“I’ll come back with feedback in a couple of days,” says the recruiter, and then… disappears. Sounds familiar, right? “No response” cases negatively affect the company’s employer brand. This is why we provide all the applicants with feedback at every stage of hiring.  Let’s see how to make communication with unsuccessful candidates beneficial for both sides.

Types of Feedback

In my opinion, there are 2 types of feedback: provided and promised but not provided. 

Provided feedback could be formal or constructive. The formal usually looks very general: “Thank you for your time, but we’re not ready to offer you the job yet.”. 

Сonstructive feedback contains a detailed explanation of rejection and highlights areas of development. The applicants who invested their time but didn’t get a job, still benefit.

We always provide constructive feedback when rejecting a candidate after a test assignment and a passed technical interview. A comprehensive response builds loyalty, and those job seekers may come back with time.

 We have target values for when and at what stage candidates should receive feedback. Recruiters answer to 90-98% of candidates, it’s our target rate. We respond within 1-3 days on average; feedback on test assignments can take about 3-7 days; post-interview responses ー2-7 days. Time frames depend on such factors as client/applicant situation, workload, availability, and additional interviews.

If hiring managers are silent for more than 7 days, we start pushing them actively and inform candidates about the delay in feedback.

​​How to Write a Constructive Feedback

The hiring manager and the manager responsible for the position write responses together. In feedback, we outline the following points:

1. Highlight the tasks that the job seeker coped with well, and explain why.
2. Identify the key mistakes made during the test assignment. Pay attention to the actions performed; don’t assess the candidate’s personality.
3. Clarify how an applicant may correct their experience to apply again. Correct the gaps, so the candidate would be motivated to improve their skills. 
4. Make a list of recommended sources to study.
5. Agree to keep in touch after a certain period or when a suitable vacancy appears.

Examples of Comprehensive Response

Despite the fact we don’t have established feedback templates, creativity and individual approach are welcomed. Hiring managers use a polite and informal tone of voice, with emojis.

Feedback on the test assignments is usually detailed, and here are some examples from our practice:

Middle Promo Designer Position Feedback

Hi Georgii!

I’m coming back with feedback. Thank you very much for your response and time 🥰

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to continue the dialogue about the vacancy for now.

Here is the feedback on the test assignment:

1. You built the composition well, but unfortunately, the post-processing lacks neatness. Maybe you do have not enough experience in outlining 3D models and working with brushes. I recommend you work with hand placement in general and learn the lasso tool in the work of CG artist.
2. In general, the colors in the picture look muddy for casual graphics.
3. The shape of the mouse seems a bit broken and stiff due to excess contrast black shadows and lack of post-processing.
4. Some shadows are soft, and others are hard, which creates a mess in the work.
5. The objects on the edges are as dark as the mouse, so they climb forward.

​​We’d like to point out that we often get back to our candidates. We’d be happy to chat again in the future if something changes or we have new vacancies and you’re looking for a job.

Have a great week and good luck with your search✨

And a special like from our art producer for the mouse, he’s a cutie 💛

Senior Meta Game Designer Position Feedback

Hi Denis!

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat and complete the test assignment. It was a pleasure to meet you, but unfortunately, we won’t be able to continue the dialogue on the position for now.

Feedback on the test assignment:

1. You proved your skills with Google Spreadsheets and Googlescript. Great!
2. The information in the document is presented consistently, however, the main focus is on detailing one of the secondary parts of the model, rather than developing the ideology of gameplay and interest for players in general.
3. There is a lack of justification for some ideas:
   • gameplay idea of level rewards;
   • the idea of the basic cycle of the economy;
   • the base cycle is proposed to be localized through energy 一 it’s controversial.
4. The model is developed, but it’s irregular and not fully compliant with the technical assignment:
   • The progression model by time and levels is present, although in a generalized form, energy is not explicitly taken into account;
   • Rewards calculations are described in detail (at the same time they are not used further and are not the purpose of the assignment at all);
   • The model omits the factor of involvement in modeling/evaluation.
5. A part of the assignment from the “ideas and suggestions” block is missing:
   • No justification for the idea of model economy and engagement linking;
   • Instead of a block of additional cycles with a tab on improving monetization and engagement, a single Garage feature with an overview description of its gameplay cycle is proposed;
   • There is no justification for the concept of these additional cycles.

We see that you have strong skills in building models of gameplay systems, but for our position, you lack a deeper understanding of the basics of how to build gameplay flow on a meta. 

We get back to our candidates often, so, we’d be happy to chat again in the future if things change or we have new vacancies and you’re on your job search ❤️

Have a great day and good luck with your search ✨