Do you give advice to rejected job applicants?
How far do you or should you go with advice when giving feedback to a rejected applicant? I'm hiring and I've seen a few CV's & portfolios that could really do with tightening up. Would you welcome it? Would it annoy you? If you had to give feedback & advice, how would you approach it?
Replies6
- Perhaps 5 pros and 5 cons. If you have multiple candidates it gives you some structure and a limit. For a candidate it would (hopefully) appear balanced and constructive. I think most would appreciate the advice given it’s coming from a place of care and you don’t stand to gain anything from giving it.
- @Neil Pho It's not a take - its a corporate and institutional attitude based partly on time and partly on not opening up the process or organisation to discussion and potential scrutiny or bias. When you get beyond rejecting a CV based on spelling mistakes how do you whittle them down further? You have to make judgments. If you don't think any of this boils down to personal choice then we could replace all of this with AI bots. Not sure I would want that.In terms of the process there are legal obligations to apply fairness to all applicants and when you start giving 'some' feedback to 'some' applicants you could potentially open yourself up to accusations of biased treatment - or possibly not - but most recruiting organisations to not want additional work and issues above recruiting the right candidate.
- I would love to receive feedback the job market is really bad atm and it’s really hard to get feedback from managers and recruiters they just sent the generic rejection email
- @Daniel Hawley-Lingham Interesting take. What do you consider a "personal choice"? I discard CVs with spelling mistakes that would have been caught by a spell checker for example.
- You could get yourself into a sticky situation. Unless someone asks for feedback I wouldn't give it. Even if they do you possibly need to consider remaining very nuetral and vague. If you give feedback that makes it appear that your personal choices (prejudices) may be influencing your decisions you could potentially open yourself up to criticsim or worse.I know that the feedback is coming from a good place and your reasons for doing it may feel right. As a job seeker though, that person may need to seek advice from a third party who doesn't have a stake in the transaction and may offer a broader perspective on CV writing and portfolios.
- I'd definitely have liked to have feedbacks when I was younger (I still do) and applying for jobs (sometimes I asked afterwards)!I'd probably keep it simple and as a positive feedback (and maybe not too harsh).Even when everything is very good in your portfolio and you don't make it the cut, it's nice in my opinion knowing why (I don't have the experience in the right sector? Am I too corporate/creative? Somebody is more qualified than me?): it helps with the future job applications and save headaches.It's nice of you to think about it!
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