9 ms·

How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole

140 points by nathanmarz 16y ago

oiuytgyuio 16y ago
You don't have any company lawyers do you? Most companies in the land of the lawyer don't even send rejection letters, just in case the candidate decides that it contains some grounds to sue you over. It doesn't even have to be good grounds - they just need a sleazy enough lawyer. The more info you give them the more ammo they have. Yes it sucks to simply not hear from a company, and it leads to negative recomendations about them to friends /colleagues /potential other recruits. You can still be friendly in the letter but I would be careful about telling someone why they aren't hired.
- crocowhile 16y ago
  >Most companies in the land of the lawyer don't even send rejection letters, just in case the candidate decides that it contains some grounds to sue you over. There are so many reasons I am glad I don't live in the usa anymore.
  - hga 16y ago
    Still, our labor market is fantastically liquid compared to a whole bunch of other nations. It's easy to not get hired, it's easy to get fired ... which also means it's easy to get hired.
ams6110 16y ago
The reason many places don't do this is not so much to avoid feeling like an a-hole but to avoid accidental liability. There are so many things you can't say or ask in an interview, that a lot of companies that are big enough to have an HR person or department will require a very generic rejection letter just to be sure they don't provide grounds for a lawsuit.
- verysimple 16y ago
  Indeed, no good deed goes unpunished these days.
- loumf 16y ago
  Unfortunately, the accidental liability problem needs to be taken seriously -- mostly because of risk/reward. I try to write as nice and appreciative letter as possible. 1. I don't reject candidates -- I choose a different candidate. 2. The more they went through the process, the longer (and better) the letter. Rejected application, short thank you for applying. If you came for two interviews, but then we went with someone else -- I write a longer letter with references to the meetings. 3. Good candidates that we didn't hire (because another was better) are invited into my personal network. I recommend them to others, I invite them to dev events, etc. I give non-specific-to-our-interview job hunting advice. We'll have openings at some point. 4. I do the same for candidates that are just not a fit (they do X, we need Y). I might never hire them, but I have a personal goal to know every good developer within commute distance of my company (we live in a low population area).
  - Dylanlacey 16y ago
    I think 3 is a really great idea. Do you find that, in doing so, you get additional benefits yourself? I imagine you've already got places to look for new hires ect.
    - loumf 16y ago
      Absolutely. All of the benefits you'd get from knowing smart people. The biggest benefit has been recommending them to others.
  - mscarborough 16y ago
    Your approach sounds great! If candidates know this is how you conduct the interview process, it seems very positive and always keeps the door open.
- jhchen 16y ago
ig1 16y ago
A lot of big companies do give feedback on request though especially for developer roles where you can give specific factual feedback (candidate was weak in multi-threading, etc.) It's one of the big advantages of technical interviews. You don't have to rely purely on subjective human judgement.
- variety 16y ago
  You don't have to rely purely on subjective human judgement. And yet (aside from mega deal-breakers, like clearly overstating competence in some category) that's pretty much what hiring decisions come down to: "Are they for real? Can I rely on them? Will I get along with them?" -- the battery of contrived, essentially "objective" assessment that get thrown at candidates notwithstanding.
- nandemo 16y ago
  Do you mind sharing what companies are those? I've interviewed in several foreign big companies in Japan. After enduring multiple interviews spanning 2 to 4 months (compared to 2~4 weeks in Japanese companies), not once did I get any specific feedback. In one particular case, during the process, I asked HR for the contact details of 2 of the technical interviewers and they refused; I had to send my questions via HR.
fizx 16y ago
If 1 in 1000 candidates would sue you, causing $100k in costs for a drawn-out legal battle, then your practice has a very expensive expected value, but in a way you won't notice until shit hits the proverbial fan.
- oiuytgyuio 16y ago
  Of course there is a flip side, if you interview 100 programmers in a small high tech town and piss off 99 of them by not even sending a 'no thanks' letter. And each of them tell all their friends that you are an a-hole, then when every potential hire in Cambridge/ NYC/ Stanford etc has heard that XYZ software are a-holes you are going to have one hell of a job hiring.
  - catshirt 16y ago
    fwiw, and this is certainly not my forte, i'd rather be an asshole than a defendant in a lawsuit like that
    - oiuytgyuio 16y ago
      Depends who you are. If you're MSFT, IBM, etc then you don't even send a no thanks letter, you have nobody who isn't a certified HR person talk to a candidate and you don't allow any off the cuff remarks. The lawyer target cross section is too high. If you are a small startup in a high tech hub trying to attract people, and especially if you are in a market where the programers you reject might be future customers then you're risk is different. Companies often forget that the people they reject don't disappear. It used to be a big thing in merchant banks in the last boom to really grind and humiliate candidates - you aren't smart enough to work here etc. What they forgot is that those people went to work for companies that might need a merchant bank and that the victim is suddenly the customer.
      - philwelch 16y ago
        MSFT will actually send a rejection letter. It's predictably dull.
thingie 16y ago
The only time when I had a bad feeling about such an email was when I felt that I got positive feedback during the interview, got no "warning" signs during it and so on, yet on the other day, I was told almost exactly this. Otherwise, it's quite ok. Make it short, who wants to read ton of shit just to hear no? If you can list one (or more) serious reason (lack of experience, education, whatever, once, I was told that I was simply too pesimistic, but that was on phone), fine, but still, keep it short. And well, don't expect much feedback.
