You’ve just finished your job interview and you’re pumped. You’ve answered all the questions, jelled with the interviewers, and left a great impression. And then a few days later, sadly, you get that email. Yup, the one that tells you that they “went with another candidate” or that “you aren’t a good fit at the moment”. Immediately, you wonder why, and send off a courteous email asking for feedback. Of course, you don’t expect much; the reply is almost always unhelpfully generic or a statement saying they cannot disclose why. This is all too common in today’s interview process: candidates rarely get any constructive feedback when they don’t land the job, leaving them with a frustrating and unsatisfying experience. But most companies know that this is a bad experience, and that it hurts employer branding, so why does it still happen so often?
They don’t want any legal issues
Companies can’t control what a candidate determines as discriminatory or when someone might use feedback as the source for a lawsuit. Thus, many recruiters have been advised by their legal teams to avoid giving out real explanations on why a candidate didn’t get the job.
They don’t want to get into a debate
Some candidates have a hard time accepting rejection and start to debate the reason(s) why. This can often lead to a long and sometimes scary conversation for the recruiter.
It’s against company policy to give feedback
Perhaps it was due to a bad experience or just based off the advice of an advisor, but some companies have a policy against giving feedback. Even if a recruiter wanted to give feedback, he/she doesn’t have an incentive to suggest a policy change.
They are simply too busy to give good feedback
Gathering and writing constructive feedback can be time consuming. Some recruiters deal with hundreds of applicants a day. And even when they aren’t directly communicating with candidates, they still have to do outreach. So when companies don’t emphasize great interview experience, their recruiters often disregard past candidates and focus on finding their next targets.
So you still want feedback (and you should)
You deserve to get interview feedback — you gave your time to interview at the company and chances are, they even asked you to give them feedback on their interview process. Here are some tips on how to get it:
First is the timing of your feedback request email. Make sure your interview is fresh on the recruiter’s mind: send out your email around 24 hours after you get the decision email. Since feedback is voluntary, it’s important for your request to be personable. Don’t give a generic “I want to be a stronger candidate in the future” reason, but rather, mention specifics of the interview you enjoyed and what exactly you want to focus improving. Finally, it’s important to address some of the company’s concerns about giving feedback. Be sure to convey through the tone and message of your email that you understand that the decision is final and you will not hold anything against the company for any reason.
Of course, this is all easier said than done. Luckily, there is a tool to help with this: the ValuesFit feedback tool. It’s an easy way to get interview feedback from companies. Check it out, you’ll be getting constructive feedback in no time!
Ready to start your job hunt? Organize it like a pro with ValuesFit.
