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Techie fears rejection after founder calls response to feedback a ‘red flag’
The techie shared how responding to feedback in an interview was labelled a red flag by the founder.
A tech professional with three years of experience believes a single comment about feedback was seen as a “red flag”, possibly costing a job after hours of interviews.
In a Reddit post, the techie shared about applying for a senior Flutter role with a Europe-based company offering a remote position in India.
“I bombed the interview in the last 10 minutes after spending 10 hrs in the process,” the caption of the post reads.
In the first round, the techie sent a recording explaining his past projects. That was followed by a 20-minute screening call in the second round. After clearing both stages, the techie was shortlisted for an assignment round.
“There were only 5 people who got the assignment,” the post adds.
The techie was given an eight-hour deadline from the time the email was received. The assignment was completed within the deadline, and the techie recieved a detailed feedback.
Good feedback received:
According to the post, the techie was rated around 8 out of 10 overall and received 10-12 feedback points. Soon after, a call for the final round was scheduled.
The last interview was a 30-minute call with the founder. The conversation started well. Several questions were answered, including ones on system design, though some theory details were forgotten. “It was decent,” the techie wrote.
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Candidate labelled a red flag:
Trouble began in the final 10 minutes when the founder asked whether the techie agreed with the feedback shared earlier. The techie replied that “somewhat agreed”.
The techie clarified that all the points were accepted and the code would be improved based on the feedback, but there was confusion about one issue. The bug mentioned in the feedback appeared on the web platform and not on mobile, and a suggestion was made that the platform could have been clearly specified.
According to the post, the founder called this a “red flag”, saying it showed an inability to take feedback.
“I am speechless right now, as in the last 10 minutes I think I lost a great opportunity just because I made a suggestion which got taken as criticism,” the post adds.
Check out the post here:
Here's how people reacted to the post:
Reddit users shared mixed reactions to the post. Several said the response did not sound like an inability to accept feedback and felt the “red flag” remark was too harsh.
One of the users commented, “Sounds like it's the founder who couldn't take criticism. Dodged a bullet.”
A second user commented, “Seems like the founder is a red flag. An interview is not just the company judging you; it should be you judging the company as well.”
A third user commented, “Thank your stars that this behaviour was exposed right at the start.”
“Asking for more information is a green flag to me,” another user commented.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