tjr 16y ago
One time I got a rejection letter from a company that included a list of reasons that people are usually rejected. One of the reasons was spelling or grammar errors in their cover letter or resume. As it happened, this letter that they sent out contained both a spelling error and a grammatical error. In retrospect, this was perhaps a little too snarky, but I wrote back to them and pointed this out. They contacted me again, asking if I would be interested in another position they had available.
- dasil003 16y ago
  Hopefully not HR copy editor.
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  Well, At least such a letter would alert the candidate to those errors, information that would be useful for future application.
- shasta 16y ago
  Did they happen to mention that the position had become available as a result of your email?
- kahawe 16y ago
  Ahhh the elusive position of CSNO? Chief Spelling Nazi Officer.
ctkrohn 16y ago
Many of the comments below talk about potential legal liability from rejecting a candidate in an inappropriate way. Would someone care to clarify the sort of problems that can arise?
- btilly 16y ago
  There are a lot of problems that can happen. For instance if you complain about hygiene and the person has a medical condition that causes them to stink (don't laugh, this happens), you can be sued for discrimination. If the person had a thick accent and you didn't want to hire because of the communication issue (I've seen candidates rejected for this reason), they could decide that you're racist and sue you. If the candidate is older and you say a wide variety of things (that they are over-qualified, their skillset is dated, poor cultural fit, etc), you can be sued for ageism. The upshot is that it is virtually impossible to figure out what comment will hit a hot button. And there are a lot of legitimate reasons to reject someone, which aren't illegal, that they can take as evidence of discrimination. Even if it is an open and shut case that you're going to win, they can still make it cost a substantial amount of lawyer's fees. And you, personally, don't benefit from telling them this, so there is no percentage in going there. Or so every HR department in the USA will tell you. And every lawyer they get advice from.
  - patio11 16y ago
    The other problem is that, if you tell Candidate X that you are not hiring her because of e.g. insufficiently experience with SQL, and it develops that you have previously hired a non-Q developer who didn't do SQL either, you now get to answer a lawsuit alleging discrimination against Q candidates. (We all know people are package deals, but if you put in writing that you hung your hat on a particular detail, then you're going to look like you're lying to cover your antiQist biases.)
  - ctkrohn 16y ago
    Great answer, thanks.
candre717 16y ago
I like this philosophy. In general, people should learn how to give and take feedback. I've been in the position where I wish I had known why I didn't get a certain job or opportunity. Knowing the reason not only softens the disappointment but lets one learn and improve for next time.
v21 16y ago
I've got rejected a couple of times with good, useful feedback, and a couple of times with "We can't afford to hire anyone else for a while". In both cases, I end up happy for the feedback, not pissed I didn't get the position. I want to work for the company more than I did before. I follow the companies with interest, and feel a vague sense of attachment to them. If I saw the people who rejected me at some kind of conference, I would go up and say hi. I would recommend them to my friends. So - please do this. Unless you don't care about my opinion of you. You may not.
andrewljohnson 16y ago
This sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me.
- rhizome 16y ago
  Only in the United States.
samd 16y ago
For all the people claiming that this is likely to end in a lawsuit where is your evidence? Do you have any actual cases where a company was sued because they gave legitimate feedback? How much money did the company lose because of this suit? How many lawsuits are there per rejected candidate? Do you know the text of the laws that specifically address this?
- aplusbi 16y ago
  I get the feeling that the "avoiding a lawsuit" justification for not supplying feedback is a result of cargo cult thinking, not actual evidence.
JimboOmega 16y ago
Legal problems aside, I love this philosophy. One of the things I hate most about the current interview process is that I take time off from work to do phone screens, maybe a whole day to do an onsite, and in the end I get these empty letters. I'm always trying to improve myself, so having no feedback leaves me feeling bewildered. To be honest I don't know if I bombed the coding question. I came to an answer, maybe I had a couple hints - but was that it?
jerdfelt 16y ago
How about the opposite? A company I turned down a job offer for has been contacting me every about every three months asking if I had changed my mind. I just recently told them to please stop contacting me and I'll contact them if I change my mind in the future. It felt a bit assholish asking them to stop contacting me like that, but I can't decide if that's just my personality having difficulty with it or if there was a better of way of telling them "No".
mattchew 16y ago
I'd love to get rejected by somebody in this way. :) Really, you're above average if you bother to contact the person at all once you've decided not to hire. A lot of people are pointing out liability issues with this approach, and sadly, they're probably right. But I bet there are constructive things you could tell rejected applicants that would be still be safe from lawsuit.
kgo 16y ago
For an all day interview, sure some feedback would be nice. For a phone interview, I'd probably think you're a bigger asshole if you went into details about how I failed the interview, what's wrong with me, why I'm unqualified, and how I can go about improving myself. Imagine someone going into the details about why we won't be going out on a second date.
