Photographer Allison Hunter interviewed in August 2023 for a position taking photos of an historical archive's collections. During the conversation, she asked the hiring panel for feedback – how did she stack up against other candidates?
The question was not well-received. “Shaming is a bit heavy to say, but it was a little like scolding,” says Hunter, who is based in New York City. “‘Oh no, we wouldn't tell you that',” she recalls the panelists saying. “‘Just know that your resume has gotten you this far, and this is a very competitive position'.”
She regretted asking. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is not good. I think I might have just put a damper or a negative vibe to my candidacy'.” She didn't get the job, and they never told her why. Her guess: probing for feedback didn't help.
Hunter has asked similar questions before, and she feels the interviewers are often caught off guard. If they do provide feedback at all, it's vague. “It's frustrating because when trying to get a job, you need all the help you can get. It would help us all.”Our lips are sealed
Time and bandwidth may be one part of the equation, at least at the application stage, says James Hudson, a 20-year veteran of corporate recruiting, with stints at companies including Nike, Levi Strauss, and Forever 21. Often, there are simply so many job candidates that a recruiter can't give feedback to all of them.
The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) estimates that across all industries and company sizes, a single recruiter handles a median of 10-to-20 listings at a time. Considering that it's not uncommon to find corporate job postings that garner 500 or more applications through LinkedIn, which publicly tracks the number of people who apply through the platform, a recruiter may be shuffling thousands of applications.
Automated rejection emails are common at the application stage, “which is fair”, says Hudson. “The vast majority of applications – about 75% – are from non-qualified folks.” Yet as candidate field narrows and recruiters manage fewer applicants – roughly four to six applicants will get an interview, says Hudson – applicants can still be left wondering about their standing. That often has to do with what the company permits them to say to candidates.
Perhaps the most significant reason employers seldom give feedback to job candidates is fear of legal risk. In the US and the UK, for instance, it's illegal to make hiring, firing and promotion decisions on characteristics including race, sex, sexual orientation or disability. Many employers don't want to say anything that might be construed as discrimination.
Refusal-to-hire lawsuits are famously tough to execute in the US, says Jeff Hirsch, a professor of labour and employment law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Yet they still happen. “If the feedback contains any hint of an unlawful reason for the decision – for example, discrimination – then that could expose the employer to liability it almost certainly wouldn't have faced without the feedback,” he says.
Anything that appears to reflect a stereotype about a protected characteristic could put the company at risk, says Llezlie Green, professor of law and director of the Civil Justice Clinic at Georgetown Law. “Let's say that an Asian woman is interviewing for a job, and the feedback that she receives is that they didn't think that she was going to be aggressive enough in the role.” Even if the intention of the note has nothing to do with the candidate's race or gender, it could be interpreted as dubious. “You just want to make sure that that wasn't the entire reason.”
It's usually legal counsel or the C-suite that prohibits feedback, not the recrutiers or hiring managers themselves. In later stages of the hiring process, “the recruiter doesn't give feedback because they're not allowed to, not because they don't want to,” says Hudson.Who gives feedback – and how much
Feedback isn't universally off the table.
Marketing tech company HubSpot provides it to some candidates. How much they get, and what kind, depends on how far the candidate has progressed in the hiring process. After a screening call, for instance, the feedback might be about a qualification they lack. In later stages, it might be related to the content of the interview itself.
The recruiter doesn't give feedback because they're not allowed to, not because they don't want to
James Hudson
“I might say, for example, ‘It sounds like you have a really good approach to how you influence stakeholders and build relationships, but your attention to detail in structuring project plans was lacking',” says Becky McCullough, who leads recruiting and talent development for the company.
Regarding the possibility of legal exposure, the company replied in a statement that “at HubSpot, transparency and empathy are two of our core values, and that includes how we treat our candidates. We understand the importance of adhering to local employment laws, and we also firmly believe that providing feedback when possible is the right thing to do. “
Since this approach is quite hard to come by, however, candidates seeking feedback may have better luck with a third-party recruiter working on behalf of an employer.
“The third-party recruiter has an incentive,” says Jeffrey Spector, president and co-founder of Karat, a company that conducts technical interviews with software engineers on behalf of employers. “If they're an agency, they get paid when you get placed, so they have an incentive for you to get better and better. Maybe you don't get a job at Google, but they can turn around and offer you to Facebook.”Taking matters into their own hands
Some candidates aren't necessarily giving up on the pursuit for information, however – and there are people who can help them.
Brad Davis, a 37-year-old customer success professional based in Cincinnatti, Ohio, was laid off in November. Davis has hired about 25 people in his career, and when colleagues he mentors started expressing their frustration with lack of feedback in the interview process, he decided to offer free mock interviews to job seekers in customer success.
Davis has conducted about 70 mock interviews in just four weeks. He announces time slots on LinkedIn every Wednesday, and spots are filled within minutes. The demand is so high, he's brought in others to help, and now participants get an audience with three faux hiring managers.
“It simply provides another viewpoint that perhaps you can't see,” he says. “When they just meet with me, it's just one guy's opinion, but now you have the witness of three people.” Now, Davis is starting a company to continue his work of mentorship, coaching and mock interviews in the customer-success industry.
Similarly, Karat provides free practise interviews through its Brilliant Black Minds program, which gives feedback to computer science students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Not only is the programme successful, but it also makes a significant difference for the candidates.
Karat found students who do three practise interviews – and receive feedback from the interviewer – are six times more likely to get an engineering internship or job.‘A popularity contest'
Some candidates and programme directors believe feedback – whether directly from companies or through mock interviews – can improve their interview performance, and maybe even be the difference between landing a role or not.
Yet not everyone feels notes from interviewers are valuable. Corporate-recruiter Hudson is sceptical feedback can offer much value to candidates. He feels it's simply too subjective.
“These people spend 45 minutes with you. How can they possibly offer you anything of value? You could go through exactly the same process a month later with exactly the same company and get a different outcome,” he says. He feels companies are right to guard their notes – many hiring decisions aren't based on objective criteria, but personal preference.
“The weakest part of the hiring process is the interview … Job seekers imagine that it's this really slick, well-run and well-calibrated process. It isn't,” he continues. Ultimately, says Hudson, “It's a popularity contest”.
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