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I have had a lot of screener interviews and for the most part have been rejected by most of them. I would really like to know what my problem is and where I am messing up. Do you think it would be appropriate to nicely email one of the people who interviewed me and ask for their honest opinion of where I am messing up? Thanks!

Anonymous User wrote:I have had a lot of screener interviews and for the most part have been rejected by most of them. I would really like to know what my problem is and where I am messing up. Do you think it would be appropriate to nicely email one of the people who interviewed me and ask for their honest opinion of where I am messing up? Thanks!

I would like to know this as well as I've had 20 screeners (pre-select too) and 0 CBs. Highly doubt they tell you anything constructive though. Probably just that there were better candidates.

I have done this. Some actually provided constructive advice.

Sure why not what are they gonna do ding you again

Anonymous User wrote:I have done this. Some actually provided constructive advice.

Do you mind sharing some?

IMO, the best way to do this is to talk to career services, and have them ask on your behalf. This lets things be a little more diplomatic/candid, and I've known it to have happened successfully in the past.

Keep in mind it's a random process and there's often no "reason" you missed a given interview/callback/offer. With so many people and such esoteric preferences, unfortunately sometimes it's just luck.

baal hadad wrote:Sure why not what are they gonna do ding you again

TCR. You're not going to work with these people, so as long as you ask respectfully (just in case you run across them some day) you have nothing to lose.

thesealocust wrote:IMO, the best way to do this is to talk to career services, and have them ask on your behalf.

This sounds right. I interviewed at OCI this year and I would feel uncomfortable responding to this question if posed directly by the rejected candidate. I would be more likely to respond to someone in career services, especially because I have relationships with some of the people at career services from my law school (since I used them back in the day too).

Generally speaking though, of the dozen-plus students that I did not recommend for a callback (which is the end for them at my firm), the reason was pretty much uniformly "you had twenty minutes to make me like you, and you failed." Do the specifics matter? Would it help for me to tell them they spoke too quietly, or didn't make eye contact, or were incapable of carrying on a conversation?

Yes. I emailed a few interviewers who I thought I had a connection with during OCI (struck out), and one of those people called me up (got my number from my resume) and spoke to me for about 45 minutes. He was very blunt and gave me some really helpful advice about interviewing, finding a job outside of OCI, overcoming the epic and devastating failure that was OCI, etc. It was exactly what I needed after one of the worst weeks of my life.

I'm guessing this is pretty rare. However, you truly have nothing to lose, and potentially something to gain.