The only company I've ever receive constructive post-interview feedback from was a company in California that ships out patterns and materials for people to make their own clothes. They said my code wasn't something they could drop into their product. Of course, it wasn't! I intentionally wrote it so they couldn't use my interview for free labor. I've worked at two companies that did that and I find it highly unethical.
No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
141–150 of 646 posts
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#142The 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…
This. I have done hundreds of interviews, and I used to do a very easy, basic comp sci test. The last question I would ask was, "Tell me about a book, cd or movie that you've read/listened to/watched that was interesting or excited you." The point was to see if the person was engaging with the universe, not to judge their taste or anything else. You'd be surprised how many people get tripped up by this. The worst ans…
So now that person likely thinks that the reason they did not get hired was because of talking about Bukowski.
Also, why did you even mention the enthusiasm for literature bit to HR?
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#143So many comments in the vein of "who has time to waste on candidates we aren't going to make an offer to?" - You are damaging your companies brand thinking this way. You want people who you reject to say to themselves "I can't wait to study up and interview here again, they said no, but I still want to work here!"
I agree that being helpful and giving feedback to candidates you don't hire can be beneficial to the company and to the interviewer. However, I would argue an even stronger reason is that it is good to help other people grow, even if it doesn't directly benefit you.
If on the way to work you see someone trip and they can't get up, you should offer them help even if doing so will make you late for an important meeting.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#144Earlier 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.
It's mostly about risk/reward and effort.
Giving detailed feedback takes more time, and is inherently more risky than a timely, somewhat bland rejection letter. Candidates are much more likely to feel slighted when they are given specific criticism, which they may or may not agree with.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always considered it just a professional courtesy, within reason. Just like it would be nice, but not required, for an applicant to say why they turned down a job offer. It can help us understand what's lacking to determine whether or not it's worth improving upon.
Professional courtesy doesn't matter much when it's now the norm not to be curteous, and thought to be unprofitable (in all the ways benefit is measured, not just in monetary terms) if the company is curteous. There is no professionalism above the level requried to maintain an increasing rate of profit. Workers in all industries since the beginning of waged labour have learned this fact the hard way.
Strong disagree. Eroding standards of civility are no excuse for lowering the bar on how you behave. I'd urge you to set an example, honor yourself and contribute to the solution, rather than compounding the problem by sinking to the lowest common denominator.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#146Ain't nobody got time for that. When I was hiring developers, I was conducting dozens of interviews based off of hundreds of applications. My goal is to hire people who can help me solve problems. Running an interview improvement service isn't something I have time for.
Good thing you aren't hiring developers anymore. Sounds like it distorted your perspective.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#147Earlier 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?
usually there's only a few open positions. after a long process of phone screens and on-sites, you might have five viable candidates but only two slots at that particular time. if you would have been happy to hire any of the remaining three if the first two didn't accept your offer, you might encourage them to apply again later.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#148The 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…
> well, word gets around.
Yeah, but that also true if you give good constructive feedback with your rejections.
The "word" doesn't have to be bad, you know :)
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#149So many comments in the vein of "who has time to waste on candidates we aren't going to make an offer to?" - You are damaging your companies brand thinking this way. You want people who you reject to say to themselves "I can't wait to study up and interview here again, they said no, but I still want to work here!"
If you don't why you didn't get an offer, then you aren't worth the time to explain it. 95% of the time, you didn't give as strong answers as other candidates. The other 5% of the time, you came across as a jerk.
Strongly disagree.
Do you only ask candidates 1 question/only look for 1 attribute? And only hire for one level? Cause otherwise, they could've done great on 8 things but missed on another. Or they did well but not quite well enough for the seniority that was desired. I've gotten feedback like this in the past - "your technical answers were great, but we thought you were a bit too green collaboration- and project-ownership-wise" and it was super useful because in my head before that, it was the places where my technical question answers could've been even better that I'd been beating myself up over.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#150One 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.
You should produce it in “I feel” phrases. That makes it known that it’s your opinion and could be wrong. Treat it like couples therapy.