You want some feedback with that?

Now, I quite agree that it’s a good idea to ask for feedback if you apply for a job and don’t get it. Below is how not to ask for feedback.

Wednesday 10am
You receive a letter thanking you for your application, but which advises you that you were unsuccessful. You send an email to the person whose contact details were listed on the letter.
I was the person in question. At 10am I had just gone to a meeting.

12pm
You haven’t had a reply from the person you emailed yet, so you call them up. They don’t answer, so you leave a message, saying you have emailed, and could you have feedback please?
The meeting finished at a few minutes after 12. I had a lunch appointment so I didn’t look at my email, and left my voice mail to pick up any phone messages.

2pm
Still nothing from the person, so you find another contact phone number. You call them and ask them if you can have feedback. The person you speak to says they will pass your message on – to the person you emailed at 10am and called at noon.
I got back to my office at 1pm, but I had a number of staff issues to deal with, so I didn’t actually sit at my desk until about 2:30pm. My colleague passes on the message she took at 2pm.

4pm
You find yet another phone number – and call that person, who also says they will need to pass your message on – to the person you emailed at 10am and call at noon.
At 4pm I am working through a whole list of other tasks. I have noted your 10am email and the 12pm phone message, and have received the message you left with my colleague at 2pm. I am feeling a bit harrassed by you – a feeling that is compounded when my other colleague passes on a message re your 4pm call – and not very inclined to contact you. In any case, if I am to give you meaningful feedback, I will need to dig your application out from the stack of 70+ applications I received for the advertised job, and take a look at it. When my boss pops in at 4:30pm for a chat about an issue we need to deal with, I stop working through my To Do list. We discuss the issue and what I will need to do next. We catch up on the day’s events. When we finish our chat I have two more things to add to my To Do list, one of which is a high priority item and goes to the top of the list. By now it is 4:50pm. I keep working through my tasks, in order of priority. 5:15pm: one of my team members asks if he can have a quick chat about a problem he needs assistance with. We chat and come up with a solution. 5:25pm: I look over the list, finish the last Absolutely Must Do Today task. 5:30pm: I tidy up for the day and go home. I have been in the office since 8am and am pretty tired.

I am sorry I didn’t respond to your messages immediately but – how shall I put this politely – for me, as I would imagine is the case for most people, providing feedback to unsuccessful applicants is not the only task I have to do in a day. Just because writing and sending email is quick, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the person you have contacted is going to be able to respond as immediately as you would like. You need to give people a chance to respond – especially if you want meaningful feedback! Calling multiple times in one day for a request such as this does not put you in a particularly good light. You don’t come across as keen – you come across as pushy and irritating.

Note: I do finally provide the feedback, at about 10am the following Thursday. I call and provide a bit of detail (answers to selection criteria were too scant/did not really answer the question). You thank me. I am glad I hadn’t actually responded to you the day before; in my annoyance, I might have been rude and less-than-professional.

I also recognise that at this time of year I am usually tired and prone to peevishness. I need to learn more lessons from my chihuahuas and enjoy life more, I think.