5/7 had 3 interviews (over 2 days) that all went well but didn't
get an offer. I've heard its totally normal and acceptable to
ask for feedback and/or "what went wrong" or "why didn't I
get an offer". Is that really true? How should I approach this?
ask one of the tech people I spoke to? or the recruiter (who
seems generally unknowledgeable but maybe in a better position
to get feedback from everyone i spoke to)? thx
\_ May I ask which companies?
\_ this was all at one company. its a web agency. I live in nyc.
\_ Asking why you didn't get the job doesn't hurt. What are they going
to do, not hire you?
\_ GOOG just likes screwing with you
\_ well, I'm hoping to freelance there in lieu or a fulltime job.
\_ You can ask, but you're unlikely to get more than a stock
response, ("We appreciated your skills and experience, but we
had another candidate who was a better fit.") -tom
\_ Yup. When I was interviewing people, we rejected a lot who were
completely unqualified, and a few who had other issues (unable to
form a coherent sentence, etc.); the rest were fine, and we tried
to pick the best one. If you think the interviews went well, you
were probably in the third category, and so they really won't
be able to tell you more than "you were fine, there was someone
better".
\_ This is true, most places are concerned about liability issues.
\_ I interviewed some intern candidates a few months ago and the
college gave me an eval form to fill out for each candidate, asking
me to grade them (A,B,C,D,F) on 5-6 topics and had a spot for
feedback. I gave feedback (e.g. "didn't answer questions clearly",
"best answer to question X", "didn't seem knowledgable or interested
in the job", "good grasp of industry issues"). I wish this was more
acceptable/common.
\_ I interviewed at this startup where a buddy of mine worked at.
I kicked ass on the technical interview. I knew the CEO and we
used to work together when he was a director at our old company.
Everyone seemed to liked me, and I thought I was going to get
an offer. The CEO called and said he was sorry but they don't
have funding for another engineer at the time. I asked my buddy
and the real answer was everyone liked me EXCEPT this one PhD
tech lead dude who just didn't like me (he had communications
problems, or that I was not good enough to get through his
communications gap). Personally, I thought he was just too smart
for everyone else. That's it. All it takes is one person who
REALLY doesn't want to work with you on a daily basis, period.
\_ Seems unfair, but almost reasonable. If the team is small and
the dude you are going to work with 30 hours a week can't stand
you, he shouldn't hire you.
\_ I know, life is not fair, but I really didn't want to work
with him 70 hours a week anyways. P.S. what startup compnay
allows people to work 30 hours a week? -pp
\_ I made up an arbitrary amount of hours you would be working
directly with the dude who hates you. |