Why do companies not give feedback?
I recently gave almost 7 tests/interviews and after that I wasn't offered the job. Although, the process progressed smoothly and the interviews seemed to have gone fine, I was left clueless as to why I was sent a standard rejection email, when I asked for an update, after a few days. Why do companies not provide any feedback to the candidates? Like, they could tell that your technical background or experience wasn't good enough or we found someone better? I'm talking about the candidates who have spent considerable time in the process. I spent an entire day. Isn't it fair for them to at least provide a line of the reason?
Because by providing feedback it gives you some sort of chance to file a law suit based on some kind of discrimination
If they wanted to discriminate, why would they even interview the candidate?
You don’t get it. They don’t discriminate. They are just protecting themselves from some knucklehead filing a nonsense law suit against them. Then they lose time dealing with it.
Or is it that they just don’t want to waste any time on a no hire? Answering their questions
I'm sure when they reject a candidate, it's because of a reason long enough to be stated in a line. Not asking for discourses or discussions. Why hide that line of information? That could be helpful to the candidates and for them too, when they have already spent so many hours on the candidate. Right?
Do you think this one line would be satisfactory for all? And sometimes feel the reason is unjustified or not true. Then it’s same old case of lawsuits. And honestly the reasons cannot always be conveyed in single line which they think can be accepted. As you are thinking that you are entitled to a single line reason at least for spending a lot of time on this. Once they start giving brief reasons, someone else will com asking for proper reasons/explanations thinking that he is entitled to that much at least.
They don’t give feedback because someone will claim “the recruiter Told me/hinted I wasn’t hired for this (illegal) reason”. They could have misunderstood the recruiter, misconstrued their words, or made something up. If the company has a policy of “no feedback to the candidate ever,” these cases become much more rare.
I had seven interviews with one of the GAMFA companies and not a single feedback. I am planning to sue for emotional distress 😎
Do tell me, if you win!
What role?
OP I did a phone screen at weWork (for practice obviously). The guy talked nonsense for 25 minutes and then gave me 15 minutes to solve a leetcode hard question. It was a fake interview. Sometimes companies do that for someone else's green card process to prove that no other suitable candidate was found.
Sounds bad. Although mine didn't require a VISA or any such legal/immigration process. In the last round, they even asked me, that if I was given the job, and had to choose one from UI, algorithms or databases, to work on, what would I choose? That sounds as if they deemed me fit or skilled enough for either but went silent and negative afterwards. That's so silly and suspicious.
It’s like giving money to a homeless man on the corner. He came to my window asking for money. I didn’t tell him to apply. When I decided not to give him any for some reason, I am not gonna explain to him why I didn’t. No matter what I tell him, it will be an unsatisfactory answer to him. He in fact might get angry and shatter my window. You are that beggar. They didn’t force you to apply. You needed money so you applied. No matter what they tell you, most probably you will disagree. There’s nothing beneficial for the company here. Company has thousands other to chose from. They gain nothing by improving you.
No, it's not like that. It's like asking the beggar to have a seat in you car, talk to him and then ask him to leave without giving anything. You didn't ask him to apply but once you took his time, you may owe him an answer out of courtesy. Lol. No one complains about not being let inside the car.
I have sit myself in debriefings hundreds of times. We talk a lot. Even within first few minutes we discard someone, we still spend at least fifteen minutes talking about you. We don’t take it lightly. Believe me, most probably you don’t wanna hear when we reject someone. No, it’s not insulting. See, you think you are at some level and you think you did great. But we have another level or bar in our mind. If heard our honest feedback, sometimes it’s better for your own sake. You might lose confidence in you. It’s not bad. Just that we have different expectations than what you think about yourself.
At the end of the day, while you invested your time and effort for the interview, it is because you want the reward of joining the company. You can’t obligate the company to play nice and give you feedback just because you voluntarily decided to dip your feet into this. For the same reason companies can’t expect us to accept an offer/explain why we don’t want to take up an offer just because they invested hours and cost in bringing us onsite.
Fair enough.
Sometimes they reject you for the lack of so-called “culture fit” which is hard to explain in just one line. One of the interviewers at later stages could have said “oh, I just feel he’s not our guy”
Why couldn't they say that in one line? That you are not a cultural fit? You know, they don't even have to give it in writing. They could just tell in person or over phone, out of courtesy. It's a cultural issue I guess. Not like this culture very much.
Yeah, I feel for you (( but that is how it is - companies wouldn’t explain that. Sometimes because they don’t know what their “culture fit” exactly is.
What do the company get by providing you feedback? They have to invest time to provide a customized feedback vs a standard rejection email. What do they make from that investment if they don’t want you to join?
- Good reputation (you may recommend them to friends who have proper skills) - You may improve your skills and come back in a year or two (of course if the reason was the lack of skills and not some racism, e.g. “we don’t want those arrogant Indians here”)
They get my good reviews and network effects. I'm gonna speak good of a company that helps me even if they don't offer me anything. I'll lobby for such a company and would even refer good or better candidates to them. If they help me and are friendly towards me, I'll return the favor be glad to see them succeed too. You know, this one of the small ways that they can be more socially responsible rather than just giving away some money in the name of corporate social responsibility. The companies who will be so shrewd to me, I'll rejoice whenever they fail and doom. I'll wish for their annihilation and make sure that any opportunity that comes my way for their downfall, doesn't get wasted. It's an American thing j guess. No wonder why Americans are hated so much. Need I say more?
Legal reasons, they are afraid they will get sued.
But, if they want to discriminate against a candidate for some illegal reason, why would they even interview?
The point is that they could get sued even if they didn't discriminate and it can be a pain.