Do you tell an interviewee why he failed an interview?

Question

As an interviewer, do you have a policy on telling a candidate why he failed an interview? Does it change if he asks why he failed? As an interviewee, do you ask?

Whenever I get to a face to face interview in the hiring process, and then don't make it, even if I feel I've aced the interview, I always feel crushed. I'm also very hesitant about asking why, and sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of emailing individual interviewers from the loop (as opposed to the HR person who usually delivers the news). What's your approach to asking or responding to this kind of question?

Answer 1

Not being a person who interviews people myself, I would want to know why I failed a particular interview, if for no other reason than to watch out for that in my next interview. After all, how can I improve if I do not know what I did wrong.

And as an interviewee, I always ask, for the same reason.

I cannot see why, from the interviewer's perspective, you should not tell the interviewee why s/he did not get the job. What do you have to lose?

Answer 2

Think of it in the reverse: if you have a really great candidate, and you offer them a position, but they decline. Do you want to hear why?

My position is that it works both ways. If the company wants to know why a strong candidate declined a job offer, then the company should be prepared to explain why it declined a candidate. YMMV. :-)

Answer 3

The simple answer is no. You are likely to irate them (and then have them bad mouth you to other candidates) or expose yourself to legal liability. You say that you enjoyed talking with them but they are not a good fit for your position and move on. If you think they are good but you have someone better, let them know that you would be happy to have them apply for future positions.

Answer 4

There was also some discussion of interview feedback in the StackOverflow podcast #55 (and transcript, but that part is not yet transcribed).

Answer 5

I think that can be a difficult question to answer. In my experience over the last 10 years, I think that it's far easier to answer this question for younger programmers, especially those out of college because typically (in my experience), there are just holes in knowledge that you can easily address (like "you should learn more about X").

With more experienced programmers, interview failures are usually less about skill and more about "fit" (again, just my experience). You can't easily tell a person why they won't fit into the company. And with more experienced programmers, even if the rejection is based on skill, they often don't want to really hear the answer even if they ask you the question. I've had several cases where I was asked this by people interviewing who had > 5 years of experience and when I gave them specifics about skill deficiencies, they have a hard time understanding why I would feel that way (even though that feeling might have been shared by all people involved).

When asked, I always do try and provide a useful answer. I just find it's easier with the younger people only because they seem more receptive to hearing what you want to tell them.

Answer 6

Jeff and Joel covered this in SO podcast #55 - highly recommend it.

They basically said that if the person "just isn't ready", but is clearly smart, then they might tell him/ her so, and ask that the candidate reapply later.

There's not much you can do past that point. Generally it'll be just how a person is. The fit just isn't right sometimes, and there's not much you can say.

Answer 7

I hope that for most people after I interview them, it's pretty apparent based on their answers to my questions as to whether or not I think they're a good candidate. When a programmer answers a question wrong, I explain to them what the answer is. I then use their follow-ups to my answer to further gauge their competence level. So on one hand, when an interviewee asks for the "correct" answer to my questions, yes, I tell them. On the other hand, I don't ever say that they succeeded or failed. Nobody at my organization is really the sole determiner of who gets hired -- if someone fails my programming questions, they might fit better in a support role, or a role which is more junior to the position on offer, so there might be a place for that person.

If you don't do well on an interview, you don't have to feel discouraged. More often than not, it's a question of "fit", not a question of competence.

Answer 8

In my experience this is generally hidden as sometimes you just never hear from the potential employer again. So even getting a, "No we aren't going forward considering you," can be challenging to get, so I don't often force the issue.

However, there have been times where I've had interviews where a recruiting firm is trying to place me and they get feedback that at times may be useful. It can also be nice when some recruiting firms give you a sort of practice interview and/or tips that can almost feel like a real interview at times. Like a recruiter may comment that the first time they saw you, you did this, that and something else in ways that may not be well liked by the managers that have the power to hire you.

Answer 9

Can you fail an interview? An interview is just that and it's not strictly a test. I think you can only fail an interview if you don't show communicate enough about yourself or don't show genuine interest in the position. And also remember to a certain extent your also interviewing the interviewer. How do they present themselves, why are they are asking these particular questions and how do they respond to your answers.

Answer 10

No, we don't tell a candidate why they were not offered a job.

This can cause several legal issues - What if you say they are not a strong C++ programmer? They could claim they hold a certification which indicates they are a strong C++ programmer, and therefore you did not hire them for some discriminatory reason.

If you claim they answered question X wrong, they could argue that it was poorly phrased question, or that they did answer it correctly but differently that you expected, and therefore should be offered the job.

Answer 11

An unfortunate side effect of today's litigious society. It's just like how you don't find out the real reason you were laid off instead of the other guy.

I would say that it's important to give feedback for internal transfers, such as two current employees competing for the same job. I think that can have a moral boost for the rejected candidate and help him/her improve as an employee. It's different when you know your competitors.

Answer 12

We do tell, but not too often. There are a few reasons for this:

• often the final hire/no hire decision is made several minutes/hours after the last interview of the day, and the person has already left. In this case it would be the recruiter/HR person who will be informing them about the results. Assuming that the candidate would like to ask follow-up questions or have a discussion about his/her interview, the recruiter will probably not be able to continue such a discussion;
• in cases when "no hire" decision is made on the spot, it is quite often done because of candidate's attitude. It would not be a good idea to discuss negative personal qualities of the candidate for obvious reasons.

Sometimes (~5-10% of cases) I do get a chance to tell the reasons for my decision, and that always happens when I feel the candidate will benefit and/or improve based on the feedback, and when this improvement is possible. Example: the candidate shows good aptitude and stable personality, but lacks knowledge in the specific area we require. Sometimes it's a matter of more experience, but sometimes it's because candidate's interests are in a different field. I never do it when the candidate is arrogant, seems emotionally unbalanced, or is caught lying.

In any case, we try to leave our business cards, so we can be contacted for feedback via e-mail or phone call. I very rarely get questions this way, but when I do, I always answer politely and as directly as I can without giving reasons to sue.

Answer 13

Perhaps given the opportunity different questions should be asked:

"In what areas can I improve in for future interviews?"

or

"What technical skills do you think I should focus on to become a better developer?"

Ultimately, this is the sort of feedback I'd be looking for - specific ways to improve my chances at the next interview, even if I didn't get this one.