(I run hiring rounds with ~100-1000 applicants) agree with Jamie here. However, if someone was close to a cutoff, I do specifically include “encourage you to apply to future roles” in my rejection email. I also always respond when somebody asks for feedback proactively.
Is revealing scores useful to candidates for some other reason not covered by that? It seems to me the primary reason (since it sounds like you aren’t asking for qualitative feedback to also be provided) would be to inform candidates as to whether applying for future similar roles is worth the effort.
revealing scores useful to candidates for some other reason not covered by that
Honestly, I hadn’t even thought of encouraging them to apply for future roles. My main thought regarding feedback is to allow them to improve. If you assess my work and then tell me the ways in which it falls short, that allows me to improve. I know that to work on. An example would be something like “Although your project plan covered a lot of the areas we requested, you didn’t explain your reasoning for the assumption you made. You estimated that a [THING] would cost $[AMOUNT], but as the reader I don’t know where you got that number. If you had been transparent about your reasoning, then you would have scored a bit higher.” or “We were looking for something more detailed, and your proposal was fairly vague. It lacked many of the specifics that we had requested in the prompt.”
I think scores would be good in the potentially time-saving way you outlined. I also think that having a more nuanced sense of how well my applications—or specific parts of it—were perceived/scored would be helpful.
My experience asking for qualitative feedback has been mixed—sometimes I have gotten just flat out ignored, at other times I have gotten the usual ‘no can do due to lack of operational capacity’ and some times I have actually gotten valuable personal feedback.
My idea is that there has to be a way to make some feedback beyond yes/no automatically available to all applicants. Maybe simply being told one is a particularly strong applicant and should reapply or apply to similar roles is good (and kind) enough.
I suppose I’m skeptical that quant scores in an auto-sent email will actually give you a nuanced sense—but I do see how, e.g., if over time you realize it’s always your interview or always your quant question that scores poorly, that is a good signal
I do think being kind is an underrated part of hiring!
(I run hiring rounds with ~100-1000 applicants) agree with Jamie here. However, if someone was close to a cutoff, I do specifically include “encourage you to apply to future roles” in my rejection email. I also always respond when somebody asks for feedback proactively.
Is revealing scores useful to candidates for some other reason not covered by that? It seems to me the primary reason (since it sounds like you aren’t asking for qualitative feedback to also be provided) would be to inform candidates as to whether applying for future similar roles is worth the effort.
Honestly, I hadn’t even thought of encouraging them to apply for future roles. My main thought regarding feedback is to allow them to improve. If you assess my work and then tell me the ways in which it falls short, that allows me to improve. I know that to work on. An example would be something like “Although your project plan covered a lot of the areas we requested, you didn’t explain your reasoning for the assumption you made. You estimated that a [THING] would cost $[AMOUNT], but as the reader I don’t know where you got that number. If you had been transparent about your reasoning, then you would have scored a bit higher.” or “We were looking for something more detailed, and your proposal was fairly vague. It lacked many of the specifics that we had requested in the prompt.”
Quantitative scoring doesn’t really give you that, though!
I think scores would be good in the potentially time-saving way you outlined. I also think that having a more nuanced sense of how well my applications—or specific parts of it—were perceived/scored would be helpful.
My experience asking for qualitative feedback has been mixed—sometimes I have gotten just flat out ignored, at other times I have gotten the usual ‘no can do due to lack of operational capacity’ and some times I have actually gotten valuable personal feedback.
My idea is that there has to be a way to make some feedback beyond yes/no automatically available to all applicants. Maybe simply being told one is a particularly strong applicant and should reapply or apply to similar roles is good (and kind) enough.
I suppose I’m skeptical that quant scores in an auto-sent email will actually give you a nuanced sense—but I do see how, e.g., if over time you realize it’s always your interview or always your quant question that scores poorly, that is a good signal
I do think being kind is an underrated part of hiring!