Does Every Candidate Deserve Interview Feedback?

[00:00:00] Everyone says candidates deserve feedback. Okay, what feedback? Because in our survey, 37% of interviewers said their primary way of evaluating candidates is gut feeling and personal chemistry. So what are we supposed to tell the candidate? You were great, we just vibed harder with someone else? They want to know what happened. But imagine like 600 applicants. Are companies supposed to coach all 599 that they didn't hire? Maybe we're asking the wrong question.

[00:00:29] Yeah, because here's a bigger problem. You can't give evidence-based feedback if you didn't make an evidence-based decision. And everyone wants feedback until the interviewer has to explain something felt off and what that actually means. Maybe the real question isn't whether every candidate deserves coaching. Maybe it's what does every candidate deserve from the process? Let's get into it. Welcome to Don't Tell Me About Yourself, the podcast where old school hiring meets a modern reality check. I'm Lorna Erickson.

[00:00:58] And I'm Victoria Gates. And we're the co-founders of Expert Interviewers. Between the two of us, we've got 40 years of hiring experience. We've studied interviewing techniques. We've trained thousands of people globally to stop making the same mistakes over and over again. And we've got 340,000 people following us online because apparently everyone has a story about a bad interview. You know the ones. The illegal questions, the 45-minute monologues, showing up late with no apology.

[00:01:24] So every week, we're tackling the biggest subjects in hiring. We bring real stories, real data, and real talk about how to make interviews actually work for everyone. Because great hiring isn't luck. It's a practice skill. So whether you hire, apply, or just love a good interview train wreck, the show is for you. So I think we should start with the why behind this. There's a reason everybody wants feedback. What are some of the biggest reasons that you think people are screaming for feedback in this process?

[00:01:51] The main reason is that they've invested so much into this process. And like any relationship, you need some closure on it. Validation maybe because they might have been thinking, this could be it. Maybe I didn't have enough experience. I was on the low end or something like that, right? And it would just validate some of the story that they've kind of created in their minds, which is always nice. Because when there is no feedback, that process, that loop that goes through candidates' minds can be pretty extreme.

[00:02:18] It's like, and it may have nothing to do with what they think it is. So getting some of that specific feedback, I think, helps to quiet people's minds and maybe give them reassurance that it wasn't the right fit for them anyway. Right. And I know there are candidates that do want to improve and maybe they have another interview later that week or coming up and it's like they might want to be able to understand what they could do differently in the next one. And if it's something as ridiculous as you had a nice coffee in your hand, that would be nice to know.

[00:02:47] You could change it, right? That would be so nice if we knew that. Yeah. I think you bring up a great point there. It's like, just shoot me straight so I know what I can do next time. Yeah. I don't think it's very common for people to get feedback, right? So there was a candidate experience benchmark survey and over half of rejected candidates said they get no feedback after any of their screening whatsoever. And Greenhouse reported 63% of candidates are left in the dark after an interview.

[00:03:13] So it's very common for there to be like a want on the candidate side for feedback and then sort of a ghosting on the company side. And it's just very common and it causes a lot of rub in the process. It does. Yeah. Any candidate that invested any time into a company and receives nothing back, that's going to stick with them forever. And then from a candidate experience standpoint, think of anyone, that person's children, their significant others, their family members, whoever it might be, are going to be like, hey, what happened?

[00:03:42] Did you ever hear back from that? Yeah. They know it's like those constant conversations that are going to be sticking with that candidate and that sucks. Right. And I do think there's a distinction here between feedback and then just going where you stand. I feel like that there's a difference there. There is a difference. And here are my thoughts on that. I want to hear yours on it. When I hear feedback, I hear like investment. So like the company is making an investment in this person and it is hard. Like an investment takes time and intention and effort.

