What a thoughtful, articulate post! I really appreciated your insight and the discussion it has inspired. I have been the hiring manager wriggling in discomfort when confronted with this question. Now I have the pleasure of helping clients prepare for the process with recruiters and managers and I often ask, ‘so how did you do?’ Thank you again for your post!

Warm regards,

Your opinion would be appreciated – I don’t want to give up on the people I really feel it helps.

But my real concern is the focus on the negative that so much of this type of techno administration implies. Perhaps it would also be appropriate to have short, targeted test available to identify leadership, entrepreneurship, emotional intelligence and some of the other important skills that employers now know they need to boost corporate performance at all levels.
Best regards,
George

1) Your, client, boss or hiring manager forwards an email or voicemail from the rejected candidate asking for ‘clarification’ of your ‘constructive suggestions for improvement’.

2) The candidate’s legal counsel does the same.

3) The candidate responds with a helpful point-by-point emailed rebuttal that ends with, ‘I look forward to continuing our dialogue’.

What has worked for me ever since I wised up is, ‘Your resume and presentation skills were fine or you wouldn’t have gotten past me. However, other candidates offered a closer match to our client’s requirements’. I repeat this as many times as necessary, sometimes altering the tone of voice or rearranging the order of the words, until the applicant fades away.

With more senior contenders, especially for the Director and VP-level HR searches I do, ‘You’re kidding, right?’, also seems to be effective.

Happy hunting.

For example, I once interviewed a candidate for a Business Analyst role. This candidate took a very long time to get to the point when answering my questions – it was very frustrating. When I rang to tell her she was not successful for the role, she pressed me for feedback. She was a referral from an internal employee, so I felt I should give her extra candidate care.

I told her that I felt that the way she communicated at times was unstructured and that it took a while for her to really answer my questions. I told her that I found this frustrating. Effective communication is a key competency for a Business Analyst, especially when dealing with technical people.

I have since heard from the person who referred her, that she greatly appreciated the feedback – that no one had ever given her this type of feedback before.

However, I am very clear that I AM NOT A CAREER GUIDANCE COUNSELLOR. My role is to source and select suitable candidates for my company, not help people find jobs.

Jennifer

We do not know the name of the person taking the test (just a code) and the results go to the interviewer, not the applicant. About one in twenty applicants have warning signals and we point out to the interviewer that this person may be disruptive in the workplace. We suggest that the interviewer be tactful and probably point out that the person is probably not a good match in this workplace. Some people may have a hard time getting along in any workplace. Workplaces are social environments that require social skills. If you would like to learn more please visit my blog at http://www.workplaceattitudes.blogspot.com

Your article is so good that maybe I should reference it when interviewers get the results from the Workplace Attitudes Test.

Dale Paulson, Ph.D.
http://www.workplaceattitudes.com

This test delivers bad news to about one in twenty applicants although the interviewer, not the candidates themselves, get the results. We do a couple of things to err on the side of caution. As mentioned we do not send the results to the candidate and we do not know their identity other than by initials. Rather, results go back to the interviewer. We then suggest to the interviewer that he or she be tactful, citing that the candidate may not be a good match. In actuality we sometimes provide warning signals indicating that this person may likely be disruptive in the workplace. You may want to visit my blog at http://www.workplaceattitudes.blogspot.com to learn more.

Thanks,

Dale Paulson, Ph.D.
http://www.workplaceattitudes.com

whether this question is asked by the candidate or not. One should answer it. It is an opportunity for every hiring manager/recruiter to showcase the professionalism that is learnt over a period of time.

it shoudl be a a max three minute talk on the deliverables of the position vis a vis what candidate has etched out in his interview/meeting. make it very clear that candidate selection is dependant on the degree of possible deliverables as mentioned int eh above talk.

Do all the above stuff in friendly and humane manner . I often found candidates giving references based ont the feedabck of their own competent friends for this position.

Interviews are successful to the degree of the preparedness of the interviewer. Paradoxic is that it is becoming a function of prepared ness of the interviewee.

