For most candidates, feedback on how the interview went will arrive a few days after the interview, if at all. But one CEO thinks waiting is a waste of time. Instead, he began delivering critiques to candidates on the spot (sometimes in front of the entire panel) as part of the interview test.
“Start providing direct feedback to candidates during the interview process,” Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani) revealed in a recent X post. “Often out in public during our group interviews or at the end of my 1:1 interview with them.”
The CEO of education platform Maven and co-founder of Udemy, another e-learning provider, said this is the “most telling part” of the interview and is often the deciding factor in whether they get the job.
“If this is their nightmare, [the] Biyani added that this immediately highlighted their “unfit” for the company. “If it’s exciting, they’re more likely to join.”
The California chief revealed that he typically reserves testing for applicants he wants to proceed with. But sometimes, Biyani admits, he even conducts feedback tests on candidates he likes who aren’t right for the job.
There are no right or wrong answers itself— and he’s even happy for candidates to be able to back away from what they’ve said before and adjust in light of criticism: “Regardless, we want candidates to be able to get feedback in real time and change their answers from that point on.”
Mixed reactions to interview strategy: ‘If your company doesn’t care about psychological safety, give this test’
This interview strategy elicited mixed responses. Several people commented that they “loved it,” which is a good way to gauge a candidate’s ability to take criticism and whether that ability can thrive with transparent communication. Many others are not so sure.
“Criticizing someone publicly in a high-stakes, power-imbalanced situation like this is not a test of ‘mentorship.’ It is a test of who is willing to suppress their nervous system’s responses to shame, stress, and social threat in exchange for a job,” the most popular reply reads. “Apathy, discomfort, or offense in this case is not vulnerability, but biology… Filtering people based on how well they have overcome these issues is not a choice for resilience or a growth mindset. It is a choice for compliance under pressure.”
Others highlighted that how candidates react in a high-stakes interview environment can be very different to how they react in day-to-day work, and that some people need time to consider feedback before responding, which is a “dehumanizing” approach that can surprise HR and can ultimately lead to talent attrition.
Career coach Kyle Elliott, EdD, also says, “In 10 years of coaching more than 1,000 clients, no one has ever reported experiencing this.”
While feedback is completely normal, he says it’s one-sided, based on one interview without any prior rapport, and job offers are dependent on responses, which makes it problematic and unlikely to really help test a candidate’s ability to do the job they’re applying for. “This reads like an insensitive science experiment.”
Elliott adds: “If your company doesn’t care about psychological safety and likes to put employees in difficult situations and trigger trauma reactions, I think you can run this test. Otherwise, your interview process should reflect the candidate’s day-to-day work environment to get the best talent possible.”
How to handle real-time feedback during an interview
Real-time feedback is not common, but as Lewis Maleh, CEO of global executive recruitment agency Bentley Lewis, warns, it is becoming increasingly popular.
“We’re seeing more and more companies stress-test candidates in a variety of ways to assess how they perform under pressure,” he told us. wealth. “I’ve heard of some tech CEOs and startup founders doing similar things, especially in high-pressure positions that require quick thinking and the ability to adapt. But it’s definitely not mainstream practice.”
Mahler saw the logic. “If you’re hiring for a role that requires accepting feedback, adapting quickly, and performing under pressure, it makes sense to test those skills in real time,” he says. But “it can definitely be brutal, depending on how it’s carried out.” Public criticism could even scare talented candidates, potentially excluding top talent who wouldn’t thrive under such circumstances.
Regardless, similar tests may become more common in other industries, as tech companies often set the pace for unconventional hiring and retention practices.
Maleh’s advice to candidates? Practice receiving feedback in real time.
“Ask a friend or mentor to critique your work or ideas on the spot, and practice responding thoughtfully rather than defensively,” he adds. “You can also use your favorite LLM chat (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok) and ask it to “act as a very tough interviewer” to give you practice.”
“Focus on staying calm, asking clarifying questions, and showing that you can absorb feedback quickly.”
But don’t forget, interviews are a two-way street: “Keep in mind that if a company’s interview process feels too harsh or performative, that may also tell you something about their culture.”
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com