Stephen A. Laser, PhD, Managing Director, Stephen A. Laser Associates

Recently, Janet Aschkenasy, a regular contributor to on-line eFinancialCareers, wrote an interesting piece, entitled, “One Question Recruiters Say Financial Pros Should Never Ask in a Job Interview.” The article in the online publication is about job candidates who ask interviewers for feedback on the interview or ask the question: “Is there anything which would keep you from recommending me for the job?” As one of the people quoted in her article, I have some definite thoughts on the question.

The purpose of this short article is discuss the feasibility of asking the question in general – including other sectors besides financial services – and to talk about why some recruiters actually encourage their candidates to pose the question to in-house HR interviewers as well as outside resources, like myself, who serve clients as a third-party input in my role as a business psychologist.

For the record, it is not a worthwhile question to pose to any interviewer, inside or outside of the hiring organization. There are several reasons for this. First, in today’s hiring environment, most employment decisions are done on a consensus basis with groups of people meeting together after all of the interviews and reference checks have been completed in order to pool their observations on the candidate. Hence, the feedback from any one interviewer or even a set of interviewers might not be consistent with the final outcome as people are prone to changing their minds once they hear input from their peers and outside third-party consultants, such as recruiters and business psychologists. Second, the question shows an aggressive side to the candidate that might easily turnoff a more reserved or subdued interviewer. Moreover, if this less assertive individual is on the fence about the candidate’s prospects for employment, this kind of insistently-worded question might be enough to tip the interviewer off the fence, and hence, recommend to the company to take a pass on the person.

Over the course of my 30-year career performing pre-employment assessments for companies, almost inevitably the candidate who asks me for feedback, or if I would support his or her candidacy, is not a particularly strong prospect. In examining the reasons why this is usually the case, there are a several explanations which seem especially valid. First, more often than not the question is born of insecurity. The person is anxious, perhaps, by nature and not having any clear sign from the interviewer about his or her performance is enough to prompt the question. In other instances, the candidate knows he or she did not perform particularly well during the job interview. In certain situations candidates are confronted by behavioral-based interview questions that demand on-the-spot answers to specific scenarios, and an unprepared job applicant can feel as though he or she did not do as well as hoped. On other occasions, I have encountered the question about feedback because the person realizes that he or she is not likely to be a good fit for the job, but they are hoping for feedback to the contrary which will support their prospects for landing the position. Finally, there are those occasions when a candidate asks a recruiter or a business psychologist for an endorsement, knowing these outside resources are seen as experts by their client companies, and that their recommendations will serve to enhance the person’s chances of getting hired.

Now, let’s take a moment to talk about those candidates who are instructed by their recruiters to ask specifically for feedback along with an endorsement from the person conducting the interview. In my experience this situation occurs most frequently when recruiters are presenting candidates for sales positions in an organization. For these individuals, recruiters might believe that positing questions about having the support of the interviewer is akin to closing a sale. In other words, the candidate who is confident enough in his or her ability to ask for the business from a prospective customer should have no trouble asking for the interviewer’s endorsement. Quite frankly, this makes a lot of sense as the two situations are not that dissimilar. However, for the reasons cited above, my own feeling is that it is still not an appropriate question.

For those on the inside of the organization, the question puts the interviewer on the spot and as noted above, with so many decisions made by consensus, the response given to the candidate might well be a moot point. For those of us on the outside of the organization serving in a consulting capacity, however, there is yet another reason that the question is inappropriate. In short, it can place us at odds with our clients. While professionals who work in my firm would like to believe that clients accept or reject our recommendations without question, this is clearly not the case. There have been those occasions when I or my colleagues at our firm have felt very positive about a candidate, only to find that the company ultimately rejects the person for hire for whatever reason. If that candidate had been given positive feedback and endorsed immediately after his or her interview and then later on in the hiring process they were rejected for the job, they could potentially make trouble by saying that the outside consulting firm which assessed them for the role is composed of recognized experts, and they gave the candidate the green light. Furthermore, if these outside experts saw fit to recommend the candidate, why on earth were they rejected by the company?

While the article in eFinancialCareers along with my own point of view represents one way or thinking about this issue, there are no doubt others who will disagree with us. This piece is written in part of solicit feedback from recruiters who have either been asked this question directly by candidates or have suggested that their candidates bring up the issue at the close of their interviews with in-house HR staff and outside resources, if they are used. Since there is no definitive and settled way of thinking on this issue, I would invite and welcome “feedback” on the viewpoint offered in this article.

Stephen A. Laser, PhD has over 30 years of experience as a business psychologist and is the author of “Out-of-Work and Over-40: Practical Advice for Surviving Unemployment and Finding a Job.” He has been featured as an expert by BusinessWeek.com, CBS MoneyWatch, Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, and the Chicago Tribune. More information can be found at www.laserassociates.net.