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

No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

blog.interviewing.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 646 posts

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#121

Post by duxup »

On the topic of form letter rejections:

I WISH I even got those... durring my last job hunt most of the time the company just goes dark and stops contacting me or doesn't respond.

I say this and other recruiers tell me they're shocked and yet getting ghosted seemed to be the rule rather than exception durring that time.

Maybe I'm such a bad canidae that they don't even want to bother with a form letter.

Strangely one company who ghosted me contacted me recently about some opportunities. I told them I wasn't interested and about being ghosted previously.

They didn't respond...

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#122

Post by wvenable »

kryptiskt wrote: post #100
blaser-waffle wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. After the interview is done and the answer is a solid NO, as a company we have NO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP with you. Any iota of effort we put towards you is essentially wasted effort, even if very minor. What changes that discussion further is that there is a small, but still quite real, possibility of lawsuit, social media rant (as another comment mentioned), or even a disgruntled applicant shooting up the plac…

In a vacuum that might be true, but software engineers know other software engineers, and there are plenty of forums for discussing hiring experiences, including HN. If a company systematically treats people they don't intend to go further with like crap, their reputation with other candidates will suffer. You'd like failed candidates to not talk shit about your company when their friend considers applying.

Not giving feedback though is not "treating them like crap" in fact the opposite is far more likely to be true (as interpreted by the non-hired candidate). You literally can't go wrong doing nothing.

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#123

Post by milesvp »

My wife used to work with students to help them get through interviews, and one of her pieces of advice when interviewing is to ask near the end of the interview is if they have any concerns about them as a candidate. It gives the interviewer a chance to address the concerns and gives them a chance to get feedback to make future changes. I’m not sure how well this would work for a technical interview loop, since my wife was working with law students, and the interviews aren’t the same kind of technical, but it might sidestep/short circuit typical lack of feedback technical people complain about.

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#124

Post by macintux »

dahfizz wrote: post #113
wolco wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want the candidate to be more likely to reapply feedback would help. In fairness I received feedback I didn't get the position because I was too chatty from a hr person who told me to act more chatty because qualified candidates on paper were failing for being too quiet. I kinda wished they didn't provide feedback because I have an opinion on the internal culture that would make me avoid them in the future.

> If you want the candidate to be more likely to reapply feedback would help. Do companies really want that? Presumably they didn't hire the candidate because they believe better candidates exist. Why invest in someone if there are better candidates readily available?

Interviewing is such a crapshoot; just because someone doesn't make the cut the first time, doesn't mean they weren't the better candidate.

That's one reason I hate the "just hire the best person" argument against diversity; usually "the best person" is entirely non-obvious.

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#125

Post by jack_h »

blaser-waffle wrote: post #80
rchaud wrote: post #11

The hiring process is a black box for a reason. The HR department's role is to protect the company first, not the employees, and certainly not prospective employees. If feedback can be interpreted as being discriminatory, or reflective of bad company culture in general, well, word gets around. For much of the time, the reason people don't get the job is that there was someone marginally more qualified/attractive/like…

Bingo. After the interview is done and the answer is a solid NO, as a company we have NO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP with you. Any iota of effort we put towards you is essentially wasted effort, even if very minor. What changes that discussion further is that there is a small, but still quite real, possibility of lawsuit, social media rant (as another comment mentioned), or even a disgruntled applicant shooting up the plac…

> After the interview is done and the answer is a solid NO, as a company we have NO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP with you.

And plenty of companies don't even feel a candidate is owed that answer after they've made their determination. Of course it's a two way street and candidates will - and have been - doing the same thing to companies.

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#126

Post by justforyou »

wolco wrote: post #102
leothekim wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 on this. The company has nothing to gain in delivering more feedback other than a thumbs up/down, and a lot more to lose.

If you want the candidate to be more likely to reapply feedback would help. In fairness I received feedback I didn't get the position because I was too chatty from a hr person who told me to act more chatty because qualified candidates on paper were failing for being too quiet. I kinda wished they didn't provide feedback because I have an opinion on the internal culture that would make me avoid them in the future.

Sounds like you met a very particular HR archetype and they likely took delight in the games they played with you. You're better off knowing about those sort of HR depts than not.

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#127

Post by justforyou »

Apocryphon wrote: post #103
kenhwang wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employee hours. Someone has to collect, document, sanitize, and explain the feedback. Then respond to the response to the feedback. In the time it takes our recruiter to provide feedback to a candidate, they could have sourced 20 more candidates. edit: I'll argue instant feedback is even more expensive and risky. It's not coordinated, potentially duplicative, may impact/contaminate later rounds, and may not be comple…

On the other hand, by giving good feedback, your company engenders goodwill and brownie points ratings on Glassdoor and elsewhere. Shouldn’t good PR be worth a little work from a company?

Companies that are that concerned about PR spin their situation with actual PR.

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#128

Post by eropple »

kenhwang wrote: post #89
eropple wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can rationalize how you'd like, but it's never "just business." These are people you're talking about. They matter more than your company does. Be decent.

They're getting a prompt, professional, inoffensive response in exchange for their time. That is decency. You can't expect a business to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and house the poor out of the goodness of their hearts because these are people that spent a couple hours of their day with you. There are more appropriate institutions for charity.

Uh. I can certainly expect a business to be responsible in it's treatment of others. They exist at the sufferance of the society that grants their charter. Why should shitty behavior be normalized, ever?

And why are you stanning so hard for a process whose bloodless mind would bleed you dry and kick you to the curb for a nickel? Was Steinbeck really that right?

Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback

#130

Post by benjaminjosephw »

leothekim wrote: post #15
kenhwang wrote: post #6

One time we gave feedback on request and the candidate contested the feedback, then went out on a social media rampage. So yeah, we stopped after that. It only takes one bad candidate to make it not worth the effort.

+1 on this. The company has nothing to gain in delivering more feedback other than a thumbs up/down, and a lot more to lose.

If a candidate has given my company their time and energy to interview with us I think we owe them a chance to understand why we didn't hire them. We're not obliged to but, if requested, offering feedback is quite clearly beneficial. There's an obvious benefit for the candidate and the subsequent companies they interview with. There's also an indirect benefit to my company - if everyone else behaves like this it means that we'd be much more likely to find our next hire.

I suppose if you're thinking exclusively about a short-term benefit to the company alone without considering the impact to the candidate, the wider ecosystem and culture in general then it wouldn't make sense to take the risk.

Post reply on HN