To hiring managers (or recruiters),
I am curious to know when hiring managers state that they will update or give a decision within X days/weeks, why do they not update the outcome or give any feedback when I ask for feedback?
What is the point of mentioning it when we, as extremely frustrated job candidates, want to receive feedback to improve ourselves or are just curious about our status (when we can't see it online)?
(more specifically to JPMorgan Chase)
Many companies do not allow managers or recruiting to give candidates any feedback (other than reject or hire). It opens them up for discrimination lawsuits and the risk is too high. Educating managers on how to give non-discriminatory feedback is too expensive and still does not prevent the risk.
Too much exposure to the company to share feedback to every candidate that wasn’t selected except that it’s a competitive process and we are moving forward with a candidate that flew feels a better match to what we need for this position.
That said, I would encourage you to seek that feedback as part of your interview process as a candidate. When you are offered the opportunity to ask questions near the end of the interview, don’t waste that opportunity. What are the most important things you’re looking for in a candidate to be successful in this role? What’s success look like at 30, 60 and 90 days? Listen to what they say and reiterate some of your skills and abilities that match with what they’re really looking for. Close out the conversation by expressing interest in the role and your opinion that it feels like a really strong match. Ask if there is anything else they need to clarify about your skills and experience if they are feeling less than confident about the strength of your match for the role. Unless you get the job, this is likely your last conversation with the hiring manager, so make it count. Don’t ever NOT have any questions for your interviewers and don’t ask anything that could be found on the company website or just googled. Those questions are a waste of time and don’t bring any value to you or the hiring manager and company.
As for timing, many times, there’s multiple layers of approvals required before an offer can be prepared and extended to the successful candidate. During that time, many things can happen that would end the offer process and you don’t want to reject candidates right away in case you need to move your attention to the 2nd or 3rd runner up. Imagine getting a thanks but no thanks letter and then the recruiter contacting you again to talk offer details. It’s not a good look for the company to tip their hand that you weren’t the first choice, but now you are moving forward presumably because a first choice didn’t work out for some reason.
I’d love to hear responses and feedback to this advice. What’s worked well for you and what you would do differently or maybe not at all? Have a great day.