Asking recruiter to get in touch with hiring manager after rejection for more feedback

Question

I just got a call back from the recruiter about a job I interviewed for a few days back to tell I did not get the job.

The job is in a technical field, and the feedback I got was that my technical skills are not sufficient, which I understand.

As I am still very interested in landing a job in this field and possibly with the same company, I asked the recruiter if they would consider me at a later stage if I gained more experience to which he said definitely. However, the feedback I got wasn't very detailed.

Would it be acceptable to send the recruiter an email and ask if I could get in touch with the hiring manager directly to get some more insight into the skills they require and where I seem to lack? I am just looking for some advice, but don't want to seem pushy and ruin my chances for future employment with this company.

Answer 1

Based on my experience on both sides of this process I will say it's OK to ask for this. But in most of the cases you will have your request rejected or ignored. Probably HR department have a lot of candidates and have no bandwidth to provide detailed feedback for every candidate.

What you can do about the skills: read very careful the job ad (also check about other ads from this company), check company products and technologies and you can get good starting point for company demands in sense of technologies and knowledge.

Answer 2

Would it be acceptable to send the recruiter an email

Yes, of course it would be acceptable, from a behavioral point of view.

However, depending of a number of factors, the recruiter might reject your request. It is in their best interest to keep themselves in the middle of the recruiting process, and not make direct connections between candidates and matching companies.