[00:04:10] But something as simple as just closing the loop to be like, hey, we hired someone else. Sometimes that's all that's needed. And I know we'll talk about when the right time is for just that versus actual investment of feedback. But those are my thoughts on it. What do you think? Yeah, I think that like we said it earlier, like I don't think they I don't think candidates are always looking for some big life coaching moment or some deep feedback, especially in an earlier stage thing.

[00:04:38] Rejections can be confusing, disappointing, disillusioning and silence when that's going on forces people to make up the story in their head of what happened and they don't get the closure that they need. And then more frustratingly, I think when you see that position posted again later on or we hear about that all the time in our comments and in working with companies that candidates are just not happy with that experience. They're not saying like, I need you to analyze every single thing I did in this interview.

[00:05:06] They're just saying, don't make me guess about what happened here. That's what I think. Exactly. So we know that candidates are valuing communication. That's what they need. Right. So why are companies still so hesitant to give actual feedback? Where do we begin? I know. Let me get on my stroll. Yeah. I feel like we could talk for days. Yeah. From what we've heard, you know. And I feel this.

[00:05:32] I was a recruiter for many, many years and was hiring 100 people a year. And it's like if I hired 100 people, how many did I interview to get there? Right. And the volume of people like I just simply sometimes didn't have enough time in a day to get back to everybody. And I think that that is really a challenging part. And probably one of the biggest things that gets in the way is just we we can't be cloned. And the time it takes to do that is significant. Yeah, it is.

[00:06:02] And side tangent here. Yeah. You and I were both recruiters before AI existed. Oh, true. Yes. Yes. Well, and bear like I think even with AI, though, what I hear like the closure piece of like an automated decline is like bare minimum. I know we're going to talk about these things, but that's not what I was saying. Like for me to like give someone any piece of feedback outside of just a generic or rejection letter. Totally. It does take time.

[00:06:30] You have to pick up, especially, you know, if they've invested more and more time into that company, you would give them a call back and be like, hey, guess what? I do have some news for you. And it takes quite a bit of time. Another piece that I've heard a lot of is that there's a legal risk and concerns, which is funny that those legal risks and concerns come up at the end where they're giving feedback. I'm like, did you think about that before you started the interview? Yeah. Yeah. That would have been the right time to think about that before you started.

[00:06:59] That would come up when you're asking those illegal questions. But it comes up afterwards when you think of that. But I appreciate that. I think that's totally valid. I also think there's a fear. I mean, giving people feedback is uncomfortable. Letting people down is uncomfortable. And there can be confrontation. Someone can question you. Someone can disagree with you. And not everybody's built for that, honestly. Like, and I understand. Totally. It takes a special kind of person to be able to deliver feedback regularly like that. So I think that's a part of it, a fear. It can be uncomfortable giving people that criticism.

[00:07:29] But also, I remember being worried with some candidates. Like, are they going to argue with me? Like, are they going to try and win the job back in the feedback session where we're declining them? And not to say that's a reason to avoid it, but I just know that that's a concern. I'm like, sorry, man, the decision's already been made. I'm informing you of that. And you're like, oh, God, they're going to fight this, you know? That's totally a concern. Yeah. Another one I think about is, like, lack of documentation as to the why.

[00:07:59] And this can be a number of different reasons. You mentioned AI earlier. Like, AI notes have really improved. You should have a recap of this conversation somewhere accessible. That transcript or summation of your experience still doesn't tell you why you made that decision. So the decision is not documented anywhere specifically. And it's a lot more work to go dig in and try to remember and read through those notes. And what reason did you make? So the lack of documentation there or maybe lack of detail.

[00:08:25] And then I'll say your AI interview notes or anything else also can't take good notes with good reasons as to why you're rejecting someone on an interview that didn't ask the right questions. So, you know what I mean? It all feeds in. So if you didn't have the right interview process in place, you're not going to have good notes and you're not going to have good documented decisions. And so that's going to make it really difficult to do that. I think about when there's multiple stages to an interview, that feedback almost becomes like a game of telephone.

