Technical Recruiting
8.11.2022
Tough Conversations: How To Reject Candidates

By Natasha Katoni

No matter how you cut it, rejecting candidates is part of a successful and healthy hiring process. It’s critical to reject in the right way, as it leaves a lasting impression on candidates and affects your hiring brand for years to come.

In the latest episode of the Technical Recruiting Playbooks, Natasha Katoni talks through how to have the tough conversation and “break up” with a candidate in your process. Everyone deserves to hear back from a company, even if they didn’t make it from application to interview. Natasha covers when to email or call a candidate based on how much time they spent with your team, how to execute the rejection call (if a call is appropriate), and how much feedback to give. She teaches how to make the candidate feel appreciated for their time, while balancing the need to protect the company.

The name of the game here is thoughtfulness, and treating candidates like people and not just a number in your pipeline.

Discussion Topics

  • Company reputation and rejection
  • Time spent on candidate rejections
  • How to make a phone rejection feel less painful
  • Ways to give feedback after rejection
  • Following up with your candidates