- iron_ball 16y ago
  In my less socially adept days, I would have loved that. A sort of dating exit interview? Yes please.
  - cousin_it 16y ago
    You'd have heard a lot of incorrect information. People have no idea what attracts them.
Stop_Lurker 16y ago
At the end of interviews when they ask "Do you have any questions for me" I make a point of asking what they felt was good about my interview and how they think I could have improved it. Most of the time, they refuse to answer that question. I think it's probably a bad idea for me to do this.
- crocowhile 16y ago
  Yes that is a bad idea because you are moving the focus from the job to the interview
grails4life 16y ago
If the reason your not offering someone a job is because they messed up technical questions, I think its a good idea to give them candid feedback on the spot. Its objective. If you are having to choose among several qualified candidates, then I think this is asking for trouble, since there isnt an objective clear reason for the person not getting the job.
FiddlerClamp 16y ago
On the flip side, is it considered okay to simply stop contacting a candidate after three or four interviews, never send a rejection notice, and refuse to answer an email or phone call about the situation? I've had this happen to me three times in the last five years -- mostly for positions within a marketing department, where you would think communication would matter. Unfortunately, fear of retaliation or blacklisting keeps applicants like myself from disclosing specific company or hiring manager names...I feel it's disrespectful to not at least send an FOD note of 10 words or less if you've spent hours with them.
alexgartrell 16y ago
I interviewed at a bunch of places and only got two offers. One of the places I interviewed and failed was Microsoft. They had the interviews throughout the day (about 4 of them), and then after that they had an HR person give you the good or bad news. (It's worth saying that the developers I interviewed with were really outstanding. They were in the Dev Tools group (CLR, Visual Studio, etc.) and were really sharp). Anyway, I got pulled out, and the woman gave me "the bad news," and the typical HR lines about "not a good fit at this time," and, "we encourage you to apply again later." And then, out of nowhere, she throws out "And you should definitely take a close look at yourself to figure out how you could be better." The reason I tell this story is to point out that "helpful feedback" is absolutely useless when not actually helpful. Having an HR person (who had, up to that point, been totally disconnected from the whole process), come and give me some "helpful tips" wasted her time and mine. I also interviewed with Meebo (which was actually a pretty interesting interview, and the people there were pretty cool). I met with the HR guy at the end of the day, and he tried to talk me into doing an internship instead, because I'd be competing with people with "years of experience." I told him I already had some offers and I wasn't interested in an internship. Later, when he emailed to "give me the bad news," he said "we're going with another candidate, but enjoy your summer at Company X!" I'd say this loosely qualifies as rejecting me like an asshole. I ended up with offers from Facebook and Google though, so life goes on :)
- follower 16y ago
  > he emailed to "give me the bad news," he said "we're going with another candidate, but enjoy your summer at Company X!" I'd say this loosely qualifies as rejecting me like an asshole. Really? Wow. I'd have interpreted that as an attempt at being "friendly", showing at least some personal interest and wishing you well. I guess that goes to show it's difficult to predict how other people will interpret things. :)
  - bsiemon 16y ago
    They implied he would only get a summer internship when he was going for a real job.
  - 16y ago
desigooner 16y ago
I think the most frequent complaint of mine is unprofessionalism on the end of the company in getting back to the candidates. It's pretty much being an asshole to not get back to the candidate who takes the time to come and interview with them. I understand that they may have many a people applying for positions and this and that but there are some common courtesies. And I'm not even talking about a hyper competitive job where hundreds apply for a few positions. This has happened when I was one of the 2 people considered for the position and what not. This one time I got an email from HR after a couple of months of interviewing asking me if I was still interested in the position etc.
- elliottcarlson 16y ago
  Completely agree - take the time, even if it's a standard no thank you email, to get back to the candidate. There are plenty of companies that do this, and while I can take the rejection without any hard feelings if that is the outcome, I will lose respect for the company when no response is given.
- spacemanaki 16y ago
  Unfortunately, I think that this is all too common, especially in other (non-software) fields. There's almost no excuse for it (short of "the company went bankrupt the day of the interview and all hands were laid off")
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merubin75 16y ago
Reality check -- sometimes you reject a candidate for less than scientific reasons. Either you didn't "click" with them, or there was something that you just didn't like. Shallow? Maybe. But when I've hired people in the past, I've made the mistake of overlooking someone's personality in favor of what looked like a superior skillset. Several magnificent failures later, I won't do that again. The reality is that you have to look at someone's personality and whether they'll mesh with your team as much as their skills. That's a fact, and nobody -- repeat NOBODY -- wants to hear that they come off arrogant, ageist, misogynist, etc.
bgruber 16y ago
Frankly, just doing the actual rejection makes you less of an asshole than pretty much everyone else. I've applied for a handful of positions over the last few years, and the fraction of people who actually bothered to tell me I was rejected is 0. The only exception was the supreme asshole who hired me one day, then called me the next day to tell me that I wasn't hired after all. He didn't really have a choice.