[00:08:54] You're kind of getting some of the information. You're kind of not. And if it's the recruiter's responsibility to give feedback after this person has gone down this interview process, they may not know the exact reasons why because that was never communicated to them. And they're just like, sorry, you're out. Like, that's all I have for you right now. So the internal communication is a sticky point. When a team can't articulate why they chose someone, that's a bigger issue.

[00:09:21] If someone's saying, I don't know, something just wouldn't feel right, they don't have it. Right. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they just weren't quite it. I couldn't put my finger on it. That's like what I would always say. Yeah. One of the ones that I hear a lot and I still hear is like, this person just edged you out a little bit. We just like this other person just a little bit better, which nothing more infuriating than that because it gives you nothing to grab into.

[00:09:48] Like, how is that supposed to turn into useful feedback? I mean, it's just really difficult. Like, you can expect a recruiter to write a rejection email or to have a conversation about that after that feedback. What? It's putting them in an impossible position and then the candidate's sad too. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because saying like, I like someone else better is just a preference. It's not evidence as to why you hired someone. Yeah.

[00:10:16] This is a really good thing for candidates to hear, if there are candidates listening to us right now, is that you getting poor feedback doesn't mean it is your poor performance. It very well could mean that those interviewers have a decision quality problem. They don't know how to extract information and make a good decision and then give you that feedback. So it's not you, candidates. It's typically the hiring managers. I love that. So this is where feedback and communication start getting treated like the same thing. So a lot of times they're considered very similar.

[00:10:45] There's a difference between a generic letter and something more detailed. So I want to talk a little bit about that, like feedback versus just communication in general and maybe break it down a little bit. Sure. Yeah, let's do it. One thing I found interesting in researching this episode is that that same candidate experience benchmark survey found that candidate resentment increased by 70% when candidates received no interview prep or follow up after.

[00:11:13] So kind of suggests that it's not just about receiving like developmental feedback. It's about just communication in general. And you would hope hearing that stat that takes the pressure off companies a little bit to not have to give like a dissertation as to why this candidate didn't get the job is just giving them some communication about what's happening. Like that that should be baseline level responsibilities when it comes to evaluating candidates is just communicating. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:11:39] When we talk about communication, communication is just like here's where you're at. This is what's what's going on currently. Yeah. And I also hear the word transparency used a lot, like that candidates want companies to be more transparent. What do you like? How would we define that transparency? Just being pretty open and honest as to what's happening next. Here's the actual salary. Here's here's the job, the goods and the bads of it and why there's a hold up. Maybe, you know, yeah.

[00:12:07] Yeah, I think I hear you on that more of an understanding, not just we'll get back to you next week. It's like, hey, the hiring manager's on vacation and they're not going to be able to get back to me until next week. That's like a transparent. That would be the difference of transparency for me. And I also think about we've been talking a little bit about feedback versus like coaching. And the feedback piece to me is here's what we observed during your interview. And then the coaching is here's what you can improve on. Totally. So there's really four different components there. Yeah. And I think they elevate in terms of investment.

[00:12:36] You know, the communication is baseline. The transparency is pretty baseline. It's like it's easy to do. It's like for us. Intentional. Exactly. It has to be intentional. The feedback and the coaching, that's where things get real and where you're investing a lot of time. The feedback is deserved further along in the process. And then the coaching is deserved for internal candidates. That's the way I would look at it. You may not take time to coach an external candidate unless you're hoping that they're going to boomerang back to you after they get that experience.

[00:13:05] And be like, this is your dream job and your dream company. Great. Go get this experience. Please come back. You know, that to me would be the right investment of coaching to an external candidate. So if we can't get personalized feedback for everybody, what's like what it would be like bare minimum under that bucket of like non-negotiable from your list lines. Yeah. This is a must have. Updates when you say you're going to update them. I'll be in touch by the end of the week. Friday by close of business. Do it.

