[WIP, may delete?] How Hiring Decisions are Made and Why Feedback is Rare

The Hidden Reality of Technical Hiring: How Decisions Are Really Made and Why Feedback Is Rare

As a technical candidate, you've probably experienced the frustrating black box of hiring decisions. You complete multiple rounds of interviews, feel good about your performance, then receive a generic rejection email with no explanation. Understanding what really happens behind the scenes can help you navigate the process more effectively and manage your expectations.

How Technical Hiring Decisions Are Actually Made

The Multi-Stakeholder Reality

Technical hiring isn't decided by a single person reviewing your resume. It involves a complex web of stakeholders, each with different priorities:

Engineering Managers focus on technical fit, team dynamics, and whether you can deliver on immediate needs. They're thinking about sprint capacity, technical debt, and how quickly you'll become productive.

Senior Engineers evaluate your technical depth, problem-solving approach, and whether they'd enjoy working with you. They often have strong opinions about coding style, architectural thinking, and technical communication.

HR/Recruiters assess cultural fit, compensation expectations, and potential retention risk. They're managing multiple competing priorities across different teams and levels.

Directors/VPs consider broader strategic alignment, headcount budgets, and team composition. They might reject an excellent candidate if the team already has too many junior developers or if the role needs to be refocused.

The Scoring and Calibration Process

Most companies use structured evaluation frameworks, but the implementation varies widely:

Interview Scorecards typically rate candidates on technical skills, problem-solving, communication, and cultural fit. However, different interviewers interpret these criteria differently, and unconscious bias significantly influences scoring.

Calibration Meetings are where the real decisions happen. Interviewers discuss their impressions, debate borderline cases, and often reach consensus through discussion rather than pure score aggregation. A single interviewer's strong advocacy can sometimes overcome mediocre scores from others.

Bar Raising means companies often err on the side of caution. If there's any doubt, they'll typically pass rather than risk a bad hire. This is especially true for senior roles where the cost of a wrong decision is high.

Hidden Decision Factors

Many factors influence hiring decisions that candidates never see:

Team Composition Needs can trump individual merit. If the team needs someone with specific experience in distributed systems, a brilliant frontend developer might be rejected regardless of their overall quality.

Budget Constraints often force difficult choices. A startup might love a senior candidate but only have budget for a mid-level hire.

Internal Politics play a role. If a hiring manager has been burned by previous hires with certain characteristics, they might be unconsciously biased against similar candidates.

Timing matters enormously. The same candidate might be rejected in Q4 due to budget freezes but hired in Q1 when headcount opens up.

Reference Checks can derail strong candidates. A lukewarm reference from a previous manager can outweigh stellar interview performance.

Why Companies Can't Give You Real Feedback

Legal Liability Concerns

The primary reason companies avoid detailed feedback is legal risk:

Discrimination Claims become much easier to prove when companies document specific reasons for rejection. If you mention a candidate's communication style, they might claim it's code for discriminating against their accent or cultural background.

Subjective Assessments are particularly dangerous. Saying someone "didn't fit the culture" or "lacked leadership presence" can open companies to bias claims, especially if patterns emerge across demographic groups.

Documentation Requirements mean that any feedback given must be carefully documented and legally defensible. Most companies find it easier to say nothing than risk creating problematic records.

The Scale Problem

Volume Makes Personalization Impossible - large companies process thousands of applications monthly. Writing personalized feedback for each candidate would require significant resources with no direct business benefit.

Standardization Reduces Risk - generic rejection emails protect companies from inconsistent messaging that could create legal exposure or damage their brand.

Internal Process Protection

Companies guard their interview processes carefully:

Gaming Prevention - detailed feedback could help future candidates optimize for specific questions or evaluation criteria rather than demonstrating genuine competency.

Interviewer Protection - sharing specific feedback might expose individual interviewer opinions or biases, creating internal friction or external criticism.

Process Evolution - companies constantly refine their hiring processes. Detailed feedback creates expectations that the same criteria will be applied consistently over time.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Subjectivity

Much of technical hiring remains subjective despite efforts to standardize:

Cultural Fit is often code for "people like us" and is inherently difficult to articulate without sounding discriminatory.

Gut Feelings play a larger role than companies admit. Experienced interviewers develop intuition about who will succeed, but this intuition is hard to explain and potentially biased.

Communication Style preferences vary widely among interviewers. Some prefer confident, outspoken candidates while others value thoughtful, measured responses.

What This Means for Candidates

Managing Expectations

Understanding the process helps you maintain perspective:

Rejection Often Isn't Personal - you might be perfectly qualified but not the right fit for that specific team at that specific time.

Process Inconsistency Is Normal - the same performance might yield different results at different companies or even within the same company at different times.

Feedback Scarcity Is Systematic - don't take the lack of feedback as evidence that your performance was particularly poor.

Strategic Implications

This knowledge should inform your approach:

Focus on Multiple Opportunities - since hiring involves many uncontrollable factors, maintain several active applications rather than pinning hopes on one "perfect" role.

Prepare for Standard Questions - while you can't know everything about a company's process, most technical interviews cover similar ground. Strong preparation on fundamentals serves you well everywhere.

Build Your Network - internal referrals can help you bypass some of the impersonal screening processes and get better insight into what teams actually need.

Seek Feedback Elsewhere - instead of expecting feedback from companies, consider mock interviews with peers, mentors, or interview coaching services.

Reading Between the Lines

While companies won't give explicit feedback, you can sometimes infer useful information:

Timeline Changes often signal competing priorities rather than concerns about your candidacy.

Additional Interview Rounds usually mean you're a serious contender but they need more data points.

Questions About Start Date or Reference Checks typically indicate strong interest.

The Candidate's Perspective: Working Within the System

Optimizing Your Performance

Since you can't control the hidden factors, focus on what you can influence:

Technical Preparation should be thorough but not obsessive. Master the fundamentals and practice articulating your thought process clearly.

Storytelling matters enormously. Prepare compelling narratives about your past projects that demonstrate problem-solving, collaboration, and impact.

Ask Strategic Questions that show you understand the business context and technical challenges the team faces.

Managing the Emotional Impact

The hiring process can be demoralizing if you don't understand its inherent randomness:

Expect Inconsistency - you might crush one interview and struggle with a similar question elsewhere due to different interviewer expectations or your energy level that day.

Don't Over-Analyze rejections. The specific reasons often have nothing to do with your technical abilities or potential for success.

Celebrate Small Wins - getting to later interview rounds means you're competitive, even if you don't get the offer.

Conclusion: The System Won't Change Soon

The current hiring system persists because it serves company interests reasonably well, even if it frustrates candidates. Legal risks, scale challenges, and competitive dynamics make detailed feedback unlikely to become standard practice.

As a candidate, your best strategy is to understand and work within this system rather than fighting it. Focus on strong preparation, maintain multiple opportunities, and don't let the lack of feedback derail your confidence. The hiring process is imperfect and often unfair, but understanding its realities helps you navigate it more effectively.

Remember that landing a great technical role is often about persistence and timing as much as pure ability. Every rejection brings you closer to finding the right match where your skills, the team's needs, and the company's constraints align perfectly.