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What are standard, polite responses after interviewing a candidate with the following outcomes:

(a) You decide to reject the candidate
(b) You think the candidate is good, but want to continue interviewing before making a decision

Thanks for any suggestions.

jhack's picture

I almost always say the same thing: Thank you. I describe the next steps (the folks who interviewed him/her have to get together, HR, rest of process). MAKE SURE TO TELL THEM WHEN YOU WILL GET IN TOUCH WITH THEM. All standard, regardless of what I may think of their fitness for the position.

It's very rare that a candidate leaves with any information on whether they will be considered for the position.

John Hack

Mark's picture
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These are such different situations, I'm only going to address the first one.

If you decide to reject a candidate, there are hundreds of polite ways to do so.

"Thanks for your interest, but we've decided to hire someone else.  Best wishes."

"We regret to inform you that we won't be pursuing you any further, despite your strong skill set.  Best wishes..."

These are dependent to some degree on HOW the communication is made.  It's acceptable to ask HR to do it, though it depends on how good you think they'll be at it.  They're better than the average manager, but that's a function of them doing it more frequently.  Most managers just don't have a clear template.

This is a future cast, by the way.

Regarding the second situation, I'm not sure it's not based on a false premise that if the candidate ends up being best, you would then hire them.  We don't recommend that.

Didn't we release a recent cast expanding upon hiring against a clear standard, versus pitting candidates against each other?

Mark