Why I Don't Give Candidate Feedback

You asked for feedback on why another candidate was selected. I have made the rule to stop providing feedback and here is why:

You may think it is because I fear being sued, but you are wrong. Let’s be honest discrimination does exist, which may leave people justifiably feeling as if every decision is tainted. Let’s also be honest, that human nature is to think someone else is to blame instead of accepting our role in these decisions. The fear of being sued may play into why some recruiters don’t give feedback but not me.

Fear of lawsuits has nothing to do with the reason that I don’t give feedback. In fact, I used to provide feedback frequently, which is why I have stopped.

My experience taught me the question is seldom about learning or improvement. Often it is simply a way of finding out how to tell us we got it all wrong. When I have provided feedback in the past, it has almost always resulted in an objection telling me that I was wrong. It never failed to initiate a debate about the decision, as if the decisions would be changed (or instead of reinforcing to me that I got it right.)

To be fair, those people were often highly qualified and most likely could do the job. After all, they would not have even been interviewed if that were not the case. The emails I received back telling me our feedback is wrong could even be true but…that was the impression the candidate left with the hiring team during the process.

Frankly, most of the time the decision was made not about them but about someone else. It was not a lack of qualifications or something the candidates did. Another candidate just had different skills that were more important or maybe even higher qualifications. Sometimes the other candidate just did better throughout the process (e.g., returning calls or applying when asked.) Based on their credentials and performance, the hiring team felt the other candidate was a better choice – not that the unchosen candidates could not also be good choices.

Unfortunately, even when we do our best, we sometimes face competition that simply outperforms us.

It may also have been the hiring team did not feel our job was the right one for you. A job is not just duties/responsibilities. A job is comprised of leadership styles, compensation plan models, career tracks, workplace environment, etc. It could have been the direction a candidate said they wanted to build their career, the type of manager they wanted, etc. Just like someone is not a fit for a specific job, sometimes a job is not a fit for the specific person.

The truth is these are tough decisions. Recruiters and hiring managers don’t always make the right decisions. This is the reason recruiting teams track their first-year turnover -- to see if we are getting it right. It is why we work hard to build diverse candidate pools, take steps to limit implicit bias, push back when managers are being unreasonable, and try to create a transparent, engaging process.

It never feels good to decline a candidate. Recruiters have been candidates too, so we understand how it may be disappointing. Any type of let-down tends to leave us yearning for an explanation.

Unfortunately, time and experience have taught me that the explanation doesn’t make it less disappointing. It only leads to the candidate sending me an email telling me why I was wrong.