Hacker News Reader

Comment by lutorm | Hacker News Reader

As far as releasing interview scores goes, that isn't going to happen for good reason.

This is true, but it sure would be helpful if they could give qualitative feedback like "the impression was that you were strong in a and b, but weak in x and y." That doesn't seem like too much to ask. (In fact, if he had good rapport with the recruiter I'm surprised that they didn't give that much information.)

View on HN

> This is true, but it sure would be helpful if they could give qualitative feedback like "the impression was that you were strong in a and b, but weak in x and y." That doesn't seem like too much to ask

Sadly, even this kind of feedback exposes the company on a legal front. There is a lot of precedent coming from rejected candidates who ended up suing the company because of this kind of feedback.

The only sane thing that a company can do from a legal standpoint is say "Sorry, we don't have a position for you at the moment, good luck in your search".

Given how things work in the US, I guess that might be true. But on what grounds does someone get sued for saying "we don't think you know enough about template metaprogramming"? (that's less frivolous than getting sued for saying "we don't have a position for you at the moment", that is, since you don't need a reason to sue.)

A week later, the candidate discovers that the company instead hired someone else that happens to knows absolutely nothing about template metaprogramming. Except that person is whiter / younger / less married than said candidate.

What does metaprogramming have to do with that complaint though? It is trivial to generate lawsuit without regard to feedback. Watch:

Does Google have family leave? --6 weeks, paid.

Did I get the job? --No

Because I plan to have kids??? See you in court!

My company's was sued by a candidate because we offered him coffee and he glommed onto that as religious discrimination. There is no legal exposure from giving feedback. Some people will sue if they want, and some people will discriminate (and deserve to be sued).

Google reads your private email to "improve the product for you", why don't they want you reading their interview feedback so you can give them a better experience?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com