140 points by nathanmarz 16y ago

You don't have any company lawyers do you? Most companies in the land of the lawyer don't even send rejection letters, just in case the candidate decides that it contains some grounds to sue you over. It doesn't even have to be good grounds - they just need a sleazy enough lawyer. The more info you give them the more ammo they have. Yes it sucks to simply not hear from a company, and it leads to negative recomendations about them to friends /colleagues /potential other recruits. You can still be friendly in the letter but I would be careful about telling someone why they aren't hired.

crocowhile 16y ago
>Most companies in the land of the lawyer don't even send rejection letters, just in case the candidate decides that it contains some grounds to sue you over. There are so many reasons I am glad I don't live in the usa anymore.
- hga 16y ago
  Still, our labor market is fantastically liquid compared to a whole bunch of other nations. It's easy to not get hired, it's easy to get fired ... which also means it's easy to get hired.

ams6110 16y ago

The reason many places don't do this is not so much to avoid feeling like an a-hole but to avoid accidental liability. There are so many things you can't say or ask in an interview, that a lot of companies that are big enough to have an HR person or department will require a very generic rejection letter just to be sure they don't provide grounds for a lawsuit.

verysimple 16y ago
Indeed, no good deed goes unpunished these days.
loumf 16y ago
Unfortunately, the accidental liability problem needs to be taken seriously -- mostly because of risk/reward. I try to write as nice and appreciative letter as possible. 1. I don't reject candidates -- I choose a different candidate. 2. The more they went through the process, the longer (and better) the letter. Rejected application, short thank you for applying. If you came for two interviews, but then we went with someone else -- I write a longer letter with references to the meetings. 3. Good candidates that we didn't hire (because another was better) are invited into my personal network. I recommend them to others, I invite them to dev events, etc. I give non-specific-to-our-interview job hunting advice. We'll have openings at some point. 4. I do the same for candidates that are just not a fit (they do X, we need Y). I might never hire them, but I have a personal goal to know every good developer within commute distance of my company (we live in a low population area).
- Dylanlacey 16y ago
  I think 3 is a really great idea. Do you find that, in doing so, you get additional benefits yourself? I imagine you've already got places to look for new hires ect.
  - loumf 16y ago
    Absolutely. All of the benefits you'd get from knowing smart people. The biggest benefit has been recommending them to others.
- mscarborough 16y ago
  Your approach sounds great! If candidates know this is how you conduct the interview process, it seems very positive and always keeps the door open.
jhchen 16y ago

ig1 16y ago

A lot of big companies do give feedback on request though especially for developer roles where you can give specific factual feedback (candidate was weak in multi-threading, etc.) It's one of the big advantages of technical interviews. You don't have to rely purely on subjective human judgement.

