The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
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If I at least get screened by a recruiter, I'll ask for feedback. Most folks ghost or say they aren't allowed to share specific feedback, yadda yadda. Then they'll give a copypasta about how they were impressed with my credential but the other candidate for better, keep your resume on file, etc.
Of the folks who did give feedback:
Twice they said I was a solid number two and it was a tough decision. In the former, they said the other person emphasized some technical acumen (which I also had but oh well). In the latter, I was told she was a better culture fit. I looked her up and she had several years of working with the company's products as a user.
Another time I was told that I was strong, but the other guy had both a relevant to the role PhD in microbiology, an MBA and ten years of sales in the product category.
Finally, early in my search I was interviewing for a job two levels above me, and was told I didn't seem to have the enough experience for that level.
So... Not much for me to fix with the feedback Ive been given.
Yeah, thats not very useful. I hate the idea of not being allowed to share specific feedback. If someone takes the time to interview and ask for feedback you should be able to help them out.
I understand why it sucks but.... why would I open up my company to legal liability by providing feedback? For someone who didn't make the cut?
First of all, > 50% of the people asking for feedback aren't ready to hear it. I don't like telling someone they suck when they're an employee I've invested in. Sometimes it's as simple as "You're unlikable." When someone's arrogant or stupid, there's no point in trying to help them grow.
People interviewing are also investing time. Arguably more than the candidate. Your 2-hour interview process was 2 hours from you. The 3 people on the other side of the table invested 6 as a team, and that's not counting any research or prep they did beforehand.
Our policy is we only give feedback to people who are being interviewed because they're personal recommendations. We're a very employee-focused company but it's one of the rare times I'm very comfortable throwing up my hands and saying: "You sicced the lawyers on companies to avoid being 'discriminated against' and this is what happened, tough shit."
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Yeah, it sucks. I get that folks want to avoid lawsuits etc. But what ends up happening is that the folks who do give feedback are conscientious enough recruiters in opportunities that you made it far enough to develop a reportiore with them. Almost by definition these end up being the ones where the answer is good but not the best.
You never get told why you're screened early...
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