You generally don't get technical interview performance feedback because technical interviews are constrained by the interviewer to put themselves in a technically confident light against the candidate. The interview is as much a crapshoot for the interviewer, because they might be less/more/similarly skilled to the candidate, but they absolutely cannot reveal themselves to be less skilled because they would undermine their status if the candidate gets hired. So interviewers stick to the same random technical question that they feel very confident of, answers to it are studied. The myth is that this posed problem is a general test of skill for the candidate, but the primary motivation is for the interviewer to maintain the appearance of professional dominance. Hence the technical discussion is kept to a narrow problem domain. Obviously there is a spectrum here, and it's more true when the interviewer feels insecure. Only when the interviewer is very skilled/confident relative to the candidate do people go off script and give advice. I confess this is how I have seen it from both sides of the interview, I'm no saint either.
No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
261–270 of 646 posts
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#262Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#263Earlier 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.
This. It took me one single experience of being threatened after sharing feedback to never want to do it again. Lesson learned.
Once you've been a hiring manager and reviewer long enough, it becomes obvious that, while the intent behind giving feedback is good, the reality of it is messy, and provides no consistent upside to the company.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non paid take home projects... Huge red flag.
I disagree that it's an automatic red flag. 8 hours? Yeah that's too long. But I would rather do a 2 hour take-home project than a 2 hour whiteboard coding interview. Edit to add: as far as getting paid, nobody expects to get paid for an onsite interview so I wouldn't expect to get paid for a take home project either. As long as it takes the same amount of time that the coding portion of an onsite interview reasonabl…
I totally agree. People say that a take home project is terrible, but most people I talk to who aren't recent graduates also dread live coding algorithms that will never be used on the job.
The place I'm at now asked me if I wanted to come in and code as round one of interviews or code up a little something on my own time for a couple engineers to review.
For me, it was a no brainier to code at my comfy desk at home for a few hours. Going into the city would have been an hour each way and about $50 worth of gas and tolls. I would much prefer not to bother with all that unless and until somebody has looked at my work closely enough to decide they are interested.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#265I'm so disappointed to read comments on this thread to the effect of "There's nothing in it for the company but risk". I once put in about 8 hours on a take home project at a company (well known in these parts) that I had tremendous respect for, only to get an email back with "sorry, not up to par. We need someone with more experience". I asked them for a couple quick points on what I could have done better. I had ze…
Non paid take home projects... Huge red flag.
Honestly the non paid take home projects are much better. The three interviews I’ve done them for stand out as the best interview processes I’ve been a part of. They actually check for real software skills.
The time you spend on-site grinding leetcode with some Google engineer is non-paid as well, so let’s not pretend it’s really any different.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#266I'm so disappointed to read comments on this thread to the effect of "There's nothing in it for the company but risk". I once put in about 8 hours on a take home project at a company (well known in these parts) that I had tremendous respect for, only to get an email back with "sorry, not up to par. We need someone with more experience". I asked them for a couple quick points on what I could have done better. I had ze…
I had a guy at Qualcomm Austin tell me to read Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation by Muchnik. I read it and a few months later I was working for Qualcomm San Diego. I've thought about thanking him but I doubt he'd remember me, it was such a small comment.
Even if he doesn't remember you, I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from you.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Not really worth improving the pipeline of candidates you don’t want.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#268Earlier 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…
Please stop referring to software developers as engineers, unless they are fully registered members of the state association of engineers.
Why? Is there a definition of engineering that does exclude software development, or is membership required to become one?
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non paid take home projects... Huge red flag.
I disagree that it's an automatic red flag. 8 hours? Yeah that's too long. But I would rather do a 2 hour take-home project than a 2 hour whiteboard coding interview. Edit to add: as far as getting paid, nobody expects to get paid for an onsite interview so I wouldn't expect to get paid for a take home project either. As long as it takes the same amount of time that the coding portion of an onsite interview reasonabl…
But it's an indication of the companies value of an employees time, in that it's one sided. If they're paying an existing employee to babysit me, that's a cost to them that demonstrates at least some expended effort.
I'd consider this to be pretty important for a salaried position.
Re: No engineer has ever sued because of constructive post-interview feedback
#270I'm so disappointed to read comments on this thread to the effect of "There's nothing in it for the company but risk". I once put in about 8 hours on a take home project at a company (well known in these parts) that I had tremendous respect for, only to get an email back with "sorry, not up to par. We need someone with more experience". I asked them for a couple quick points on what I could have done better. I had ze…
I had a guy at Qualcomm Austin tell me to read Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation by Muchnik. I read it and a few months later I was working for Qualcomm San Diego. I've thought about thanking him but I doubt he'd remember me, it was such a small comment.
Thank him! Even if a lot of time has passed. Better late than never totally applies here.
If he didn't remember you before, he'll remember you after. I've given thousands of semi strangers advice in various forms. I remember the two or three who followed up with me and said, "thank you for your advice, I followed it and have since reached my goal," and have kept in touch with them. It makes you feel really good to hear that.