variety 16y ago
You don't have to rely purely on subjective human judgement. And yet (aside from mega deal-breakers, like clearly overstating competence in some category) that's pretty much what hiring decisions come down to: "Are they for real? Can I rely on them? Will I get along with them?" -- the battery of contrived, essentially "objective" assessment that get thrown at candidates notwithstanding.
nandemo 16y ago
Do you mind sharing what companies are those? I've interviewed in several foreign big companies in Japan. After enduring multiple interviews spanning 2 to 4 months (compared to 2~4 weeks in Japanese companies), not once did I get any specific feedback. In one particular case, during the process, I asked HR for the contact details of 2 of the technical interviewers and they refused; I had to send my questions via HR.

fizx 16y ago

If 1 in 1000 candidates would sue you, causing $100k in costs for a drawn-out legal battle, then your practice has a very expensive expected value, but in a way you won't notice until shit hits the proverbial fan.

oiuytgyuio 16y ago
Of course there is a flip side, if you interview 100 programmers in a small high tech town and piss off 99 of them by not even sending a 'no thanks' letter. And each of them tell all their friends that you are an a-hole, then when every potential hire in Cambridge/ NYC/ Stanford etc has heard that XYZ software are a-holes you are going to have one hell of a job hiring.
- catshirt 16y ago
  fwiw, and this is certainly not my forte, i'd rather be an asshole than a defendant in a lawsuit like that
  - oiuytgyuio 16y ago
    Depends who you are. If you're MSFT, IBM, etc then you don't even send a no thanks letter, you have nobody who isn't a certified HR person talk to a candidate and you don't allow any off the cuff remarks. The lawyer target cross section is too high. If you are a small startup in a high tech hub trying to attract people, and especially if you are in a market where the programers you reject might be future customers then you're risk is different. Companies often forget that the people they reject don't disappear. It used to be a big thing in merchant banks in the last boom to really grind and humiliate candidates - you aren't smart enough to work here etc. What they forgot is that those people went to work for companies that might need a merchant bank and that the victim is suddenly the customer.
    - philwelch 16y ago
      MSFT will actually send a rejection letter. It's predictably dull.

thingie 16y ago

The only time when I had a bad feeling about such an email was when I felt that I got positive feedback during the interview, got no "warning" signs during it and so on, yet on the other day, I was told almost exactly this. Otherwise, it's quite ok. Make it short, who wants to read ton of shit just to hear no? If you can list one (or more) serious reason (lack of experience, education, whatever, once, I was told that I was simply too pesimistic, but that was on phone), fine, but still, keep it short. And well, don't expect much feedback.

tjr 16y ago

One time I got a rejection letter from a company that included a list of reasons that people are usually rejected. One of the reasons was spelling or grammar errors in their cover letter or resume. As it happened, this letter that they sent out contained both a spelling error and a grammatical error. In retrospect, this was perhaps a little too snarky, but I wrote back to them and pointed this out. They contacted me again, asking if I would be interested in another position they had available.

dasil003 16y ago
Hopefully not HR copy editor.
joe_the_user 16y ago
Well, At least such a letter would alert the candidate to those errors, information that would be useful for future application.
shasta 16y ago
Did they happen to mention that the position had become available as a result of your email?
kahawe 16y ago
Ahhh the elusive position of CSNO? Chief Spelling Nazi Officer.

ctkrohn 16y ago

Many of the comments below talk about potential legal liability from rejecting a candidate in an inappropriate way. Would someone care to clarify the sort of problems that can arise?

