Interview Follow-up

Candidate Experience Survey Request

A post-process survey email to gather feedback on the candidate's interview experience.

Subject Line Options

We'd love your feedback on the interview process, [Candidate_Name]

Quick survey: how was your experience interviewing at [Company_Name]?

Help us improve — share your interview experience (2 min survey)

Download DOCX Use in Talantrix

Email Body

Hi [Candidate_Name],

Thank you for taking the time to go through our interview process for the [Role] position. Regardless of the outcome, your experience matters to us, and we're committed to continuously improving how we hire.

Would you mind taking 2-3 minutes to share your honest feedback? Your responses are anonymous and will be used solely to improve our process for future candidates.

[Survey_Link]

Here are a few things we're particularly interested in:

- Was the interview process clearly communicated from start to finish?

- Did you feel the technical assessments were relevant to the [Role] role?

- Were your interviewers prepared, respectful, and engaged?

- Was the overall timeline reasonable, or did any stage feel unnecessarily delayed?

We read every response. Past survey feedback has already led to changes like reducing our take-home assignment time limit and adding interviewer introductions before each round.

Your candid input — positive or constructive — helps us build a better experience for every engineer who interviews here.

Thank you again for your time and for considering [Company_Name].

Best,

[Recruiter_Name]

[Recruiter_Title] at [Company_Name]

After sending this email, you typically send:

Internal

Hiring Manager Debrief Summary

A consolidated debrief summary sent to the hiring manager with all interview feedback and a recommendation.

Decision & Offer

Offer Letter Email

A congratulatory email extending a formal job offer with key terms and the attached offer letter.

Related Templates

Assessment

Post-Interview Thank You

A recruiter-sent thank-you email after the interview to maintain candidate engagement and set expectations.

Rejection

Rejection After Interview

A respectful rejection email for candidates who interviewed but weren't selected, with constructive feedback.

Back to all templates

When to Send

Send 2-3 business days after the candidate has received their final decision (offer or rejection). This gives them time to process the outcome before being asked for feedback, which leads to more thoughtful and less emotionally reactive responses.

Common Mistakes

Sending the survey before the candidate knows their outcome — this feels tone-deaf and can skew responses negatively
Using a lengthy 15+ question survey that no one completes — keep it to 5-7 questions max with a mix of rating scales and one open-ended field
Never acting on the feedback collected — if you ask for input, close the loop by sharing aggregate improvements with your hiring team

Personalization Advice

Reference the specific role and interview stages the candidate went through. Mentioning a concrete change you made from past feedback (like the take-home time limit example) builds trust that their input will actually be used.

Follow-up Cadence

Send one reminder 5 days after the initial survey email if they haven't responded. Do not send more than one reminder — respect their choice not to participate. Share quarterly survey insights with hiring managers and interviewers.