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I disagree with this. I've had two companies contact me and offer legitimate feedback after interviews, and I always left feeling happy and with good feelings a

I disagree with this. I've had two companies contact me and offer legitimate feedback after interviews, and I always left feeling happy and with good feelings about them. I applied to one company and got a response back which was effectively "we really like you as a candidate, but it doesn't seem like you would be the right fit for this job / it doesn't seem like the interests you expressed in your interviews [which they correctly restated] matched up well with the duties we would have you perform. We will likely have jobs opening up which would align with what you like and you will be on the shortlist of candidates if you apply for those". Was it truthful? Who knows, but it left me feeling happy about how things went and I would consider applying there again. Similarly, earlier on in my career after taking a few CS classes I applied for a different job, and the response was effectively "You are smart but you don't have the skills we require yet which are [x, y, z]. Come back when you do". What they said was true and I appreciated the feedback. Contrast that with the myriad companies I applied to and never heard a response back from or didn't get a response back for many months from. I will never apply to these places again because it is clear that they don't respect prospective employees enough to even send a perfunctory email. Boiler plate rejections aren't as irritating but they are definitely still irritating. If you don't provide reasons for not hiring then employees will construct their own reasons, and they may not be true and / or favorable towards your company.

vosper 7y ago
So what exactly did these companies gain? They didn't hire you now, but might be able to hire you in the future because you would maybe apply again (assuming you get passed the "we already didn't hire this person" filter)? With all the risk, that doesn't seem like much of a payoff to the company, to me. (Though I am glad you got feedback you considered valuable, and I think it's cool that the companies did that)
- Thriptic 7y ago
  They gain the goodwill of a prospective employee who might cycle back and be a great fit later on in their career (and who has more skills then). It's also about what they don't lose, which is not only me but potentially other prospective candidates. Know what happens when someone mentions they are considering applying to a place that never got back to me? I tell them don't apply there, they waste your time / they don't care about candidates / their interview process sucks. How many people does that person then go tell? I've absolutely punted on applying to places which my friends have said similar things about. Reputation matters a lot.
  - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
    And providing feedback is very likely to hurt your reputation. One major company did give me feedback, and I've made fun of them endlessly for it - they explained that the manager loved me, I did great on systems design and architecture, but I couldn't pass the hiring committee because I didn't do well enough on tree traversal tricks.
    - Thriptic 7y ago
      Even that in a way is useful to them. If they are constantly getting confused, bemused, or angry responses to what they think is honest feedback, it is a red flag about their hiring process.
    - na85 7y ago
      That company's problem is their shit-tier hiring process, not the fact that they give feedback.
      - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
        Every hiring process under the sun has a large, vocal group of people who think it's shit-tier. (Some people like me are equal opportunity haters - I've never seen a process that didn't have stupid flaws.) If you give feedback, eventually the group for your hiring process is going to find you.
    - kenhwang 7y ago
      I still give Google shit for the feedback they gave me. Good feedback is incredibly hard to do well.
  - mdorazio 7y ago
    Reputation only matters if your candidate pipeline isn't full enough. For example, Google is notorious for their awful hiring gauntlet, but people still line up around the block to work for them. If your pipeline is fine, reputation and goodwill from people you rejected are worthless.
smohare 7y ago
It’s not clear what you disagree with, since everything you mention is entirely a personal benefit. The company itself only increases its risk with feedback simply by exposing a larger surface area to potentially contest.
mxcrossb 7y ago
> we really like you as a candidate It’s not you, it’s me

vosper 7y ago

So what exactly did these companies gain? They didn't hire you now, but might be able to hire you in the future because you would maybe apply again (assuming you get passed the "we already didn't hire this person" filter)? With all the risk, that doesn't seem like much of a payoff to the company, to me. (Though I am glad you got feedback you considered valuable, and I think it's cool that the companies did that)

Thriptic 7y ago
They gain the goodwill of a prospective employee who might cycle back and be a great fit later on in their career (and who has more skills then). It's also about what they don't lose, which is not only me but potentially other prospective candidates. Know what happens when someone mentions they are considering applying to a place that never got back to me? I tell them don't apply there, they waste your time / they don't care about candidates / their interview process sucks. How many people does that person then go tell? I've absolutely punted on applying to places which my friends have said similar things about. Reputation matters a lot.
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  And providing feedback is very likely to hurt your reputation. One major company did give me feedback, and I've made fun of them endlessly for it - they explained that the manager loved me, I did great on systems design and architecture, but I couldn't pass the hiring committee because I didn't do well enough on tree traversal tricks.
  - Thriptic 7y ago
    Even that in a way is useful to them. If they are constantly getting confused, bemused, or angry responses to what they think is honest feedback, it is a red flag about their hiring process.
  - na85 7y ago
    That company's problem is their shit-tier hiring process, not the fact that they give feedback.
    - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
      Every hiring process under the sun has a large, vocal group of people who think it's shit-tier. (Some people like me are equal opportunity haters - I've never seen a process that didn't have stupid flaws.) If you give feedback, eventually the group for your hiring process is going to find you.
  - kenhwang 7y ago
    I still give Google shit for the feedback they gave me. Good feedback is incredibly hard to do well.
- mdorazio 7y ago
  Reputation only matters if your candidate pipeline isn't full enough. For example, Google is notorious for their awful hiring gauntlet, but people still line up around the block to work for them. If your pipeline is fine, reputation and goodwill from people you rejected are worthless.

smohare 7y ago

It’s not clear what you disagree with, since everything you mention is entirely a personal benefit. The company itself only increases its risk with feedback simply by exposing a larger surface area to potentially contest.

mxcrossb 7y ago

> we really like you as a candidate It’s not you, it’s me