btilly 16y ago
There are a lot of problems that can happen. For instance if you complain about hygiene and the person has a medical condition that causes them to stink (don't laugh, this happens), you can be sued for discrimination. If the person had a thick accent and you didn't want to hire because of the communication issue (I've seen candidates rejected for this reason), they could decide that you're racist and sue you. If the candidate is older and you say a wide variety of things (that they are over-qualified, their skillset is dated, poor cultural fit, etc), you can be sued for ageism. The upshot is that it is virtually impossible to figure out what comment will hit a hot button. And there are a lot of legitimate reasons to reject someone, which aren't illegal, that they can take as evidence of discrimination. Even if it is an open and shut case that you're going to win, they can still make it cost a substantial amount of lawyer's fees. And you, personally, don't benefit from telling them this, so there is no percentage in going there. Or so every HR department in the USA will tell you. And every lawyer they get advice from.
- patio11 16y ago
  The other problem is that, if you tell Candidate X that you are not hiring her because of e.g. insufficiently experience with SQL, and it develops that you have previously hired a non-Q developer who didn't do SQL either, you now get to answer a lawsuit alleging discrimination against Q candidates. (We all know people are package deals, but if you put in writing that you hung your hat on a particular detail, then you're going to look like you're lying to cover your antiQist biases.)
- ctkrohn 16y ago
  Great answer, thanks.

candre717 16y ago

I like this philosophy. In general, people should learn how to give and take feedback. I've been in the position where I wish I had known why I didn't get a certain job or opportunity. Knowing the reason not only softens the disappointment but lets one learn and improve for next time.

v21 16y ago

I've got rejected a couple of times with good, useful feedback, and a couple of times with "We can't afford to hire anyone else for a while". In both cases, I end up happy for the feedback, not pissed I didn't get the position. I want to work for the company more than I did before. I follow the companies with interest, and feel a vague sense of attachment to them. If I saw the people who rejected me at some kind of conference, I would go up and say hi. I would recommend them to my friends. So - please do this. Unless you don't care about my opinion of you. You may not.

andrewljohnson 16y ago

This sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me.

rhizome 16y ago
Only in the United States.

samd 16y ago

For all the people claiming that this is likely to end in a lawsuit where is your evidence? Do you have any actual cases where a company was sued because they gave legitimate feedback? How much money did the company lose because of this suit? How many lawsuits are there per rejected candidate? Do you know the text of the laws that specifically address this?

aplusbi 16y ago
I get the feeling that the "avoiding a lawsuit" justification for not supplying feedback is a result of cargo cult thinking, not actual evidence.

JimboOmega 16y ago

Legal problems aside, I love this philosophy. One of the things I hate most about the current interview process is that I take time off from work to do phone screens, maybe a whole day to do an onsite, and in the end I get these empty letters. I'm always trying to improve myself, so having no feedback leaves me feeling bewildered. To be honest I don't know if I bombed the coding question. I came to an answer, maybe I had a couple hints - but was that it?

jerdfelt 16y ago

How about the opposite? A company I turned down a job offer for has been contacting me every about every three months asking if I had changed my mind. I just recently told them to please stop contacting me and I'll contact them if I change my mind in the future. It felt a bit assholish asking them to stop contacting me like that, but I can't decide if that's just my personality having difficulty with it or if there was a better of way of telling them "No".

mattchew 16y ago

I'd love to get rejected by somebody in this way. :) Really, you're above average if you bother to contact the person at all once you've decided not to hire. A lot of people are pointing out liability issues with this approach, and sadly, they're probably right. But I bet there are constructive things you could tell rejected applicants that would be still be safe from lawsuit.

kgo 16y ago

For an all day interview, sure some feedback would be nice. For a phone interview, I'd probably think you're a bigger asshole if you went into details about how I failed the interview, what's wrong with me, why I'm unqualified, and how I can go about improving myself. Imagine someone going into the details about why we won't be going out on a second date.

iron_ball 16y ago
In my less socially adept days, I would have loved that. A sort of dating exit interview? Yes please.
- cousin_it 16y ago
  You'd have heard a lot of incorrect information. People have no idea what attracts them.

Stop_Lurker 16y ago

At the end of interviews when they ask "Do you have any questions for me" I make a point of asking what they felt was good about my interview and how they think I could have improved it. Most of the time, they refuse to answer that question. I think it's probably a bad idea for me to do this.

crocowhile 16y ago
Yes that is a bad idea because you are moving the focus from the job to the interview

grails4life 16y ago

If the reason your not offering someone a job is because they messed up technical questions, I think its a good idea to give them candid feedback on the spot. Its objective. If you are having to choose among several qualified candidates, then I think this is asking for trouble, since there isnt an objective clear reason for the person not getting the job.

