Women receive less interview feedback than men

What you probably already know: If you’ve ever been called “bubbly” or “likable” — or described a job candidate that way — chances are the person in question was a woman. A new report from recruiting and feedback software company Textio suggests that people make hiring decisions based on likability. Candidates who receive job offers are more likely to be described by their personality not their skills. Men are more often described as “level-headed” and “confident” than women in interviews, while women are 25 times more likely to be referred to as “bubbly” and 11 times more likely to be called “pleasant.” Women who are described as “nice” or “friendly” are more likely to be hired.

Why? Whether candidates receive any feedback about their interview performance is often influenced by their gender and whether they’re ultimately hired. Those who get offers are more likely to receive feedback than those who are rejected, even though interviewers write 39% more feedback about candidates who don’t make the cut. They also write 17% more feedback about women than men, even though women are more likely to never receive any feedback on their performance. White and Asian men then go on to receive the most feedback, even when they didn’t get job offers.

What it means: “One theory is that men are more likely to directly ask for feedback,” said Kieran Snyder, co-founder and chief scientist emeritus at Textio. “The other reason is that men are more likely to receive skills-based assessments than women are. It's much more comfortable for a hiring team to offer a candidate feedback on their skills than on their personality.” Basing hiring decisions on gut instincts instead of skills or experience can reinforce gender stereotypes. Women are often considered friendly and good collaborators, while leadership and decisiveness are characteristics reserved for men. A 2021 study found that interviewers choose better-performing candidates when they assess a candidate based on skills and criteria relevant to a job.

Women aren’t just missing out on feedback during interviews: they’re also receiving the lowest quality feedback on the job. Past performance feedback research from Textio has shown that top-performing women are often praised for their personalities rather than their work achievements. They’re also more often described as “opinionated” or “abrasive” than men.

“This year's research on interview feedback was striking because it shows that bias pops up even before candidates are hired. The same personality comments that show up in interview assessments show up again a year later in performance reviews,” Snyder said.

What happens now? The idea that feedback helps job hunters improve in interviews is backed by research. Knowing what went well and what didn’t gives people a chance to improve and, in so doing, approach interviews with more confidence. Even in the case of a candidate who isn’t hired, offering them structured, skills-based feedback can lead to a better pool of candidates moving forward. From a legal standpoint, a company that documents quality, job-related feedback is better protected if a rejected applicant alleges that a hiring decision was based on their personality.

While Snyder noted that providing feedback for every candidate who is screened for a job isn’t practical, she “found it striking that even candidates who spend 10+ hours with a hiring team aren’t receiving feedback about their performance… when a candidate has invested that much time, it’s reasonable to expect that the recruiter and/or hiring manager will take a few minutes to close the loop.”