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Exit interviews are a trap

jacobian.org

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Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#261

Post by 30908551 »

The article could have ended here:

>And even if your feedback does finally start some change – it’s too late for you. You’re already out the door. The time to fix the problems was months ago, before you got fed up and started your job search.

I have left two FAANG companies and have never given anything resembling the kind of feedback they requested in the exit interview. I have always kept it to the 'bland' described in this article -- all the reasons I left were personal and had nothing to do with management, the company, or anything. No praise, no criticism, just my choice to move on.

I see no reason to expend any energy, not even 15 minutes, to improve a company I'm leaving.

It's the same reason I don't leave feedback on Yelp, or talk to managers at restaurants about my experience, etc... I just move on.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#262

Post by not_a_shill »

legitster wrote: post #26

I have no idea what the author is on about. The exit interview is often the best 30 minutes of a bad job! You can tell them what they are doing well, what they aren't doing well, praise good employees and criticize bad managers. If you are both professionals, it's a cathartic experience that supports your remaining coworkers. If they are not professional, they weren't going to give you a good reference anyway. But if…

I don't see why you care about any of that. It doesn't concern you anymore. It isn't your problem. There are way better avenues of catharsis that have literally zero potential impact on your future job seeking abilities instead of the theoretical zero you're assuming.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#263

Post by agilob »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #244
agilob wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I have no idea what the author is on about. The exit interview is often the best 30 minutes of a bad job! My exit interview at a toxic job was really bad. I was given old format of exit interview form, me and my manager knew it's not going to be imported into a system and analysed, it has quite stupid questions like "would you stay for 2% more salary", or asking to blame people "is any of below a reason of you leavi…

> would you stay for 2% more salary Wut? I hope you responded with something like "Hell no, but make it 60% and we can talk". Typically when I have jumped ship I got something like 20%-40% more with my new employer.

Of course, the questions were designed to make leaving employees look bad and leave for no reason, and like said above, I got an old format which wasn't imported into a system and presented as metrics.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#264

Post by ukulele »

KoftaBob wrote: post #247
Ancalagon wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. You can ask in private but DOXXing somebody via HN/Reddit hivemind is a no-go without proper evidence. 1 anecdote does not suffice in this case (sorry OP, I do believe you though)

Not to nitpick, but I think the term you're looking for is "Doxxing".

DOS = denial of service

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#265

Post by bradlys »

fleddr wrote: post #233

You should definitely go to an exit interview. In the case of a sour breakup, you should 100% lie. Just say it was great but you were in need for a change. Don't dramatize the lying part because you lied to get in and the employer lied about how great their company is. Work is a lie, play the game. In the case of a drama-free breakup, when pressed for feedback and the room being receptive of it, do share your thought…

> Work is a lie, play the game.

If there’s any advice I could ever give anyone who has any amount of integrity and tries to live an honest life - it’s this alone. If you don’t play the game - you’re not playing the game everyone else is and you will always lose in the end.

Extremely painful to deal with for bright eyed young folks or those switching industries thinking things might be different.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#266

Post by xtracto »

ghusto wrote: post #112

Good lord, what terrible advice. If anyone is reading this and thinking of adopting his ideas, please consider (with the exception being if you're still early in your career): 1) Being true to yourself is worth more than any of his purported wins 2) Be your own merit, and don't rely on others for references or goodwill 3) If every exit interviewee states that the CEO is a dick, that can't be ignored. She won't lose h…

> 3) If every exit interviewee states that the CEO is a dick, that can't be ignored. She won't lose her job, but it's not going to do her any favours either

Maybe for large enterprises there's a path somewhere regarding this. But in the smallish companies I've worked (350 or less people), the most the HR department doing the "exit interview" would be able to do is to tell the "Head of HR" about it, and then, what would the Head of HR do? She would tell her boss about it... and her boss (the CEO) will laugh it off.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#267

Post by stjohnswarts »

legitster wrote: post #26

I have no idea what the author is on about. The exit interview is often the best 30 minutes of a bad job! You can tell them what they are doing well, what they aren't doing well, praise good employees and criticize bad managers. If you are both professionals, it's a cathartic experience that supports your remaining coworkers. If they are not professional, they weren't going to give you a good reference anyway. But if…

I don't agree. I assume we're all professionals but some people are oil and water, doesn't mean you need to burn a bridge. Tempers cool, favors sometimes need returned, references are there in the future. I'm not burning a bridge with an exit interview. I no longer owe the company I'm leaving anything, but I'm leaving the bridge intact. I leave on a good note, I might call out particularly talented people that I feel get overlooked but otherwise I generally won't even have one bad word to say, even if I want to.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#268

Post by not_a_shill »

anamax wrote: post #255
legitster wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a good chance the notes will go directly to your old manager and/or manager's manager, with your name on it. Why should I care? I say things during an exit interview I want them to know.

> Why should I care? I say things during an exit interview I want them to know. If "them" is your old manager, why not just tell them directly?

Or tell them at really any given point in time during your employment if you're that confident that your employer won't retaliate against you and you're concerned with workplace improvement.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#269

Post by [deleted] »

throw1230 wrote: post #248
stavros wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except aroundtown expressed their opinion to HR when asked, and the boss went around badmouthing them around town. Only one of the two is the asshole here.

Nah man, exit interviews aren't to express opinions or talk shit, it's a data source for HR to identify problems emerging as patterns and improve their org/company. One guy saying "my boss sucked" isn't really feedback

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