Ask HN: Is an interview now equivalent to a first date? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is an interview now equivalent to a first date?

9 pointsdudul10 comments

A question based on a recent experience: I just interviewed at 2 different places. On-site interviews for half a day, met with 4 to 5 people and parting words from the HR ladies: "Thanks for coming, I'll gather feedback from the team and get back to you in 2 to 3 days.".

3 days later nothing. After 5 days I drop a quick note to both HR reps and get a reply "You were great but not exactly what we are looking for right now".

Now, in both cases I had decided at the end of the interview that it wasn't a good fit, and they probably realized the same thing. But I found it incredibly rude that they didn't just send a quick email to let me know about it.

Then, I checked with HR at my current place: "When we interview someone and tell you that they are not a good fit, do you get back to them to let them know?" "Not always."

I brought this issue to my CTO, pointing out that it was a terrible way to manage relationship with the dev community in our area. Am I the one out of touch here? Is this behavior wide-spread? Is interviewing now similar to dating? We throw nice parting words "It was great seeing you, I'll be in touch" while we are both supposed to know that none of us will call the other?

With my company it depends on how well the interview went.

If you didn't do well - we tell you with-in a few days.

If you did well enough to continue to be in the running, it could be awhile that you hear something until we're done our interviewing, but this is made clear to the folks in the interview.

Our HR department is pretty aggressive at ensuring people don't wait to long for an answer. I really think more companies should do that.

> Is this behavior wide-spread?

Yes, it's a universal problem and more often than not, the bigger the company-- the worse they are.

In recruiting circles, "candidate experience" is a perennial topic. The Bigger Take-Away, HR doesn't belong in the hiring business. It seems counter-intuitive, isn't that what HR is supposed to do?

Consider that instantly you understood how this reflected poorly on your company's relationships with the Dev Community. HR doesn't care about that, they don't hang with those people. More importantly, there's a negative impact on the bottom line. And if you can't ship by deadline because you're under-resourced, that impacts your bonus. Shoulder shrug from the HR flunkies, they get paid the same no matter what.

I have had this happen quite often (so the behavior is widespread). That being said, I don't consider it rude. It's absent-minded, but not rude. However, you'll find that there are lots of people on both sides of this issue.

There can be a number of reasons for the delay. Remember that, depending on the company, recruiters are often juggling hundreds of applicants, in a pipeline that's constantly being added to. This can actually be very overwhelming. But it can also be a delaying tactic: you did okay but not that well, so they're waiting to see how other candidates do, or waiting to see if another candidate accept the offer or not.

At the end of the day I don't find it rude/burdensome to have to shoot a recruiter a 2-word email: "Any updates?". Or even shorter: "Pinging," and so on (in my subjective experience these have not been taken rudely, and recruiters appreciate conciseness).

Also note that this is a tactic that can work the other way, to delay interviewing or accepting offers (you want to time your offers so you get them at the same time).

I also don't think this has anything to do with big vs. small companies. Big companies might have more applicants but also have better internal tracking systems. Small companies might have just as many applicants per recruiter, and their tracking systems could be all over the place.

Truthfully, most organizations have no idea what they are doing. Many times I interview with someone and I don't want them to call me back. If I don't hear back in five days and I want a firm no, I may email them, otherwise I move on. If they don't call me usually it is going to be for some bullshit reason anyway. I'm not bragging, that's just a fact. One manager hinted during an interview lunch that they were being forced to make a diversity hire. I didn't call her back as I am not a "diversity". Why would I call back? You have to expect the worst in companies and organizations. I just take my business elsewhere.

It doesn't cost them anything to not tell you that you were rejected so they don't. I think we need some kind of name-and-shaming system so that the cost for companies to not be nice to applicants is non-zero.

That's an idea, but isn't what something like Glassdoor is supposed to be? They are mostly known for reviews once on the job, but I believe they have a section about the interview process.

I personally keep a record of a blacklist of companies that don't behave well. It's sourced either from personal experience or friends/co-workers/etc. When they reach out to me I have no problem telling them that their reputation is not good and that I'm not interested in talking to them.

I always went through a recruiter which always followed up and got decent feedback for me.

My favorite feedback was we thought he could do the job we just felt he stumbled on the interview.

The another company was what's the minimum he's willing to take?

That's a good point. I usually avoid recruiters since I think they had noise to the process and don't really add any value, but in this case they would have helped.

But they probably would have done what I did, pinged the companies to know what was going on. They may have done it sooner and not waited like I did, but the companies probably wouldn't have spontaneously provided the information.

You're out of touch. This has been standard interview procedure for a long time.

This is so common in the tech industry as we are just "resource"s.

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