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Candidate experience survey questions to send after a decision

Twenty questions is an annual deep dive and eleven is the version that gets answered. Three are essential: how far the person got, whether they always knew what the next step would be, and whether they would apply again. The stage is the segment, the clarity question is the most fixable complaint, and the last one is the outcome.

The candidates worth hearing from are the ones you did not hire, and they will only answer if the survey is anonymous, short and arrives with the decision. These questions ask about clarity, fairness and waiting rather than about the outcome.

The questions

How far you got

  1. How far did you get in the process?DropdownRequired

    Application only, phone screen, first interview, final, offer, with prefer not to say. The only segment worth recording.

  2. How did you hear about the role?Single choice

    A job board, the careers page, a recruiter, someone who works here, social media.

  3. How clear was the advertisement about the actual role?Single choiceRequired

    A five point scale as labelled radio options. The cheapest thing in the whole process to fix.

  4. Was the salary range published before you applied?Single choice

    Yes, no, I had to ask. The third answer is the one hiring teams underestimate.

  5. How long did the application itself take?Single choice

    Bands in ten minute steps. Anything over thirty minutes for a first application costs candidates.

The process

  1. I always knew what the next step would beRating gridRequired

    Row one of a five point agreement grid.

  2. I was told what to prepareRating gridRequired

    Row two. Unprepared candidates make worse hires and worse advocates.

  3. The questions were relevant to the jobRating gridRequired

    Row three.

  4. I had a fair chance to show what I can doRating gridRequired

    Row four. The fairness question, asked in words a candidate will answer.

  5. People turned up on time and preparedRating gridRequired

    Row five. Interviewer punctuality is the most commonly cited complaint in candidate feedback.

  6. How many interviews or exercises were there in total?Number

    Compare it against the felt length answer below.

  7. Was any unpaid work asked of you?Single choice

    Yes and it was reasonable, yes and it was too much, no. Keep it neutral.

Waiting and the decision

  1. How long did the whole process feel?Single choice

    Too fast through far too slow. The feeling, not the fact.

  2. How long did you wait for a decision after your last conversation?Single choice

    The fact, in bands, ending with I was never told.

  3. How were you told the outcome?Single choice

    A call, a personal email, a template email, through a recruiter, never told.

  4. How useful was the feedback you were given?Single choice

    Begin the list with I was given none, which is usually the largest share.

Would you come back

  1. Would you apply here again?Single choiceRequired

    Yes, probably, probably not, no. The headline number for the whole survey.

  2. Would you suggest this employer to someone looking for work?Single choice

    Plain words do the same job as a zero to ten scale and sit better beside a rejection.

  3. What was the worst part of the process?Long text

    Ask the critical question before the positive one so it gets a real answer.

  4. What was handled well?Long text

Which questions to make required

This survey is anonymous, sent to everyone who reached a human conversation, and it carries no name field. Only three things plus the grid are required. The stage reached is required because comparing the experience at screening with the experience at final interview is the entire point. The advertisement clarity question and the would you apply again question are required because they are the two numbers the recruitment team reports. The grid rows are required so the average can be computed. Everything about salary, unpaid work and feedback stays optional.

The form built from these questions

A static copy of a form built from part of the bank, exactly as it renders.

0111

How far did you get? *

The only thing recorded. It lets us compare the experience at each stage.

↵Enter

How to change this for a different hiring context

High volume or seasonal hiring. Nobody who applied for a two week seasonal role will answer twenty questions. Cut it to five: how far you got, how clear the advertisement was, how long you waited, would you apply again, and one open question. Send it by text message rather than email, because that is where the applicants are, and expect the response rate to be the finding rather than the answers. Graduate and early career hiring. Add questions about whether the process explained what the job actually involves day to day, whether the candidate understood how they were being assessed, and whether they had to travel at their own expense. Early career candidates apply to many employers at once and their comparison is more useful than an experienced hire, who applied to three. Internal applicants. A rejected internal candidate is still an employee, which changes everything. Ask whether they were told the outcome before the role was announced, whether their manager knew they had applied, and whether they understand what would make them successful next time. Keep it anonymous, and never merge the results with the external survey, because the two populations are answering different questions about the same process.

Questions people ask

When should a candidate experience survey be sent?

Within two days of the decision, to everyone who reached a human conversation. Sent only to hires it measures relief rather than the process. Sent a month later it competes with the job the person took instead, and the answers arrive from whoever is still annoyed enough to write.

Will rejected candidates actually answer?

More often than teams expect, if the survey is anonymous, short and states plainly that answering has no effect on any future application. That sentence belongs on the welcome screen in the candidate own words. Rates of twenty to thirty per cent are normal, and the answers are markedly more useful than the hires.

Should it include a recommendation score?

A plain would you suggest this employer question does the same job in words a candidate understands, and it sits better next to a rejection than a zero to ten scale. If your organisation already tracks a candidate score, keep it, but do not let it replace the would you apply again question, which is more direct.

What is the most common complaint?

Silence. Across published candidate research the most frequent criticism is not a hard interview but never hearing back, or hearing back after weeks with a template. That is why this survey asks about waiting as a fact and as a feeling, and asks how the outcome was delivered.

Should the panel see the results?

Yes, by stage, and without any attempt to trace a comment to a specific interview. Interviewer punctuality and preparation are visible in the grid and they are fixable in a week. Passing raw comments to the panel who conducted a particular interview turns an improvement instrument into a performance review.

Is it worth asking about the job advertisement?

It is the cheapest fix in the whole process. An advertisement that misdescribes the role wastes candidate time, interviewer time and eventually an early resignation. One five point question on clarity, cut by stage, usually points at a specific role rather than at the careers page as a whole.

How do you keep it anonymous if it records the stage?

A stage is a crowd if you hire at any volume, and the survey collects nothing else. Do not add a role dropdown unless each role had at least fifteen applicants at that stage, and say on the thank you screen what the reporting floor is, because candidates assume the worst unless told otherwise.

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On writing the questions themselves, read How to write survey questions. For everything the builder can do, see the form maker. Step by step: Create a conversational form with AI, then Control who can fill in your form.

Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .