Recruitment Feedback That Boosts Your Confidence (and Motivates You to Reapply Later)

Is it possible to pour some confidence and motivation into a candidate even when turning them down in a recruitment process? And can one really appreciate receiving a rejection email? These are actually the questions I asked myself not once, but twice.

I've been rejected in the recruitment process. What should I do next?

Initially, I reflected on the matter when I first applied for a job at Snowdog and didn’t get through.

Then, when on joining Snowdog pack as an IT recruiter, I sat down at the keyboard with my fingers hovering over it, not knowing how to properly word a feedback message to a candidate who didn’t make it in our recruitment process.

Shakespeare wrote the famous words:

I must be cruel only to be kind.

Well, I don’t think it is the case. Actually, just the opposite.

…but let’s start from the beginning.

The importance of receiving feedback

So almost two years ago I applied for a job at Snowdog. I didn’t have any professional experience in a given field at the time, but had done some work on the side as a hobby, which I didn’t fail to mention in my application. And bam! I was invited to do a recruitment task. It took me a few evenings to complete, but I actually liked doing it, and after a while, I got a detailed assessment of my work. I knew what I did correctly, where I went off the track and what could have been better… and even how to actually do it, step by step. All served in a constructive and clear way. Great, I thought. Maybe I’m not that bad at all. After I passed the task, I was invited to a two-staged onsite interview.

The first part was about assessing my soft skills and the company’s cultural fit. And the following was the hard-skills interview. I still remember liking the office, the short tour around the floor, and, most of all, meeting two laid-back but really professional recruiters, an HR representative and the head of the department I wanted to get into.

I guess I knew right at the spot I did quite ok in the soft-skills part, but was lacking some deeper knowledge in the tech subject I wanted to land the job in.

And such feedback I received.

I wasn’t invited to continue the process, but the turndown message was kind and motivating. All in all, I think it’s only natural to feel sad I wasn’t experienced enough, but, at the same time, I didn’t feel rejected or bad about myself. I was told clearly what I excelled at, what I could work on more, and which sources I could actually use to broaden my knowledge. I remember being distinctly impressed with the way I was treated, and I even read the feedback a few times. It might have been a job turndown, but it still gave me wings.

Afterwards, I had no doubts about wanting to learn more and… to stay in contact with the company and follow Snowdog's activity on social media. I was truly rooting for the team, feeling their way of constructing motivational feedback is something to look up to.

After a few months, when I was contacted by Snowdog with an invitation to take part in a recruitment process for another role, I thought Why not? Let’s give it a go!

The value of providing feedback

And here I am, typing in these words as a Snowdog recruiter, well over a year into this role.

However, with the new role came the responsibility for carrying on the good practice of sharing motivational and supportive feedback with those who apply for a job in our company.

My senior colleague told me one bright thing:

Prepare post-interview feedback that you, yourself, would be grateful on receiving it.

Easier said than done… but then I thought of a few things to help me face the challenge:

• I am here as a candidate advocate. I represent both my company and our candidates’ interests. I do want our job applicants to grow, develop, and really reach their potential, which sometimes means it may happen outside our company or just later in the future when the right time (and role) comes along.
• Even though there might be 10 or 20 candidates in the recruitment process at a time, for a given candidate the process is a one-time, unique experience. The words they get from me and my colleagues could either build their self-confidence or shatter it. And we don’t want the latter.
• I need to be as accurate and precise in wording my feedback as possible, it should be directly connected to the task/interview, based on the notes taken, not emotions or prejudices. At the same time, the message should be kind and tactful.
• I am just the same as every person applying for a job at Snowdog, sometimes self-confident, sometimes a bit self-doubting… so why not let our candidate feel more self-assured?
• The feedback is not about saying bluntly what was wrong, but more about supporting the candidates, helping them find the right way in their growth and letting them thrive.
• It’s all about being honest and fair and helping the candidates understand what they can build on and be better in their next job interview.
• If I give solid feedback even when turning somebody down, maybe they will get back to us in the future, just as I did. (Fingers crossed!)

With this in mind, I try to put lots of effort and thoughtfulness into the feedback I write. I still have much to learn and improve.

Sometimes the right lines and suggestions just come to me naturally, and sometimes I struggle to find constructive words, but I’m working on it.

In the end, it’s all about wanting to grow and be kind, isn’t it?