I found out that I didn't get an offer from one of my dream Big Tech companies. I asked the recruiter for feedback on my onsite performance and how I could have improved and she said this: You passed the onsite at an L4 but we ultimately decided to go with an internal candidate that the team felt had the relevant business area experience which we had to prioritize at this time. Your candidacy and interview results will remain valid for the next 12 months and if anything else comes up, I'll definitely let you know. So she said I passed the onsite, which takes a lot of the sting out of the rejection! I have 2 questions: Can I trust her? I'd like to believe I passed the onsite, but maybe I didn't. Alternatively, maybe they went with an external candidate who did better than me rather than an internal one. Can/should I still get feedback for improvement? Of my 4 interviews, I know I could have done better on the Data Architecture round. Having their description of what I could have done better is more useful than my general sense that I didn't answer their questions well enough. Is it fine for me to follow up again asking for the hiring committee's notes on my performance and areas of improvement? Thanks!

What reason do you have to think she would lie? What is in it for her to lie? Avoiding you feeling sad? She has to reject people outright all the time, she can handle it. Why is it relevant if they picked a better candidate from inside or outside the company? Again, why lie? To save your feelings? Would you feel worse if it was a better external candidate? Beyond all of this: how will your behavior change in any of these situations? If you failed outright, you passed but an internal candidate was picked, you passed but an external candidate was picked? I can’t imagine what you’d do differently now in these circumstances, so it seems like maybe this is only to calibrate your feelings, I’m not sure. You did a good job. You can feel proud about that. You didn’t get an offer. You can feel sad about that. It’s fine to ask. They won’t give you answers. This opens them up to being sued. If they tell you if you did X better you’d’ve been given an offer, but you are able to find through legal discovery that another candidate did not do X and did get an offer, you can assert some sort of bias. I know it is a pain, but you are not getting that feedback. You can recount the interview and your notes to someone in a hiring position there or elsewhere and get feedback, or run a mock interview with similar questions and get feedback.

Getting Feedback from Recruiter after Rejection

Data Engineer at Financial Company4 months ago

Big Tech

Interviewing

I found out that I didn't get an offer from one of my dream Big Tech companies. I asked the recruiter for feedback on my onsite performance and how I could have improved and she said this:

You passed the onsite at an L4 but we ultimately decided to go with an internal candidate that the team felt had the relevant business area experience which we had to prioritize at this time. Your candidacy and interview results will remain valid for the next 12 months and if anything else comes up, I'll definitely let you know.

So she said I passed the onsite, which takes a lot of the sting out of the rejection!

I have 2 questions:

Can I trust her? I'd like to believe I passed the onsite, but maybe I didn't. Alternatively, maybe they went with an external candidate who did better than me rather than an internal one.
Can/should I still get feedback for improvement? Of my 4 interviews, I know I could have done better on the Data Architecture round. Having their description of what I could have done better is more useful than my general sense that I didn't answer their questions well enough. Is it fine for me to follow up again asking for the hiring committee's notes on my performance and areas of improvement?

Thanks!

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44 Comments

Discussion

(4 comments)

4
Lee McKeeman
•Staff Eng @ Google, Ex-Meta SWE, Ex-Amazon SDM/SDE
4 months ago
What reason do you have to think she would lie? What is in it for her to lie? Avoiding you feeling sad? She has to reject people outright all the time, she can handle it. Why is it relevant if they picked a better candidate from inside or outside the company? Again, why lie? To save your feelings? Would you feel worse if it was a better external candidate?

Beyond all of this: how will your behavior change in any of these situations? If you failed outright, you passed but an internal candidate was picked, you passed but an external candidate was picked? I can’t imagine what you’d do differently now in these circumstances, so it seems like maybe this is only to calibrate your feelings, I’m not sure. You did a good job. You can feel proud about that. You didn’t get an offer. You can feel sad about that.

It’s fine to ask. They won’t give you answers. This opens them up to being sued. If they tell you if you did X better you’d’ve been given an offer, but you are able to find through legal discovery that another candidate did not do X and did get an offer, you can assert some sort of bias. I know it is a pain, but you are not getting that feedback. You can recount the interview and your notes to someone in a hiring position there or elsewhere and get feedback, or run a mock interview with similar questions and get feedback.
- 0
  Data Engineer [OP]
  •Financial Company
  4 months ago
  Thanks Lee!
2
Alex Chiou
•Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
4 months ago

Can I trust her? I'd like to believe I passed the onsite, but maybe I didn't.

I think she's telling the truth. That is a very specific and strong thing to say to a candidate. It wouldn't make sense to say that over something generic like the classic "You have good skills, but there was a better fit". There's no incentive for her to tell a lie that bold.

Can/should I still get feedback for improvement?

You might as well try, especially if the recruiter has been so nice to you so far. But of course, keep expectations low for reasons I go through in my job search course here: https://www.jointaro.com/course/ace-your-tech-interview-and-get-a-job-as-a-software-engineer/getting-interview-feedback/

The most important thing to do here though is to follow up fairly aggressively: I would reach out to this recruiter every 3 months for the next year minimum (put a reminder on your calendar!), asking them if anything has opened up. It is very easy for ultra-busy recruiters at Big Tech companies to completely forget the promises they've made like this. Never assume people will reach out to you, even if they said they would. Be proactive and reach out to them.
- 1
  Data Engineer [OP]
  •Financial Company
  4 months ago
  Thanks Alex! Particularly value the thought about following up with recruiters/companies. I haven't done that, and resolve to do that going forward.
  
  Appreciate your advice!