What To Write

Tech Assessment feedback template - here is one you can use starting today.

Why?
Many hiring managers and interviewers struggle to send meaningful and actionable feedback to the candidates they have interviewed. Sometimes, no feedback is sent at all.

Let me make writing it a breeze so you can follow up properly with every candidate who has invested their time in interviewing with you.

A great interview feedback consists of:
- a thank you note for the candidate's time and energy.
- what went well
- what went wrong
- (in case of rejection) what the candidate is missing to be a great fit for the current job opening
- (above and beyond) links to resources to read/listen/engage with to improve

These 5 elements can guide you to writing the 2-3 sentence to send to candidates. Giving actionable feedback helps your company in a few way too:
- improved reputation of the brand
- keeping a happy and ready to engage talent pool for the future
- happy employees >> more productivity >> increased profitability

How long does it take to write

Invite your tech interviewers to consider the following from the very beginning of the interview:
- think about what the candidate did well
- what they should work on
- what resources we can share with them to help them improve

Then ask the interviewers to write one sentence about each of these 3 points right after the end of the interview. In total, with the conversation still fresh in mind, it takes less than 5 minutes.

When to send

We like to send it up to 72 hours after the interview has taken place. The candidate evaluation is usually done up to 24 hours after the interview - the notes have been cleaned, the answers and tasks provided evaluated and the feedback written and ready to send.

But don't know if this is the candidate we will hire

That's totally okay. Send the feedback to the candidate and add a paragraph at the end of the message mentioning that the evaluation process is still on-going, until and end date, and that they will hear back again from you then.

Add a note for the correct answers

𝐈 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬!

This is what a candidate I interviewed this week told me.

Do you notice?
She did not compare the interview to an interrogation but to a conversation.
She thanks me for the suggestions? What are suggestions?

Suggestions are actually the correct or more complete answers to the questions I have asked her.
Sure, we as human being can never answer all the question perfectly.
But this does not mean that we cannot know all the great answers by the end of the interview.

So when a candidate gives me an incomplete answers, or they simply don't know what to say,
I give it to them.
I teach them something so the interview turns useful for them too.

Selfishly I do this because I might end up working with this person.
And the more they know, the better for my company and my projects. ☺️

From their point of view, a senior has shares a piece of wisdom or knowledge with them.
From the point of view of the company hiring, if it is not mine, their online employer brand goes through the roof.

Triple win.
This is how I like it.

Not Providing it hurts your business

Bad word travels fast, and candidates talk to each other. When one is ghosted and no feedback given after they have invested at lest 1 hour of their free time in your company without getting paid, it is only natural that they do not say good things about your interview process and company as a whole.

Here are some of the negative effects:

Here is a list of some of the negative effects:
- high cost per hire
- hours of wasted leadership meetings
- the digital reputation of the company plummets
- people talk, and would be applicants choose against applying