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

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

#191

Post by jscotto »

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.

Honestly as someone who is looking for a junior role this could not be further from the truth. I just want to know how to improve so I can stop being unhappy at my current job and get a new one.

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

#192

Post by winrid »

rendall wrote: post #189

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 hav…

I think I've gotten turned down by at least a dozen companies. I never got feedback, except for one and it was pretty silly.

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

#193

Post by yahyaheee »

EthanHeilman wrote: post #143
_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 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…

There you go, surprised this is the first time I’ve seen this answer.

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

#194

Post by winrid »

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.

That might not be a bad thing. Free PR. Other devs see you don't hire those kind of people.

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

#195

Post by roland35 »

I just went through interviews with several companies, and a few of the rejections I got was that I was either too senior or too junior for what they were looking for! I think they may have just been letting me down politely though. They must have known how much experience I had ahead of time!

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

#196

Post by thrwaway5556 »

There's no real affordance for engineers to sue or censure the process.

I once did some interviewing with a broken wrist that dragged on me two ways:

1) I basically couldn't speed-code at all. Typing was inhibited for sure, but the friction point threw off my whole thought process.

2) Whiteboard coding was easier, but due to swelling, I usually had to have my arm atop my head or hold it in weird positions.

So by law companies are supposed to provide an accommodation, and what I often asked for was to minimize or skip keyboard-based coding since the injury clearly prejudiced my completion time.

Did companies oblige? A couple did, but several, including one who you could say was doing a "hiring spree" did not. At said company, I was shoved a laptop to code upon, which I told them I couldn't use without hurting my wrist, but the recruiter was like "IDK." After that interviewer I had a lot of swelling and the next guy was outright mean and made fun of me for having to raise my hand. At the end of that interview, I asked him "what are you looking for in candidates?" and he said "people who can complete their jobs on time" and gestured towards my arm.

So, what could one do here, file an EEOC complaint? Write bad reviews? EEOC complaints get basically zero consideration without tons of documented evidence, and if you lose your initial complaint then lawyers usually will decline to take up your case. I did write the recruiters and agency who connected me with this company and guess what? Nothing happened; the agency continues to make money feeding this company candidates.

So to be clear, candidates have in reality zero leverage individually. Even in egregious cases like these.

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

#198

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

pmiller2 wrote: post #95
basseq wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rejection calls (a sadistic practice, if you’re not going to offer feedback IMO) Perhaps you're referring to other channels of communication, but I'd much rather have a rejection call than no contact at all . Corporate ghosting is much more sadistic.

If I'm not getting the job, just send me an email. JMHO.

In college, one company woke me up with a phone call at 7 AM to reject me. They were even in the same time zone!

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

#199

Post by sickygnar »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #72

Accurate time-sensitive communication is very hard in my experience. I've heard thru the grapevine on a few interviews over the years, that often the interviewer gets the wrong impression on some subject. Due to the fact there are say ten+ candidates for a position, one wrong impression is often enough to torpedo your chances. For example, I'm good at what I do, but not the kind of person to brag about it (hah). In f…

Bizarre. I had a similar experience. I was told "I didn't seem comfortable in language X". I'd been writing it for ~10 years, and have written a handful of native extensions, with lots of open source examples. It was strange and very, very upsetting. Triplebyte gave me this feedback. I won't be using their platform again (or any interviewing platform), but unfortunately, I'm sure they have sold my data and told everyone I suck. I had a bad day.

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

#200

Post by [deleted] »

wvenable wrote: post #122
kryptiskt wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]
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