[00:13:33] You know, the other thing I noticed, too, is that if somebody is clearly out, let them know that they're out. Because I remember I was working with hiring managers and they're like, no, that person's not going to work. But let's interview these other three candidates first. I'm like, no, you said they were out. Like we shouldn't have to see three other people that know that. Cut the tie. Yeah. I know. I agree. No ghosting is obvious. It can just disappear on them.

[00:13:59] And I think like where and when you can, a la the hiring managers on vacation, an explanation where it's appropriate. Recruiters often just get the brunt of this because they're the face. Right. Sometimes it's HR people. Sometimes it's recruiters. But giving that little extra context where it's appropriate, I think, is a really good baseline. You don't need to say everything, but I think that that is absolutely critical if you can do it. Exactly. Yeah. Or, hey, we're having some shifts internally with this and that. Like, cool.

[00:14:29] It's they don't hate me. Like as a candidate, like that's what you start to think. They hated me. They didn't like me. I wasn't qualified. It's like, oh, you're just having internal shifts. Got it. OK, I'll chill for a bit. It sounds like a Friday night before bedtime in my brain where I start making up stories about everything. Oh, it's like, what? Like, can't turn it off. But yeah. Yeah, I agree. And then you mentioned this earlier, but more detailed feedback as the rounds of interviewing increased or the candidate investment increases.

[00:14:59] That seems obvious. But as a baseline, like a phone screen with an individual probably doesn't need the same level of feedback as a final round interview that you did not proceed with. Like those two are different things. Would you agree? Absolutely. And even a step earlier than that, like somebody who applied for the role with their resume, you're not going to give them coaching feedback. Right. You know, on that. So you're right. As the time goes on and depending on how much you might want that candidate in the future, that depends on what you're going to give.

[00:15:29] Yeah. But in general, we're saying feedback is very valuable, but communication is the baseline. And those things we listed are the communication components. So maybe we kind of walk through now who actually deserves that continued investment of more than just the baseline and who deserves the feedback. Yes. Agree. So it starts with applicants, right? There's hundreds and we're hearing thousands in some cases right now in this job market. So personalized feedback is totally unrealistic at that case.

[00:15:58] But some type of acknowledgement of the receipt of an application and then some type of disposition of it, is it yes? They deserve that at the very bare minimum. At the very bare minimum. And let's be honest, your ATS system should be set up to do this. Absolutely. If you're dropping the ball at this point, like there's some serious issues happening. If you're a small company, then you may not have 600 applicants and you can make it happen. We can set up some sort of communication there. Recruiter screens.

[00:16:26] Typically, those are 20-minute conversations. And if there's a clear mismatch or a clear match, what do they deserve there? What do you think? Honestly, my favorite way to handle this, because as a recruiter, I always thought to myself, I could do this screen, hang up this call, and then create another task that I have to follow up with this person, or my systems have to follow up with this person at a later date, or I could just shoot them straight. So my preferred thing is like in the conversation to say,

[00:16:55] hey, look, like you've got X, Y, and Z. You're missing ABC. And because of that, I think this probably isn't a mutual fit. And like the level of relief, sometimes they would push back, sometimes it's uncomfortable, all the things that you risk. But it saved me from another task down the road, or automating a task down the road, et cetera. So I would highly recommend that type of transparency where it makes sense. But I for sure think some type of a disposition, yes or no, you're not proceeding, just communication where you stand is critical after a 20-minute screen.

[00:17:26] Totally. And I love that you talked about doing that in the moment. Because you know, we know you know, recruiters. We know you know. You make your decision on that conversation. You're not leaving a 20-minute screen going, I'm not sure if I'm going to move forward. You know. You hang up that phone and you know. Totally. That's exactly it. And it might be uncomfortable in the moment. No one's hanging up the phone anymore. They're clicking exit. Oh, yeah. Beep. If you know you know, then take that uncomfortable moment and be like, this is my concern.

