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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

#211

Post by usaar333 »

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.

I've definitely interviewed green candidates and would be very happy to interview them again in a few years. (This is going to be more true in companies with more selective hiring bars)

Regardless, brand matters as well. You want candidates to have good experiences even if they are rejected as they will talk to peers about company x

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

#212

Post by bobthepanda »

Apocryphon wrote: post #187
nkingsy wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If they blab their mouth on social media and it goes viral they've already done the damage before you could serve court papers. Why even bother with the risk?

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

#213

Post by pmiller2 »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #198
pmiller2 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Ouch. Talk about adding insult to injury (or, at least, mild inconvenience). At least in my case, they scheduled the call, which avoids being woken up or otherwise interrupted, but prolongs the agony a little.

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

#214

Post by Infinitesimus »

komali2 wrote: post #155
_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 can't wait to study up Surely if a rejection was for a reason that a couple weeks of study could "fix," it wasn't worth a rejection, right? Are hirers out there really being THAT picky? I'm going through resumes right now and rejecting people if I think they need a year or more experience under their belt than what they're presenting. If it's because they know react and not vue, that's not reject worthy at all...

That happens often in the current leetcode climate though. Forgetting a trick could be all to takes to cause a rejection

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

#215

Post by usaar333 »

anm89 wrote: post #8

Half joking answer: because no engineer has ever received interviewing feedback

Really? I've rarely not gotten feedback on rejection - some companies outright issue it, though for most I have to ask.

On accepts never because people worry about awkward future colleague relationships.

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

#216

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

mrfusion wrote: post #150
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.

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.

The challenge isn't figuring out how you or I personally would deliver feedback, given time to plan it out and a good set of feedback to deliver. The challenge is establishing a process that ensures everyone at the company will always do it, even when the real reason is something like "meh I'm not sure the candidate quite clears our bar".

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

#218

Post by juped »

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…

You have a business relationship with everyone you have a relationship with - you're a business. You're burning bridges with people in your industry - why?

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

#219

Post by Apocryphon »

bobthepanda wrote: post #212
Apocryphon wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If they blab their mouth on social media and it goes viral they've already done the damage before you could serve court papers. Why even bother with the risk?

Because that’s allowing risk adverse mentalities to prevent companies from innovating in their hiring processes to build a more transparent and improved culture of hiring, and a chance to differentiate themselves from competitors with a reputation of good interviewing practices?

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

#220

Post by Infinitesimus »

cheez wrote: post #197

I implore all of you to stop wasting your life interviewing. Spend your time more productively.

What do you recommend? Starting your own company only works for a small subset of ppl ofc so I'm assuming you mean something else
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