The Feedback Paradox. Ignored, Now You Want My Opinion
Rejection is part and parcel of applying for software engineering roles. Sometimes you do get the feedback you deserve as you may not have adequately prepared for a stage in the process. Other times feedback is opaque and even (dare I say it) unrelated you your performance in the interview — perhaps because they just don’t like you.
The standard stuff.
I can’t remember the last time (before today) that I received a rejection for a last-stage interview without feedback, but it has happened. Yet this particular rejection has a cherry on top, they want me to fill out a feedback survey so they can improve their interview process.
Why Would They Care
I suspect I didn’t get the job because I’m starting to lack confidence in my coding abilities, as in any given working day I generally don’t code.
I might not be a good enough programmer to work in any particular company. They may (genuinely) have found someone better for the role. I guess I’ll never know.
Yet now they care about my opinion, or so they would have me believe.
“We’re really interested to get your views on your recent recruitment experience”
I’m tempted to write back to the recruiter and in the subject line of the email write are you kidding me? The only thing stopping me is I don’t have the name of anyone on the team, since they only ever communicated to me through autogen boilerplate emails.
The Contradiction
Let me break it down for you. They’re asking me to give feedback on an experience which simultaneously choosing not to give feedback.
I half-filled out the survey in a rage. I thought about mentioning that I noticed the interviewers Googling my answers during the technical stage of the interview. Or that we had a 2-hour interview with technical components, pair programming and STAR competency questions with no break between the sections. I was about to fill in the suggestion that they give some feedback, in line with their company values.
Then it clicked. They invested almost no effort in the recruitment process, whereas I needed to create a take-home project, research the company, prepare answers before the interview — and they hadn’t read my resume. Why would I invest more time to give them my “views”?
The Reality of Job Hunting
This whole scenario has got me thinking about the realities of job hunting.
Getting the job (or not) is a side issue. You can learn so much from interview processes including salary bands, the level of fellow software engineers and even how to improve to be a better developer.
On the employer’s side they can gain information about the state of the market and build relationships for the future.
Yeah right. It seems employers want to raise the hiring bar and get better people right now. The future is irrelevant, as is treating applicants with respect. It’s little wonder that companies do not want to give feedback when interview processes are not data driven or even widely understood by those who run the interviews.
Having the audacity to ask you for your thoughts when we send boilerplate rejections for candidates? It’s all part of the process.
Maybe this is a sign of the times. A world where companies are more concerned with how they appear to the public rather with how they treat individuals, and “listening” to candidates in this manner is a way of saying “Good try, better luck next time. Now tell us how we did!”.
Conclusion
To all recruiters out there who think that sending a survey after a boilerplate rejection is a good idea, here’s a suggestion. Try giving real feedback first.
If you want my feedback, how about giving me some of yours too?
Until then, feedback surveys are simply noise in a frustrating process.