You have triggered a very important spotlight on candidate experience.

Have nice time !!

Sridhar Iriventi

As someone who has been recently trained as a Recruiter, and who has also been a hiring manager and an interviewer in the past, but now is looking for work, I feel that feedback on why I am not selected for a position would help me immensely. In fact, failure to get any feedback is one of the biggest frustrations (of the many) in job searching. Answers such as ‘we don’t feel you are the best fit’, or ‘while we were very impressed with you, we decided to go with another candidate who is a better fit’, don’t provide any useful information!

I have a very good performance record in my many years of work experience as well as many great references. Additionally I have engaged in a number of mock interviews with behavioral as well as functional interview questions, and have improved my presentation of myself in a few areas where I discovered weaknesses in selling myself and my abilities (such as not smiling enough).

However when I go on two to three rounds of interviews, which would indicate the company was interested in me, and then I get either no response or useless responses such as those above, it does me no good.

I for one, would rather hear the main issue or issues that caused me not to get the job, even if it’s just in an email or a phone message. There may be something I’m doing in an interview that is causing me not to get hired, but I’ll never know!

I think you really need to consider the person who is out of work, and seriously trying to get a job, rather than how you feel telling them they won’t get the job. Also, as for feelings about the company afterwards, I would feel much better about a company that gave me some constructive feedback, than one that gave me some canned generic response.

But to counteract that, I have always worked in organisations that pride themselves on being honest and adding value to the candidate’s experience. So, OK telling someone that their personal hygiene is not up to scratch is confrontational and difficult – but letting someone walk out with no idea of how they have gone is just creating more work for yourself.

Seriously – the candidates that drive a recruiter mad are those people you interviewed that you know you dont want to use but have never told them so. They ring you asking about vacancies and in the end they disappear into the ether and tell everyone they can think of how ‘crap’ your service was.

I agree that you need to focus on the person’s technical skills and experience against the role – but let’s be honest, if you did a good telephone screen with them in the first place, you would already have a pretty good indication that they meet most if not all those technical skills.

Its a tough thing – but being honest is a good thing. If our consultants meet someone who is not dressed appropriately, they explain the standards that the client is expecting. If they meet someone who answers their mobile phone calls during an interview, they look that person in the eye and explain why that behaviour is not appropriate. If they interview someone who doesn’t answer questions appropriately – they tell them why their answers are not up to scratch and how they can improve their interview skills.

At the end of the day – if you want a candidate to walk out of your offices knowing that they were treated fairly and honestly – you have to be fair and honest with them.

Also, candidates know when they are being fobbed off with platitudes and empty words.

Be truthful but constructive I say.

As an interviewee, if my interviewer had such a check-list I could be reassured if I were to ask the same question of ‘So, How Did I Do?’ If I did not meet the Top 5 requirements then the interviewer could nicely say something like, ‘Well, Mrs. White, we have a checklist of items that we are definitely looking for in this position. You did a great job during this interview but did not meet our Top 5 requirements. We will notify you if your resume qualifications meet any other job openings in our company and thank you for your time today.’ — A positive result that does not leave the interviewee wondering if they are in consideration. –Thanks for the article.

Providing timely and accurate feedback is extremely important to maintaining the brand of your company and client. Ideally, you want every candidate to have a positive experience, but it is also very important to be truthful. At the end of the day, a candidate will appreciate hearing the truth and areas where they can improve (if needed), rather then not hearing anything at all. Thanks for a Good article!

As such, we created a one-page report that highlights the candidate’s strengths, relatively irrespective of their fit for the position. It leaves the candidate happy that they have been treated well, might have learned something about themselves, and can walk away with something positive about their experience.

Not all of our clients use the feedback report. For my money though, it is a great way to leave a relationship on a positive note with someone who you may be interested in hiring in the future, and someone who could one day be a purchaser of your products.

All the best,

Kyle Salem
Senior Consultant
The McQuaig Institute
ksalem@mcquaig.com
1.800.387.5455 x367
http://www.mcquaig.com