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

blog.interviewing.io

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

#181

Post by 1123581321 »

ddelt wrote: post #169
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.

Hot take: you could hire someone who did absolutely well in the interview, and they could find a few weeks into the job that they loathe everyone, and go on a social media rampage. What I’m getting at is, there will always be bad apples, or people who react in a way that damages your organization. But not providing useful feedback to people who ask for it simply because one person went crazy is punishing a lot more p…

Your last sentence rules out most companies. Are you sure about that?

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

#182

Post by preommr »

ddelt wrote: post #169
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.

Hot take: you could hire someone who did absolutely well in the interview, and they could find a few weeks into the job that they loathe everyone, and go on a social media rampage. What I’m getting at is, there will always be bad apples, or people who react in a way that damages your organization. But not providing useful feedback to people who ask for it simply because one person went crazy is punishing a lot more p…

A company has to hire someone. So they're forced to take the risk.

They don't have to provide feedback, so they don't have to take the risk if they don't want to.

Don't really think your comparison was fair.

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

#183

Post by Kalium »

BurningFrog wrote: post #148
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…

> 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 :)

You're right, but it's also not difficult for genuine, high-quality feedback to be taken poorly. You can tell someone that they're not as good at data structures or database design or scalable systems or whatever core job skill you needed them to be. That can be highly useful, actionable feedback.

It can also readily feed into a very different framing. It's rarely difficult for a candidate to decide that whatever core reason is a fig leaf and something more ego-preserving is the real reason. I think we've all had coworkers who didn't take feedback well. I've definitely known people to whom all feedback is personal attacks. It's also, unfortunately, well-known and well-documented that people share negative thoughts more often and more readily than positive thoughts.

So, you're absolutely right. The good word can get around! There may be more risk to trying than is obvious, though.

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

#184

Post by meej »

milesvp wrote: post #123

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 w…

I witnessed a candidate ask a question along these lines in a group interview and I found it extremely awkward, because there was huge potential for disagreement amongst the interviewers, and also because this group consisted of people who had a stake in the hire as future coworkers for the role, but were not members of the search committee making the final hire decision, we were just providing feedback to the search committee. One person answered no, but at least two of us in the room were no-hire on the candidate. This question and some of the others the candidate asked also struck me as inauthentic, they sounded like they came straight out of an interview skills book. So I would be cautious with implementing this advice... at minimum, reserve it for 1:1 interview contexts.

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

#185

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

ddelt wrote: post #169
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.

Hot take: you could hire someone who did absolutely well in the interview, and they could find a few weeks into the job that they loathe everyone, and go on a social media rampage. What I’m getting at is, there will always be bad apples, or people who react in a way that damages your organization. But not providing useful feedback to people who ask for it simply because one person went crazy is punishing a lot more p…

> If a trusted engineer said he got a rejection in an interview, asked for feedback, and none was given, I’d avoid that place too.

So, your employer does give feedback to candidates on request? It must be difficult for you to find places that are acceptable to you to work, since very few companies typically give feedback. Or do your friends just not usually ask for feedback and as a result that clause on your criteria never trips (i.e. the company wouldn't have given feedback, but since your friend didn't ask, you don't strike it off your list)?

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

#186

Post by Aeolun »

To be honest, reading all the interviewing.io feedback makes it clear that I would never want to use it. It’s literally leetcode with interviews.

I don’t think I could do anything with the feedback if it was something like:

> ‘you didn’t say that the alghorithm you were using here was using the bayesian-green notation, and you should have used n+1 instead of n++’

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

#187

Post by Apocryphon »

nkingsy wrote: post #170
ddelt wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot take: you could hire someone who did absolutely well in the interview, and they could find a few weeks into the job that they loathe everyone, and go on a social media rampage. What I’m getting at is, there will always be bad apples, or people who react in a way that damages your organization. But not providing useful feedback to people who ask for it simply because one person went crazy is punishing a lot more p…

This is a tried and true practice in dating, and it translates well to hiring, which is basically the same thing. Most people, ESPECIALLY people who ask you for feedback, do not want feedback. They want to get in a fight with you. Edit: I don't remember ghosting anyone personally in either setting, but it's happened to me plenty. Getting upset about it just means you're new to the experience.

Then maybe there can be a system that provides a disclaimer where they waive all ability to sue or otherwise get into a fight with you.

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

#188

Post by aniham »

WalterBright wrote: post #137

I suppose it is like getting turned down for a date. The other person will rarely be honest about why, and the reasons given (if any) are worthless.

I agree on both counts. In fact, the examples of constructive feedback the article provides seem fairly worthless. If your advice is that the candidate should try doing some problems on leetcode in order to be successful in your interview process, then that's something you'd ideally mention prior to the interview, as a suggestion on how they should prepare.

I think FAANG do a really good job of preparing you for exactly what kinds of questions to expect as well as resources to study for them. That also generally reduces the need for feedback afterwards.

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

#189

Post by rendall »

Companies who don't give feedback because they believe there is no upside are building a team that lacks empathy, with all that implies regarding technical debt and final product. If the company is successful, it is despite the team, not because of it. This is tantamount to a mathematical certainty.

I will always reject an offer from any company that I know does not give feedback to their rejected candidates, and have done.

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

#190

Post by Aeolun »

elliotec wrote: post #180
_cairn wrote: post #120

So 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 mostly disagree. I really can't think of a case where I would want to interview the same person twice. That said, I'm happy to provide feedback if they ask, and when it comes to interviewing, I personally appreciate feedback ONLY when I ask.

Lol, yeah, like when I applied again at the same company after 3 years and they rejected me out of hand before even giving me a chance at an interview because they rejected me before.

Obviously my skills and experience are still exactly the same, so this makes perfect sense.

I don’t know, but I personally think this is a terrible signal.

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