Rant - Multiple interviews with no feedback

[Deleted member 651465]

So....

I applied for a senior leadership role within Amazon, after seeing a job advert on LinkedIn. After an initial candidate sift, I was invited to a video call with the hiring manager. This lasted about an hour as an initial interview and went really well.

A week or so later, HR invited me to an interview panel of 4x 45 minute interviews with a variety of other leaders including the hiring manager. They asked for my availability to which I responded with 3 out of 5 days in the next 2 weeks.... of course, they chose the 1 day I wasn't technically available but I reorganised my eye test and accepted (causing me a delay in 3+ weeks for cancelling).

As a site leader, I had to reorganise my diary and "work from home" to facilitate the interview panel but took it on the chin as it was a good opportunity.

Fast forward to last week where I went through the interview panel. I'm not one to complain but the schedule left no time between interviews and one of the slots was cancelled within 5 minutes of the start time:

09:00 - 09:45
10:00 - 10:45
11:00 - 11:45 (cancelled and rescheduled at the last minute)
12:00 - 12:45
13:00 - 13:45
14:00 - 14:45 (this was the rescheduled slot)

This meant I was sitting at home in a suit and tie for the better part of a day, with no opportunity for lunch and the thing which annoyed me the most was the rescheduled slot. Anyway... I did the 4 interviews and felt like they went particularly well. The final interview was with HR who I asked about salary to be told that they couldn't give that information out until the offer stage

....a week after I was informed that I was unsuccessful and that they have a policy "not to provide feedback". I accept that businesses can't give feedback to every person that comes in for an interview but we aren't talking about an entry level job, this is for a manager of a fulfilment centre role.

To be told "sorry, you didn't get it kthnxbye" really ****** me off. I asked to set up a call with the hiring manager so that I can understand where I went wrong (particularly as I exceeded all the requirements for the role and felt that I did well in the interviews) but have not received a reply.

Why do employers do this ****? I've invested 6hrs of my time over 5 different interviews, worked around your diary because you can't read a simple email and get nothing in the way to better myself in the next interview

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Because they can, unfortunately, with some warehouse roles like that they perhaps have an abundance of candidates - they're a huge company with over a million staff - that isn't a "senior leadership role" for them by any means, quite far from it. Perhaps for some roles where they've had to headhunt people via some executive search firm then they might give feedback but AFAIK it's a policy for them that they generally don't.

It's worth doing some research into these companies before interviewing them, Amazon is known for being quite efficient and has a policy of getting back to candidates quite promptly, like 2 days after a phone screen and 5 days after an onsite, the lack of feedback is also known.

At other places going via a recruiter who has an established relationship with the hiring manager will tend to get you feedback, other tech firms with inhouse recruiters who manage you through the whole process will tend to give feedback too and might want you to try again in a year's time for example etc...

It just varies a bit, I'd not get too put out at not getting feedback after taking half a day out to interview, I mean at least it's over with quickly then - you got all the interviews together and weren't strung out over multiple rounds etc..

Senior Safety Manager isn't a warehouse role. It's one of the site leaders and very much a senior role!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Count yourself lucky to be told the outcome, after 3 interviews with them I didn't even get informed that I was unsuccessful until I emailed their generic candidate support inbox, their internal recruiter contact ghosted me.

Not providing feedback is one thing but not even letting you know the outcome I don't understand. It just wastes everyone's time, including theirs, because they have to read/respond to the follow-up emails I sent them to determine the outcome. Surely it would save them more money in admin time to just send a generic one line email saying "Thank you for your interest in Amazon, I regret to inform you that we will not be proceeding further with your application at this time", rather than total radio silence and having to deal with specific questions from me?

In other words, I would have been fine with the "sorry, you didn't get it kthnxbye" you cited, but I didn't even get that.

I kind of expect this ghosting from recruitment agents but it's a poor show to get it from dedicated internal recruiters.

Yeah, I can see how that is worse but I was so annoyed by the whole process that I wanted to rant

In the initial interview, the hiring manager had to disappear to receive a package from a courier and speak to his wife, which I found unprofessional. Adding to the fact that I got dressed in a suit and he was sat at home with a t-shirt on... I know I'm the one applying for a role, but I found it disrespectful to the whole process.

To get a cold "sorry you didn't make it lol" email was the kick in the teeth and I just wanted to know why. I guess I'll never know!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I'm just amazed you spent the whole day doing all these interviews and had no idea what the pay is. I would have asked at the initial interview you had. If I was told they could not tell me there's no way I would have carried on with the process. What a bunch of jokers.

Wrongly, I assumed that the HR interviewer would have told me on the final interview. She did not . Imagine getting the offer and declining it for being below expectations... madness.

Don't worry.... I had the "rate the application and interview" process email last night. Needless to say, I let rip.