / experience than you have." IMO, judgement feedback (you screwed up how you handle your yak shaving, or I don't think we'll get along with each other) is too subjective to be constructive. And, I get it. As someone who's…

Interviewed with two fairly large "startups" in SF recently. Both just ghosted after the interview. I actually don't need the feedback, I realized something I had not prepared well for, but a "No thank you" after taking a day of would have been nice.

VC funded companies are often the worst when it comes to hiring because they are overcapitalised yet time sensitive - employees are more like contractors when they're brought on to address a short term issue without any real guarantee over a longer term than 18 months

Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

#150

Post by davidajackson »

shadow-banned wrote: post #6

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…

Whenever I see stuff like this I think... "That company must be running out of money... Trying to scam engineers into working for free."
Post reply on HN