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Ask HN: Have you had success contacting an employer who's turned you down?

7 points by anon50118810 ↗ HN
I mean contacting an employer who has turned you down after applying or during the interview process, either to get feedback or even to convert a no into a yes. I think this is almost useless, especially at the more senior levels, but it's common advice for job seekers so I'm wondering if people here have had any luck with it.

12 comments

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gregjor
Few employers will give anything but vague reasons for not hiring -- "Not a good fit" or "We went with another candidate." Partly to avoid confrontation, and partly to avoid discrimination lawsuits. A couple of places I worked in a hiring capacity had seminars run by employment lawyers to tell us what we can and cannot say during an interview and afterwards. The lawyers will advise not saying anything critical of the candidate.

You can sometimes get more honest feedback if you go through a recruiter, but even then you probably won't get much.

Unless you have an inside contact probably best to move on.

tsol
I've had fairly good experience asking how I did at the end of interviews. Of course this is before I know their decision, but it allows me to later correlation what it might have been that caused the rejection. Some people really appreciate it as well.
anon50118810
Not to make you feel bad, but it feels like poor form to ask how you did in an interview at the end of the interview itself. If the person you're talking to is just some random IC then you might be putting them in a tough spot if they say you did great but the employer later passes on you.

Also interviews are sometimes structured to always seem successful to a candidate even if they did poorly. For example, the interviewer might gracefully skip some technical questions if you struggle on easier ones, or avoid bringing in later interviewers if it's clear it's not going to work out. If you ask about how you did directly then you're putting your interviewer on the spot to either lie or say you did poorly even though they've tried to hide that from you.

Could you give specific examples of how asking at the end has gone well for you?

gregjor
Can confirm that interviews get structured to avoid wasting time on candidates who clearly won't get hired. Schedule an hour and that's all you're on the hook for. If you get a great candidate you ask them to stay and get more people involved, dig a little deeper with the candidate. No one who wants the job is going to complain if it goes long.

If a candidate asked me "How did I do?" I would interpret that as an odd and off-putting question in that context. It puts me on the spot and maybe forces me to lie to avoid an uncomfortable conversation, or possibly exposing the company to legal problems. If you don't know how you performed in an interview asking the interviewer is just making your prospects worse.

tsol
I totally get what you mean and I was unsure about it at first as well. I think it only works if you're able to project confidence throughout the interview. Asking at the end when you know you did bad is mostly awkward.

I've had good responses though. Surprisingly often I'll get "I love that you asked that, I'm the kind of person who thinks like that too" or "you know I rarely get that". My current position I got after asking the same question. When they told me I did well I honestly didn't really believe it at the time. But it turned out to be worth it, as the hired me a week later

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anon50118810
It depends on who you're talking to and what you ask. An IC interviewer's hands might be tied for some questions for legal or other reasons no matter how confident you are. Some questions are okay though, for example if you ask about a system design question they asked you, and they tell you their question was based on an actual business problem they have and your answer described how they've actually solved it. Obviously that's a good sign.

Also, if you're talking to the hiring manager, particularly about salary and start dates, you might as well just ask if you're going to get an offer.

jstx1
No, I agree with you that it's a waste of time, and it can also come across as unprofessional. Is it really common advice for job seekers? (I don't think I've seen this advice anywhere)
thot_experiment
It's this really common advice? Seems like needy incel tactics to me. Then again I guess that explains it, lots of incel advice is also common and wrong.
iceburgcrm
I've done it before but just to be annoying or catty. You didn't hire me but I've been getting notifications from linkedin for your endless reposting of the same job ad over the last 6 months. What are you looking for in a candidate? What's been holding you back from making that hiring decision. I'm not interested myself but I know a few developers who might be interested.

That's probably the only way I've gotten solid feedback. This would not work at a larger firm. You slowly realize they are trying to find someone cheaper or someone with specific experience that they wouldn't normally share.

Advice become a recruitor and don't make it about you.

the_arcadian
Unless your social / situational awareness skills are highly developed and you think you've found another use for your skills in the same firm that they haven't thought of, no I wouldn't even consider this. Even then you would probably have better luck cold calling a competitor.