161–170 of 348 posts
As they middlemen, they provide some insulation between the two parties.
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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?
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I've been in hiring loops where the candidate aced all the technical stuff, but wasn't hired because he wasn't enthusiastic about the new company, just sounded like he wanted to leave his old company. With a no feedback system, he may go study harder on the technicals for no reason. So I think feedback would have definitely helped his next interview.
"Learn to feign enthusiasm better next time." It sounds useful and depressing at the same time.
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.
I don't care if it wastes the caller's time as a misplaced (and insincere) gesture of respect. They've wasted enough of my time at this point and don't deserve any more.
Sometimes 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 offere…
Almost any feedback is useful. "The other candidates were a better match" — okay, perhaps I'm applying to the wrong jobs. "You failed roll of the dice" — so I did everything right and should keep doing that.
I think a lot of job offer/no-offer situations come down to this, because most of us are well meaning, hard working people. The default response to rejection should basically be this (alongside some non-punitive self-reflection to micro-optimise some parameter or the other).
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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.
If you get similar pieces of feedback from 3 people, you now likely know what you need to do differently to get hired, period.
It’s not about getting specific, individual pieces of feedback. It’s about being able to triangulate toward what you need to do differently.
And maybe you get 3 pieces of feedback that are all completely contradictory. That tells you that what you need to do is keep trying.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
This is true in many domains, I think. You should not explain to the conman how you saw through his lies. That will help him fix that and con more people.
You shouldn't tell people in your dating profile what turns you off. They'll just avoid revealing they have a third arm if that's one of your turn offs.
I think interviewers have incentive to help people they like but no incentive to help someone they don't think they want to see in the candidate pool down the road.
Maybe they will point you to things you can learn if it will make you a better candidate but not if will just help you tune your pitch.
I can imagine some candidates reusing half of those arguments ("Too Much Data", "Stalling For Time", etc.) to ghost recruiters and not answering to offers
someone should definitively write a counterpart "The Real Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Giving You Feedback"