[00:17:56] This is not aligning because of this and this. Or sounds like you really love this. If they're good, what an opportunity to tell them why they're good and to give them that boost in the moment and to get them excited about the next step, right? Yes. It can work both ways. And I think that's the magic of it. Like, and it shouldn't just be the one way. If you're doing it current state one way and not the other, just consider doing it for both. Right. So what about the first interview? They come in or, you know, set aside time for an hour of video meeting. What then?

[00:18:25] Like, what do you think that candidate deserves at that point? It feels like a little bit more than the recruiter screen, but not quite as invested as multiple interviews. But this person deserves a level of understanding, a reason of some kind, a more tangible reason. Because you've met with them either in person or virtually for a significant amount of time. I think there is not a super detailed amount of feedback, but from my lens, I do think understanding why would be nice at this level.

[00:18:55] And I kind of feel like it's the more information you're extracting, the more feedback you have to give in return. I think that's part of this context too, is like we say first interview in person, but what does that really mean? And how many other ones are there? If there's just, if this is a larger first interview and you only have one other one after it, that seems pretty significant. You're probably not bringing in all that many people. Yeah. Yep. And then, gosh, third round, second round, finalists. Like at that point,

[00:19:25] that rule, the more information you extract, the more feedback they deserve, I think is a really good rule to follow here. And it's about, at that point, letting them know, we heard this and we needed this. Absolutely. when you're extracting the right information, it's a lot of fun to offer them the job then too. It's like, don't forget if you're going to offer that finalist a job, give them that feedback as to why they were chosen. That part is skipped. Usually it's like, congratulations, you got the job. Here's your salary. We'll send you over the paperwork. You know,

[00:19:55] let's invest in that person. Yep. That's something we talk about in our course. And I know it's something we're super passionate about. It's like, we're always so focused on the negative feedback that we kind of forget about the positive. And you're so right. I think the finalists, it's, they need individual feedback. If it's a finalist, it just, that's to me, no, I think with the first interview or even the second one, you can kind of get away with a little more general, but I think if it's a finalist, you need to give them individual specific feedback. Now, what about internal candidates? You touched on that earlier

[00:20:24] and said there's a difference between internal and external. I'm curious. So internal candidates, I'm not sure if you're going to agree with this, but I'm excited to hear your thoughts on it. For an internal candidate, no matter the step application status or finalist status, they deserve feedback and coaching. Those are my thoughts. What do you think? Well, I think it's really awkward that the person's coming back to work the next day. So, I think you're saying like,

[00:20:55] well, but just wasn't the right fit is going to be a tough sell. The person is not going to be very productive when they come back to work. However, I guess similar rules are coming to my mind of like, how did the person show up? What interview was this? How many other candidates were there? If you're interviewing at a high level against one other person, and you're both very well known in your department, I think that is probably, you're going to need a full debrief as to why or why not that didn't move forward in order to continue working together.

[00:21:23] But with a larger department and there's 10 people going for it, it's to me, I don't know. I'm kind of feeling like it doesn't need to be as detailed, but I could be wrong. It's just, I don't know if that needs personalized career coaching, depending on the level and the volume of people. Yeah. Generally interviewing. if, question here then, because if somebody is like an individual contributor for a company, they see that a manager role is available, and they apply for it, and they're not going to be considered. I, well, one,

[00:21:52] they're going to have to get some basic baseline communication about it. Sure. Application received, application denied, whatever it is. I feel like if they get denied, like you said, it's going to be awkward because they applied for this job. So in my mind, I think that's, that's an opportunity for the manager to sit down and be like, I hear you. I'm excited that you're excited about being a manager. And here is the coaching you need or the experiences you need to obtain to be considered for this job. So that's why,

