If you were a hiring manager and someone sent you a thank you emaik

[user1474645485]

...after an interview. What would be your reaction.

If you met someone who had the experience and qualifications for the job but simply didn't perform well in interview due to nerves and it being their first professional job interview, and subsequently didn't get the position. Then sent an email after the interview thanking you and the other interviewer for interviewing them, saying they were glad we managed to find a suitable candidate and could he have feedback as he genuinely wanted to work for our team in the future and would like to improve. It was a fairly long email, about 300 words. I've never heard of someone thanking someone for an interview they were rejected for in this way. The person only spoke briefly on the phone when told he had not been successful and spoke only to say he was disappointed and unfortunely nervous on he day.

The person found the email address from a colleague who once worked at the company and the email wasn't given out at any stage of the process.

Would you be put off or would you be impressed?

It wasn't a 'thank you email', it was a very polite request for feedback.
Employ some professionalism and provide it (constructively) rather than deliberating about it.

The purpose of the email should be to request interview feedback.

It should briefly thank them for their time and ask for feedback for personal development.

That's pretty common and standard.

300 words is much too long.

Perfectly normal in my field. Sounds a very good email, and you should answer it politely, honestly & helpfully. It's a standard professional thing - to request feedback on the one hand, and give constructive, honest & useful feedback on the other.

The candidate sounds like a good potential colleague, actually.

It sounds like a completely appropriate request for feedback. I'd be impressed that they bothered asking. I'd forgive it being 300 words if they were young and inexperienced and be impressed they wanted to learn from the experience.

I hired a chap recently who interviewed at my company 2 years ago (before me) for a very similar position. The feedback was "you don't have xyz experience so you didn't get the job". He went out, got this experience, came back and here we are, 3 months in and he's blinking awesome!!

Interviewees should feel a lot more comfortable sending emails thanking interviewers and requesting feedback. How else do you learn for next time?

Give constructive feedback and invite him to apply again in the future.

This is pretty standard surely, albeit in this case probably too long.

Why would you be put off by it?

You've never had a request for feedback before??

I'd think it was a polite request for feedback and I think you should provide it. I'd not be put off or impressed it's simply part of the process.

Request for feedback is normal but I have had an email straight after the interview thanking me (before we had decided) and I found that a bit weird.

Are you the interviewer or interviewee?

It seemed more like a thank you
Note rather than a feedback request. I was super impressed. I'm ready to
Give this guy another chance

That's great. We all need to get a start somewhere.

I don't really get this desire for feedback. If I don't get the job, my response is (to myself) fuck 'em - and I therefore no longer value their opinion.

maybe that's just me

I'd definitely be impressed - shows that the person really wants to work there and is willing to put in effort to do so. Also shows initiative, professionalism and motivation.

I'd be very impressed

i got my dream job by doing this.

find it odd to not want feedback to see where you may have gone wrong for the next interview but each to their own

I'd think they were American tbh

So you're going to employ him?

I send thank you'd after interviews. It's only polite since they took the time to see me.

But he would like some feedback too.

Is the position filled? Could you invite him back for second interview? Or you could say you will keep him on file if another suitable post crops up.

Very standard in my line of work. I would give them helpful constructive advice.

I'd be impressed too. I'm rooting for him to get the job now.

I'd be impressed, give proper tips for the criteria missed (especially if box ticking) and keep them in mind for future vacancies.

I like the imitative of hunting down the email address too

Request for feedback is normal but I have had an email straight after the interview thanking me (before we had decided) and I found that a bit weird.

Oh dear, I've done that before. I thought it was standard to thank the interviewer for their time and consideration. I saw it on a site about interview etiquette but maybe the site was American and it's not the done thing here? I hope no one thought I was being weird and pushy!