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I'm a software engineer. I'd recently applied for a job of the same role in a company.

The HR called me up, explained the recruitment process, the first of which would be an assignment(a coding/design problem) which I had to submit.

I worked on it on a weekend and submitted the same. It was a pretty straight forward problem and I believe I got it right.

After a few days the HR called me up saying that my solution wouldn't run. After talking to him I realized that he himself was trying to build and run my solution and that the machine that he was running on did not have the tools(gradle) to do so. I then proceeded to guiding him to do the needful.

I expressed surprise that he was trying to evaluate my solution and not a technical person. His explanation was that the HR would first screen solutions for sanity before it went to one of their engineers.

And then out of the blue I received a mail from him 2 days to this effect

Thank you for showing your interest in being a part of ***, it shows how agile and passionate you are about product engineering and data sciences.

Unfortunately at this moment, we are unable to process your candidature at ***. We are sorry for this, but please continue to check back on openings that could suit your profile - things could change at any time!

I am disappointed to say the least. The job and the company seemed like a perfect fit to me. I'd spent considerable effort coming up and implementing the solution to the assignment problem. The least I expect is the reason why they would be rejecting me(solution did not pass all tests, design of solution was not upto expectation, vacancy got filled up, etc). I did write back to the HR saying that I'd appreciate a feedback but haven't gotten any response(its been two weeks).

Am I being unreasonable in my expectations here? I feel that this is very irregular. I particularly feel that something is off with the HR person. Is it unprofessional if I write to the company(they have a mail-id listed in their careers page) asking for feedback?

Anonymous
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  • "Is it unprofessional if I write to the company(they have a mail-id listed in their careers page) asking for feedback?" - well seems like you already did replied to the HR guy. Whom are you considering replying this time? – DarkCygnus Nov 18 '17 at 00:45
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    Do you know for a fact that they actually got your solution to run in the end? Because not being able to run your solution, regardless of cause, seems like a good enough reason to reject your application. Don't submit code using external libraries to job applications, even if they are well-known libraries. Expecting them to install an external library to run your code is unreasonable - they probably get way too many applications to bother doing that. – Bernhard Barker Nov 18 '17 at 12:51
  • Whatever you do, don't take the rejection without explanation personally. Instead use that as a starting point for reflection (like you're doing here). Heed the advice of folks who are telling you that whatever you submit should not require arbitrary dependencies. But more importantly, understand that even perfect technical qualifications won't prevent you from getting rejected without a word of explanation. – teego1967 Nov 18 '17 at 13:57
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    "I feel that this is very irregular." Your feeling is wrong; application processing is unfair, arbitrary and unpredictable. Get used to it and move on. – pmf Nov 20 '17 at 10:38
  • @Dukeling Additionally it sounds like there was no documentation stating the need (and how to) of installing the dependancies. Or it was not clear enough that there are installation instructions to follow. – skymningen Nov 21 '17 at 13:37
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    Only a very stupid company tells the reason for a rejection (it can get them into a legal mess), It is unreasonable for you to expect one. – HLGEM Nov 27 '17 at 16:37
  • @HLGEM: if the reasons are purely technical why is it stupid to tell them? – smith Nov 28 '17 at 22:24
  • Because, people will dispute your evaluation and try to convince you to hire them. Because people will say the person you hired was less qualified and sue you. All sorts of reasons. And hiring is rarely about technical competence, that is just the minimum bar. Almost all decisions are made between several people who are technically able to do the job. No legitimate company will ever give you this information because it is not in their best interests. If they do then you know the company is unprofessional and unlikely to be able to stay in business. – HLGEM Nov 28 '17 at 22:50

3 Answers3

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Am I being unreasonable in my expectations here?

As already stated, companies usually don't provide (and are not required) feedback on cases like this.

The main reason for it is because they are avoiding any potential lawsuits that may come from applicants. Disclosing that information could give rise to speculations on possible discrimination and other non-professional reasons for the rejection, so they are basically following the CYA principle here.

This is even more frequent if you were part of some minority group (more chances to be seen as discrimination).

Is it unprofessional if I write to the company(they have a mail-id listed in their careers page) asking for feedback?

Unprofessional no. However, this may lead to the same response as before, due to the reasons already exposed, so it could be a waste of your time.

Yes, this should definitely be handled by a technical worker, but this seems to be some sort of fault in that company's politics and procedures, and that is a different case. If you are using Gradle chances are we are speaking of an Android App or IntelliJ project, so to evaluate it properly it should be build in the way it is intended (so it makes few sense to try to make it directly on "source" code or change the design just so this non-tech guy can review it).

I would also suggest that you do not desist on applying, if that is what you want. Consider asking for a reevaluation of your application, this time by a tech person preferably. You could also consider discussing the reevaluation with your manager-to-be on that role (or your current one if it applies), so they can decide what else can be done in this case.

P.S.: Almost forgot to remind you to be careful here, whatever you decide to do, as HR is not your buddy or mommy (you can see that you already got some first-hand experience on this, and you probably don't want more of it).

DarkCygnus
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  • Legal concerns is one possible but rather minor reason. The vast majority of business don't give feedback because they simply can't be bothered to. A smaller group don't do it because their candidate pool has proven to be argumentative and unappreciative of this feedback. – Lilienthal Nov 27 '17 at 16:11
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    @Lilienthal: I'm not sure "legal concerns" is a minor reason; however I do agree with the rest. I made the mistake once of letting a candidate know why I didn't hire them. Then I listened to them attempt to justify and whine about it for 10 minutes before finally just hanging up on them with the full conviction I made the right call. #neveragain. – NotMe Nov 28 '17 at 03:55
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Companies are not required to give reason or feedback at all. In most cases, you are 'ghosted' and never hear from them at all. In this case, at least you got closure.

If you are adamant on working with the company, you can reapply and make note with HR that the solution should be processed by someone who has technical knowledge. Another solution would be to reach out via phone with the individual to ensure that the reason was not because of the code, but I don't think you will be successful with this.

Another option is to literally build the solution from source in such a way that no matter the environment or user-knowledge, it will run.

Bluebird
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  • Although the Source code is a great idea, would it justify such effort only for a non-tech guy to be able to "screen" this solution? When coding for production, the standard is to use Gradle an Dependency-Injection software to help you out (I also doubt that they actually develop direcly on source code). Seems that this recruitment approach is not so adequate, but that is another problem that this company should solve by themselves. I agree with the rest of your answer, +1 – DarkCygnus Nov 18 '17 at 01:10
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    With a poor screening process, the company loses out on great engineers who have solutions that are truly the “outlier” talent that the company seeks. In other words, you can’t attract top talent with recruiters who don’t speak the language (literally and figuratively). – Bluebird Nov 18 '17 at 01:39
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The fact that the screener could not evaluate your code was a red flag to them. I suspect that you did not follow the guidelines of the assignment to the letter and tried to display some skill instead. That is not a good idea.
Being able to follow strict requirements is very important for an engineer regardless if your solution solved the problem.
The fact that the screener was not technical shows that there were not interested in how well written your code was, but that you can deliver exactly what was asked in time and without any hassles to a recipient of the program

smith
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  • This has too much speculation and does not answer the core question about wanting feedback. – Brandin Nov 20 '17 at 15:49
  • @Brandin: besides feedback he needs to evaluate what he did wrong as well. I seriously doubt that the company expected that he would end up taking time for the HR screener and walk him through how to run the program. This is not speculation but common sense – smith Nov 20 '17 at 20:26
  • @Brandin: it is feedback actually – smith Nov 20 '17 at 21:53