I am telling you what Google told me (and continues to tell new interviewers) as part of its interview training. You may believe that you know the law better than Google, but I am too risk averse to believe that I know the law better than them.
The legal risks consist almost entirely of situations where there is reasonable cause to suspect that the applicant has been discriminated due to some protected characteristic. In these situations the hiring party is incentivized to maximally control information in order to minimize potential evidence. Feedback could act as legal ammunition for the benefit of the discriminated candidate.
Because hiring organisations gain very little from giving feedback and instead lose time, effort, and assume more risk when doing it; it’s very common to forbid recruiters and interviewers from giving feedback entirely. Exaggerating the legal risks provides an effective explanation for doing this. The rule is typically absolute because otherwise recruiters may be tempted to give feedback out of niceness or a desire to help rejected candidates.
Also, Google’s interpretation of the law is almost certainly made from Google’s perspective and for Google’s benefit — not from the perspective of what is the desired outcome of the law; or even more importantly, what is the underlying issue and how should we be trying to solve it to make the world better.
Google is generally quite risk-averse. My guess is that they don’t give feedback because that is the norm for American companies, and because there is no upside for them. I’d be surprised if their lawyers put more than 10 hours of legal research into this.
Another thought: Even if Google’s lawyers did some research and said “yeah we could probably give feedback”, my model of Google is they would not start giving feedback.
I am telling you what Google told me (and continues to tell new interviewers) as part of its interview training. You may believe that you know the law better than Google, but I am too risk averse to believe that I know the law better than them.
The legal risks consist almost entirely of situations where there is reasonable cause to suspect that the applicant has been discriminated due to some protected characteristic. In these situations the hiring party is incentivized to maximally control information in order to minimize potential evidence. Feedback could act as legal ammunition for the benefit of the discriminated candidate.
Because hiring organisations gain very little from giving feedback and instead lose time, effort, and assume more risk when doing it; it’s very common to forbid recruiters and interviewers from giving feedback entirely. Exaggerating the legal risks provides an effective explanation for doing this. The rule is typically absolute because otherwise recruiters may be tempted to give feedback out of niceness or a desire to help rejected candidates.
Also, Google’s interpretation of the law is almost certainly made from Google’s perspective and for Google’s benefit — not from the perspective of what is the desired outcome of the law; or even more importantly, what is the underlying issue and how should we be trying to solve it to make the world better.
Google is generally quite risk-averse. My guess is that they don’t give feedback because that is the norm for American companies, and because there is no upside for them. I’d be surprised if their lawyers put more than 10 hours of legal research into this.
Another thought: Even if Google’s lawyers did some research and said “yeah we could probably give feedback”, my model of Google is they would not start giving feedback.