Giving Feedback to Unsuccessful Candidates
Don’t burn bridges, build relationships instead
Hiring is tiring. You spend days, sometimes months to find someone who could fill in the open role in your team. And it can’t just be anyone, it has to be the right person.
However, we often forget that we used to be the ones who sit at the other end of the table as an interviewee or a candidate. We walked in for an interview, only to be let down — because we weren’t good enough.
And the worst part is? We never knew why we weren’t good enough.
Why should we give feedback?
When you think someone is not good enough, you gained the privilege of letting them know how they can improve themselves. You have a chance of helping someone to be a better person.
The person who’s sitting in front of you right now might have bigger life problems than you can imagine. And by doing this simple gesture, you might be able to help them lift a little weight off their shoulders. If you still have doubts: imagine if the person is you or your loved ones.
Additionally, it’s not just about them. You also gain something from giving feedback. Here are some benefits of giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates:
1. Understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses
Giving feedback means knowing what you like and don’t like about a candidate. This feedback can also be reflected in your own team.
Think about what do these unsuccessful candidates have in common with your team? What do you think can be improved? How can you help the candidates — or your team — to be better?
Forget not, reflect those feedback to yourself. What do you have in common with those unsuccessful candidates? How would you improve yourself? Sometimes it is easier to see our own shortcomings while we are judging someone else.
2. Have a better idea about the “right” person
By knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team, you will have a better idea about what kind of person you want in the team. By right, the “chosen one” would be someone who could complete the puzzle pieces.
The right person should be able to help your team to achieve things you couldn’t otherwise. As well as helping the team to elevate their skills.
3. Learn to give critiques
This is extremely helpful if you are doing design critiques on a regular basis. Some people tend to hold back in giving feedback because they don’t know how to do it, or they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.
By giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates, you have another chance of showing them how it’s done. Even better, let them do it themselves. Guide them to do it without hurting someone’s feelings and just be helpful.
As a side note, this does not mean you should interview someone and assault them with critiques just to train your team.
4. Build a good reputation
This applies both for your company and for you personally. These days, it is very rare for a company to make time and give feedback to failed candidates. Doing the opposite (of what other companies do) will help you build relationships with unsuccessful candidates, instead of burning bridges.
Do yourself a favor — who knows, maybe in the future you might be working in the same team with the candidate that wasn’t good enough. But that same person managed to bounce back and got better because you helped them.
How do we give feedback?
This is the tricky part. You need to make sure they understand your motive. You are not doing this to bring them down or to hurt their feelings. You do this to help them instead.
Here are some points for you to start giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates:
1. Straight to the point
Assuming that you will send them a rejection letter/email — go straight to the point at the beginning of your rejection email. Tell them that they are not what you are looking for, and bid them good luck in their career. Be clear and concise and don’t give them false hope by sugarcoating the truth.
2. Tell them what you like about them
The next part is telling the candidate about their strengths and what you think they should keep doing. This is easy. There will always be something good that you can see from someone.
Whether it’s their personality, their work, the way they communicate, even their guts. Whatever it is, write down what you think is their strength.
3. Tell them what they can improve
Remember the keyword: improve.
Don’t tell them that they are not good enough. Tell them that they can still improve their skills. Be positive. Here are some ideas:
- “You can still improve the way you…”
- “We understand where you are coming from. But we think it might be better if…”
- “The idea is there, but it can be better by…”
It is easier to point out flaws, but it is better to give them helpful insights about them.
4. Don’t give them dead-end feedback
If you want to be helpful, do not tell them that they should be able to do “X” or they should have known about “Y”. Tell them that they should learn about “X” because of “Y”. Give them suggestions and actionable steps.
The key is to focus on how they can improve, the reason behind it, and what they should learn to be able to do it:
- “You would benefit a lot by learning about … because …”
- “Getting familiar with … would really help you in …”
This way, the critiques are encapsulated within positivity. The feedback you gave would be useful for them. Because you told them the reasons, and why you think it would be great if they learn to do so.
Make the feedback helpful and actionable.
Oftentimes, giving feedback is not considered a valuable thing, especially when you know that the candidate will not make it to the next round. However, by giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates, you are putting your empathy first before anything else — which is a reminder for us to be human first, before anything else.
This article is based on the conversations I had with friends, colleagues, and peers who are struggling to find a job.