[00:22:22] like my argument for internal candidates is that even at an application stage, they deserve coaching. What do you think? You've convinced me. I understand. I get it. I was just trying to look out for my fellow folks who is just, it, it can be a lot. And it depends on the level, but I, I hear you. So yeah. Yeah. Feedback. And if we're going to get feedback, we should probably talk about like what good feedback should look like. I feel like that's kind of next. And we, maybe we have a few instead of, we could talk about like some of the classic is like,

[00:22:52] we went, we went with another candidate or we went in another direction. What can people say instead of that? I know you went in another direction, like north, south, east, west. Like, what are you talking about? Yes, exactly. I'm like, what direction was it? I can walk in that direction. Again, this is only possible if you ask the right questions and not the right information from the candidate. But, but taking that a step further and saying, okay,

[00:23:14] we did select somebody with more knowledge or experience leading this specific team or whatever one of the core competencies or characteristics were. They said that they had proven experience actually doing X, Y, and Z. So relating it back to the right answers and saying, here's, here are the actions that we needed versus here are the actions that you showed. Get a little more experience there and let's chat. Yep. Yeah. That makes sense. The all too common, you know what? I, it's just,

[00:23:43] you just weren't a fit. It's a tough one. It's just so vague. Um, I think anytime you can like for that one, like we needed stronger examples of X, Y, Z, right. Managing competing priorities at the same time. Anytime you can just give one specific, Hey, didn't hear examples of X, Y, Z that is required of the role. I think that that's like an easy way to replace that. Totally. And that feels like a pretty doable one. Yes. For most people.

[00:24:13] And I feel like I hear not a fit for, for things that you just talked about for like the skill level. But I also hear not a fit so often when managers mean that their motivations don't align. There were oftentimes when we'd be interviewing candidates and they very, very, very clearly wanted an HR career. And I'm like, person, this is a sales job. Like, right. Right. You're not a fit, mainly because your motivators don't align. And it's like, so to walk them through, here's the differences,

[00:24:41] a salary job versus a commissioned position. Like those are very big differences. So when I say not a fit, here's actually what I mean. So that could be from a skill level standpoint or a motivator standpoint. Right. But I think the difference is just saying, Hey, your skillset really aligned to a traditional HR role in this position. And just even state stating that more specifically indirectly can be helpful. What about the all too common? Like you didn't have enough years of experience or you weren't senior enough. We hear that one a lot. You're not senior enough. Making people go back to be like, well,

[00:25:11] how did you define senior? Let's talk about that. And once you have that definition, you can say I needed specific actions and experience from you showing this and you didn't have that. Right. Yeah. In general, I think one tie I see through all the tips and switch ups we're giving here is that good feedback is going to connect to the criteria that you established before the interview. It's going to connect to evidence, relevant job requirements. Those are the things that it's going to tie to.

[00:25:40] So if it doesn't tie to those things, it's probably not good feedback. Good feedback doesn't start when you reject someone. It starts when you decide what you're evaluating before the interview begins. You can't give good feedback if you don't know what you're looking for and how to find it. So it's just going to snowball into a bunch of crap. Unless you do it right. It becomes personal critique, culture fits, therapy assumptions, all those things. And it's not feedback. It becomes all those other things. Yeah.

[00:26:08] I will say that we always talk about how feedback can be a major warning sign to tell you if your interviewers are good at it or bad at it. If your interviewers can't give you feedback as to why they liked or didn't like a candidate, that's a major red flag and you got to start over. They need some help with that. Send them to us. They need our help. Yeah, exactly. You're busy enough. Let us just get in there. We got it. We got stuff for you. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:39] Yeah. So what we're saying overall in summation is feedback is valuable. Communication is non-negotiable, right? So not every candidate needs a personalized career coaching session, but anyone you bring meaningfully into your hiring process should know where they stand. So if you can't give every candidate coaching, you give them clarity and silence should never be a rejection strategy. And before asking whether every candidate deserves feedback, ask the harder question.

[00:27:07] Could your interview team even explain the decision in the first place? Until next time, happy interviewing.