

Didn't Get the Job? You'll Never Know Why - mtoddh
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324423904578523683173841190.html

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blibble
In the UK (or any other country with data protection laws): a Subject Access
Request will get you all interview notes and internal emails, the company has
no choice in the matter.

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jleyank
Doesn't this law mean that companies will go to great lengths to avoid
generating anything that can be tracked or demanded? All decisions verbal,
etc...?

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blibble
most employers keep written records to avoid any possibility of a
discrimination suit.

the government has very strong guidelines on this sort of thing, and if you're
a large company with an HR department, the Information Commissioner is likely
to not believe you if you state that you don't keep written records about job
applicants, and destroying the information is a criminal offence.

example of an organisation's policy: [http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-
departments/records-management-s...](http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-
departments/records-management-section/data-
protection/2.14480/2.14489/subject-access-request-practitioner)

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mathattack
There are legal risks involved with sharing anything in the US. As a result,
you need a deep personal connection with the recruiter (usually predating the
interview) to get any kind of feedback.

The EEOC push has benefits, but the danger is it reduces the efficiency that
feedback could provide.

It's worth noting that headhunters can fill this role. Since they're only an
intermediary, they frequently can get away with giving direct feedback.

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mosqutip
This always bothers me when I'm interviewing. I've gotten the "better suited
candidate" as well as the "lack of experience" and "not right at this time"
excuses. How does that help me in any way as a job seeker? I am, in some way,
"not right" for the position. How? Too shy, or too forward? Too young or too
old? Experienced in the wrong technologies, or not experienced enough in the
right ones? Or both?

This just leads to depressing frustration. I want to improve and be the right
candidate, but I don't know how and no one will help me figure out how.

Luckily, I have a job now. But God forbid when I have to start the
interviewing process again.

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recursive
The companies you are applying to are not trying to help you as a job seeker.
They are interested in satisfying their own requirements.

If companies provided fine-grained feedback on specific deficiencies, it would
inevitably create an opening for an argument about those items, which they
have no interest or motivation to do.

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bragh
The hassle of job seeking can actually be a pretty good motivator for
entrepreneurship. Why would one want to play the game of crafting CVs,
studying for interviews and playing the interview game when all that isn't
actually relevant to the work you want to and will be doing? You could be
spending that time trying to develop or sell a product you actually do care
about and if successful, will see decent return on your investment of time.
And it's not like the interview game even matters, when in the end a nephew of
the head of another department gets the job, no matter his 2.7/5.0 GPA.

