What’s the best feedback you got when you DIDN’T get the job?

Re:What’s the best feedback you got when you DIDN’T get the ... by Afton on Wednesday November 23, 2016 @01:25AM (#13020533)

Fresh out of my first year of computer science, I had fumbled my through some graph traversal algorithms. The guy (who I still remember!), said "Look, you seem like a smart guy, but it doesn't seem like you've done very much programming". I.e. I could figure out the problem, I just couldn't implement it very quickly or well.

He was right (and obviously. Like I said, one year of university). I took it to heart, and practiced programming. Nailed my next interviews. :)

I've never had any other constructive feedback from an interview, and at more than one company, I've been given specific instructions not to provide it (by the recruiting team).

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Re:What’s the best feedback you got when you DIDN’T get the ... by ohjeez on Wednesday November 23, 2016 @09:52AM (#13023000)

> ...at more than one company, I've been given specific instructions not to provide it (by the recruiting team).

What were you told?

That's the other side of this issue, of course. Because there are some things it would be hard to say out of politeness ("You pissed off the boss" or "People thought you were insufferable") or fear of legal repercussion ("We would never say this out loud, but one of the people on the team was sure that a woman would mess up the team dynamics").

So what did the recruiting team tell you [not] to say?

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Re:What’s the best feedback you got when you DIDN’T get the ... by Afton on Thursday November 24, 2016 @01:23PM (#13031855)

Classic "there's no upside". By providing feedback, you only provide leverage for a future lawsuit. Not only that, but if you give feedback some of the time, the mere existence of lack of existence of the feedback becomes a piece of evidence. Since only very rarely will the feedback turn into a future hire for the current company, the risk/reward ration is pretty clear.

Have a policy of 'no feedback' means that it is much harder for an applicant to gather evidence for a lawsuit. Sure can be frustrating sometimes though.

IANAL, etc.

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