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Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
261–270 of 348 posts
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#262As 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 ye…
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"The thing I enjoyed working on the most was ..."
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Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a similar thing happen with a well-known messaging app startup I interviewed with. This company had me do an initial technical screen (2-hours of work) and expressed great interest in the work I did. They asked me to complete a follow on "work sample" which I promptly completed with extras (error handling, specs, etc). After completing the work sample (a non-trivial amount of effort), they suddenly decided they…
That’s disgusting, and I’m really sorry to have read that happened to you or anyone else. My policy is that anyone that completes the technical screen (2 – 4 hours of work) gets an on-site interview. Just this morning, I had to spend about 20 minutes debugging a candidate’s code to get it to both build and run, but he’s still getting invited for an on-site.
Are you really likely to hire this candidate? Asking him to commit even more time when he's started off so poorly seems like an (unknown to him) poor use of his time.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is another type of feedback that I as a candidate would find helpful, and that I would have liked to give candidates, but didn't due to corporate policy. Something along the lines of: "To pay you as much money as you requested, we'd have to categorize you as a [Senior/Prinicipal] developer, but your skills/experience only put you at [Junior/Professional]". If, as a candidate I had received this kind of feedback…
What exactly was the policy that caused this? In my (luckily very limited) job searching experience, the salary is something that gets negotiated. I ask for something on the high side, they offer something on the low side. Repeat until you end somewhere reasonable. The only thing I can imagine causing someone to not be hired on salary without them knowing the reason is if there's no negotiation.
That's a cultural thing in the company I work for (or maybe broader in Germany, dunno), where some people think that if they start to negotiate, they might lowball candidates, and then they leave after half a year or so.
We try to hire more long term (we aim for 5+ years retention), dunno if that's related, or if there is any evidence to back this procedure.
I find it a bit weird myself, which is why as a candidate I'd like to know about it :-)
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#265As 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…
My worst interview was where the interviewer started yelling at me. After the interview the recruiter sent me an email and told me that he wouldn't work with me anymore as I was hostile during the interview. It was insanely bizarre. It was like being found guilty without ever even being given a trial or being told there was a trial.
I don't interview much, but one of my first interviews out of school was in style of good cop, bad cop. The "nice guy" even had a black eye, IIRC.
I was distraught by it, but then I talked to a friend and he told me - well, maybe they were looking for someone to handle stress really well, and it's not you.
Looking back, I think it was utterly bizarre (for a programming job, anyway). But, hey, to each his own.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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'.
For the most part I agree. Let me offer one counterexample though. I've never been primarily a developer but I have worked in areas where one of my primary outputs is writing. When I've hired for a similar role, if someone doesn't (for whatever reason) have writing sample(s), they're not going to get hired unless they produce one. It doesn't have to be an assignment; choose a relevant topic. But I'm not going to trus…
I'm curious about what the situation would be where a person had done tons of great writing but could not come up with one sample. Confidentiality?
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
hahahahahahahah :D I don't think it's possible to have a finite number of primes though? But it's a programming interview, so really, who gives a shit?!
Yes, it's not possible to have finite primes. Take all the primes from 2 to N, multiply them together, and add one to get a prime. If there's always another prime, there's infinite primes!
You don't always get a prime. For example, 4! = 2 * 3 * 4 = 24, 24 + 1 = 25, 25 is not prime. The point is that N! + 1 is not divisible by any number from 2 to N (always leaves a remainder of 1), so either it is prime, or it is divisible by something larger than N!, therefore larger than N. In the case of 25, it is divisible by 5 (> 4).
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#268As 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…
There is another type of feedback that I as a candidate would find helpful, and that I would have liked to give candidates, but didn't due to corporate policy. Something along the lines of: "To pay you as much money as you requested, we'd have to categorize you as a [Senior/Prinicipal] developer, but your skills/experience only put you at [Junior/Professional]". If, as a candidate I had received this kind of feedback…
As an interviewer, candidates occasionally ask me "How did I do? Where could I improve?" when I ask them "Do you have any questions for me?" at the end of the interview.
I usually say (and I happen to be in a country that is not very litigious) "While I can't tell you how you did in this interview -- we have to go through HR's process first -- I could offer you some general advice based on my experience", and would give some positive suggestions based on what I've observed. E.g. "try to read up more on how technology X works under the hood" or "when faced with a complex problem, it's okay to take time to think it through or ask questions", or "your communication skills are good, but you can be even better if you lead with the answer and have the lengthy explanation follow the answer" etc.
I'm wondering whether this is a good practice?
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it's not possible to have finite primes. Take all the primes from 2 to N, multiply them together, and add one to get a prime. If there's always another prime, there's infinite primes!
You don't always get a prime. For example, 4! = 2 * 3 * 4 = 24, 24 + 1 = 25, 25 is not prime. The point is that N! + 1 is not divisible by any number from 2 to N (always leaves a remainder of 1), so either it is prime, or it is divisible by something larger than N!, therefore larger than N. In the case of 25, it is divisible by 5 (> 4).
The parent said to multiply _only the primes_ from 2 to N, and then add one not factorial plus one.
In your example it would be (2 * 3) + 1 = 7, prime.
Re: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback
#270Every job ad I've put up since starting my company has had over 100 candidates. 80 of whom are wholly unsuitable and do not send any cover letter. Another 10 don't bother with the cover letter but may have been suitable. All these are instant rejects with no feedback.
The 10 I phone interview I will at least give feedback to, likewise the 3 who we eventually interview.
Given so many no hopers though just clicking apply or sending a generic CV, I'm not surprised the vast majority get no feedback.