Why Interviewers Won't Tell You What You Need to Hear

This situation affects almost everyone participating in the hiring process: candidates want to know what went wrong and most employers wish they could tell you.

It's an impasse that won't be crossed head on, but there is an alternative approach to figuring out what you need to do to improve how you're performing in interviews.

Feeling frustrated by the lack of transparency after an interview is justified. You invested hours into the process and nobody is telling you why you weren't selected. There are two main reasons why they are not saying anything:

First, their employer most likely prohibits it because it creates too much legal risk and they can lose their job over it.

Second, and this is not condoning the behavior, it is human nature to avoid uncomfortable conversations, and telling someone why they were rejected is about as uncomfortable as it gets.

This does not mean you should stop asking for feedback. It's a demonstration of integrity. Just have realistic expectations for the level of feedback you may receive.

The dilemma: if the people doing the hiring can't give you meaningful feedback, who can?

The answer: you can.

Here's where my experience might be helpful. To evaluate your interview performance, you need to know how you are being measured and how to score yourself. I've participated in thousands of debrief conversations and although they are nuanced, there are consistent patterns in how hiring decisions get made.

My next article, The Interview Scorecard: What Hiring Decisions Are Actually Based On, will explain how to interpret what you are being told, what this looks like during an interview, and what you need to ask yourself to objectively evaluate how you did. By the end, you'll have a system you can use after every interview to identify what is and is not working well for you.

The feedback you've been waiting for?

You're about to give it to yourself.