The worst kind of feedback you can receive is none.

This is something I have stood by in all my years of interviewing and being interviewed, whether as a candidate at the beginning of my career, or now as I regularly interview senior executives for automotive roles.

But there is something worse. Bad feedback. Feedback that is essentially meaningless. I’m talking about, “You were good, just not good enough,” and its bland, uninformative cousins.

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This is in no way useful for a candidate. It gives them nothing to work on, leaves them guessing as to what you really meant and, in many cases, knocks their confidence.

While you might think that you don’t want to hurt a candidate’s feelings after interviewing them for a role – after all, they’re disappointed enough that they didn’t land the job – you need to be honest with them, give them a focus to aim for and maybe some practical tips they can use.

Far from causing offence, constructive criticism could help a candidate’s career.

This is business, not a social event. Simply saying, “we thought you were great, but another candidate had more experience,” is doing the candidate a disservice.  

I could at this point offer some tips on giving great feedback that I’ve picked up over the years, but I think it’s more important to develop these skills yourself over time, so that it becomes second nature.

Every time I go into an interview, I’m aware that at some point I’m going to have to tell the candidate how they did, whether that’s good or bad. I always begin by asking the candidate how they felt about the interview. This gives me an indication at least of how prepared they might be for negative feedback, and opens up a two-way conversation. 

I make sure I both start and end on a positive note, and am very clear and specific to demonstrate the reasons for the feedback, with concrete examples.

I appreciate that it can be challenging, when working to a tight deadline, to make time to evaluate and deliver your thoughts about a candidate. 

But going through this process will not only help candidates in terms of their development, it will help with your evaluation by requiring you to articulate your thought processes clearly and objectively.