HR complained that sometimes even good candidates communicate like they are inadequate after being rejected. What do IT professionals think about this?

Igor, Senior DevOps Engineer

Remember how couples behave after a divorce/breakup, think about it and don’t ask stupid questions here.

Petro Dʼyavolyuk, PHP developer. Laravel + Vue.js

Of course, you should try to behave more professionally and with restraint. But how vindictive do you have to be to remember all the candidates?

We need to create a trade union for workers and blacklist recruiters!

«The world of IT recruiting is narrow» — I agree:

• 2-3 recruiters from the same company wrote (because they didn’t have time to look in the internal database, because I was already being processed),
• record: 5 different agencies send the same vacancy (and how many dozens or hundreds process the same thing?). And here it really is a rat race to see who will bring the candidate.
• Sometime 10+ years ago, they wrote to me from the company and offered to work for 2 months for free, to which I received a rude response with swear words. You know what? They called me after six months and a year. And I just asked to be put on their blacklist or removed from the database.

Andriy Beschuk, IT Auditor

From personal experience, I can say that sometimes the behavior of recruiters/companies is SO CUTE that you can’t express yourself otherwise. You notice obvious red flags right away, but you think «okay, if we work together, maybe it will improve,» and when there’s a refusal, it’s hard to hide your emotions. The only thing you regret is not reacting at the moment. But you didn’t want unnecessary emotions, you wanted to smooth over the edges and not create a conflict, and the company/recruiters only took advantage of this. Wasted time, resources, sometimes even hopes.

Yaroslav, Graphic designer

It’s not just that refusal is «unacceptable.» It’s much more serious. After all, in addition to subjective reasons (weaknesses in soft skills) that affect the applicant’s emotional reaction, refusal to work is a refusal of a source of income. And in a situation of total capitalism (which is experiencing a crisis and in which we live), the lack of income is not just the lack of so-called stability (in human life), but is equivalent to the lack of life (sometimes this can be understood figuratively, and sometimes literally).

Vladyslav Shtrykun, Front End React Developer

I usually really appreciate feedback, even when you get rejected. But it’s really annoying when, for example, you’ve done a test and they tell you we don’t give feedback! Or completely ignore you. By the way, this is one of the reasons why I ignore most vacancies with a test. I think you should always be polite, but after a test assignment for a week of work, a copied message «you’re not a good fit for us» without an explanation or any feedback clearly provokes at least a passive-aggressive response or a cool review on DOU.

Oleksandr Sorokin, Chief technology officer

I’m not a recruiter, but I’ve done hundreds of social services and given feedback with a refusal directly to them, but no one has sent me to hell yet… I think you’re somehow very skillful at provoking candidates.

Olga Tereshchenko, AI Quality Analyst at Roosh

I always have a positive attitude towards defeats, but not so positive when I don’t get a real answer about the rejection, when the recruiter disappears or after a «nice interview» sends «we decided to move on with another candidate» after which I feel so unpleasant and I feel some anger that I was so open and honest and how much I devoted myself to the interview to receive something like that. I even asked for feedback, but they simply ignored me, and well, I’m glad that it’s not there, but where I am. I’m all for valid, significant feedback, because it’s a step towards growth and improvement. Once, after a rejection, one recruiter even went out on a date with me and explained everything, I was very pleasantly surprised and didn’t stop after the defeat.

I once read in a book: «Bravely face your own problems and shortcomings.»

Georgy Cherenkov, CIO/CTO at a mid-size company

If there wasn’t something like «I’ll find you and kill your whole family,» then there’s no reason NOT to give it another chance in the future. Because it was all very funny BEFORE the war. But your rejection could have been in 5 minutes, after the call «Please come to the CCC and the Joint Venture for the death certificate (well, conditionally this is the first piece of paper in the chain to the certificate) of your friend/relative.»

If everything was OK until 2022, and then the «number of inadequates» changed, then maybe there are reasons for that?

It’s like writing: «I was fired one day, and they said I wasn’t trustworthy, but I deleted their production database before they lost their rights, and that’s where they need it.»

Igor Malovany, Senior iOS & macOS Software Engineer

— «why does this happen?»

A little more empathy, please, for people from a warring country where there is no work. No one thinks in terms of «defeat» and «how did I not come up with this?» People are shocked and confused by a level of ignorance that was not there before. + Stress every day. I do not justify inadequacy, but it was not like that before, and it is worth considering.

Oleksandr Kazmirchuk, Senior Software Engineer

If a person has gone through several interviews, maybe even a test, and then receives a standard rejection, it is quite likely that they will be dissatisfied. After all, time has been wasted that could have been spent on studies, hobbies, and family.

Pavel Belikov, Product Marketing Manager

There are indeed inadequate ones, but based on your post, I’m almost sure that the problem lies with the employer. No one is interested in wasting time, and this is the cause of frustration. For example, there was a case when I talked to a recruiter about some tasks — I received a test task about others — I was refused altogether for the third one, which had nothing to do with the first two and was never voiced. It’s very annoying to spend three weeks on such jokes. If the refusal is justified — then there are no questions. So first you should make sure that this is not your failure.

Mykola Miroshnychenko, Android developer

Because many «seniors» have a very fragile ego. It often happens that the «Senior» sits in one place and is adored in that place. And when he enters the market and is faced with the harsh reality that maybe he is not so cool — it is painful. That is why such a reaction) It is primarily about emotional immaturity. Also, sometimes they may think that they were not properly evaluated, etc. — but all this is an excuse. In any case, you must be professional in your communication.

Alexey, Android & KMP software engineer

I don’t understand swear words in business correspondence. And I definitely don’t understand them as a response to a rejection. And it’s even more unclear why you would write this to a recruiter. After all, it’s not the recruiter who makes the hiring decision.

>> and a passive-aggressive message falls into the personal

But I don’t understand this either. How do you define passive aggressive? What is «personal»? You were texting in one place, and they also texted you in other places? Yeah, that’s not okay at all.

Georgy Cherenkov, CIO/CTO at a mid-size company

Hmm… Maybe there is a part of the answer in the question too? «You didn’t just not come up (la), if anything — you’re a khan, because the IT world is small, and you will be blacklisted everywhere.» Well, literally, «the makers of fate». That is, right now, you say that you have such a mechanism. Well, what tomorrow? Missed the daily — execution? Shameful post on the Dow? Here, 1 case would take 1st place FOP «the maker of fate» with «responsibility with all his property» and prove how the «blacklist» broke a potential contract for 100k+ — it would be fun.

Igor Malovany, Senior iOS & macOS Software Engineer

— «The world of IT recruiting is narrow» I hope you don’t plan to break the law and disclose personal information of candidates. Because this is really worth the hate, at least.

— «It is worth thanking these candidates for their sincere expression of themselves»: again, more empathy. This is definitely not an expression of oneself (mostly now).