FiddlerClamp 16y ago

On the flip side, is it considered okay to simply stop contacting a candidate after three or four interviews, never send a rejection notice, and refuse to answer an email or phone call about the situation? I've had this happen to me three times in the last five years -- mostly for positions within a marketing department, where you would think communication would matter. Unfortunately, fear of retaliation or blacklisting keeps applicants like myself from disclosing specific company or hiring manager names...I feel it's disrespectful to not at least send an FOD note of 10 words or less if you've spent hours with them.

alexgartrell 16y ago

I interviewed at a bunch of places and only got two offers. One of the places I interviewed and failed was Microsoft. They had the interviews throughout the day (about 4 of them), and then after that they had an HR person give you the good or bad news. (It's worth saying that the developers I interviewed with were really outstanding. They were in the Dev Tools group (CLR, Visual Studio, etc.) and were really sharp). Anyway, I got pulled out, and the woman gave me "the bad news," and the typical HR lines about "not a good fit at this time," and, "we encourage you to apply again later." And then, out of nowhere, she throws out "And you should definitely take a close look at yourself to figure out how you could be better." The reason I tell this story is to point out that "helpful feedback" is absolutely useless when not actually helpful. Having an HR person (who had, up to that point, been totally disconnected from the whole process), come and give me some "helpful tips" wasted her time and mine. I also interviewed with Meebo (which was actually a pretty interesting interview, and the people there were pretty cool). I met with the HR guy at the end of the day, and he tried to talk me into doing an internship instead, because I'd be competing with people with "years of experience." I told him I already had some offers and I wasn't interested in an internship. Later, when he emailed to "give me the bad news," he said "we're going with another candidate, but enjoy your summer at Company X!" I'd say this loosely qualifies as rejecting me like an asshole. I ended up with offers from Facebook and Google though, so life goes on :)

follower 16y ago
> he emailed to "give me the bad news," he said "we're going with another candidate, but enjoy your summer at Company X!" I'd say this loosely qualifies as rejecting me like an asshole. Really? Wow. I'd have interpreted that as an attempt at being "friendly", showing at least some personal interest and wishing you well. I guess that goes to show it's difficult to predict how other people will interpret things. :)
- bsiemon 16y ago
  They implied he would only get a summer internship when he was going for a real job.
- 16y ago

desigooner 16y ago

I think the most frequent complaint of mine is unprofessionalism on the end of the company in getting back to the candidates. It's pretty much being an asshole to not get back to the candidate who takes the time to come and interview with them. I understand that they may have many a people applying for positions and this and that but there are some common courtesies. And I'm not even talking about a hyper competitive job where hundreds apply for a few positions. This has happened when I was one of the 2 people considered for the position and what not. This one time I got an email from HR after a couple of months of interviewing asking me if I was still interested in the position etc.

elliottcarlson 16y ago
Completely agree - take the time, even if it's a standard no thank you email, to get back to the candidate. There are plenty of companies that do this, and while I can take the rejection without any hard feelings if that is the outcome, I will lose respect for the company when no response is given.
spacemanaki 16y ago
Unfortunately, I think that this is all too common, especially in other (non-software) fields. There's almost no excuse for it (short of "the company went bankrupt the day of the interview and all hands were laid off")

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merubin75 16y ago

Reality check -- sometimes you reject a candidate for less than scientific reasons. Either you didn't "click" with them, or there was something that you just didn't like. Shallow? Maybe. But when I've hired people in the past, I've made the mistake of overlooking someone's personality in favor of what looked like a superior skillset. Several magnificent failures later, I won't do that again. The reality is that you have to look at someone's personality and whether they'll mesh with your team as much as their skills. That's a fact, and nobody -- repeat NOBODY -- wants to hear that they come off arrogant, ageist, misogynist, etc.

bgruber 16y ago

Frankly, just doing the actual rejection makes you less of an asshole than pretty much everyone else. I've applied for a handful of positions over the last few years, and the fraction of people who actually bothered to tell me I was rejected is 0. The only exception was the supreme asshole who hired me one day, then called me the next day to tell me that I wasn't hired after all. He didn't really have a choice.