Typically, some days after a job interview, the HR person calls you and asks for your opinion on the interview.
What about if you made a mistake? Should you mention that? Or should you not since if they are calling you then that means you are still in the game. Otherwise, they send would send an e-mail to reject you.
Unless there is a specific unexpected incident that took place during the interview, I think a boilerplate response is just fine. Reply along the lines of:
"Thanks for asking, it was a good conversation we had. I'm looking forward to hear from your side about the next steps."
Keep it short, keep it positive.
The purpose of the question is to gauge your level of interest/engagement and to determine whether you are serious about this or just kicking tires. If you are seriously interested in getting the job, I would NOT recommend a cookie cutter answer since it basically signals to the asker that you are ambivalent and non-committal about the opportunity.
A better answer would reference specific details of the interview and any follow up work that you have done as a result of this. Something like
Thanks, I really enjoyed experience, especially taking to Bob about the business outlook which was very exciting. I've since researched some of the competitors business statements and I think that you are in a great place to be successful
That signals, that you are actively engaging and not just sitting on your butt waiting for the next step to happen.
If it is someone who works at the company I treat it as an extension of the interview. If I want to work for them I am very positive about the interview, the people I spoke to etc.
If it is an external recruiter I am still positive but very generic in my responses. I know some recruiters will use anything you tell them to feed back to other candidates they might have for the role.
If I want the job I don't intend to give others the advantage of my experience.
In my experience there is often a "vibe" one can sense during the visit, and over the years I have come to trust these impressions. Do people seem friendly in the hallway, or do they seem stressed? Are there personal items on the desks? How is the background chatter (is there any)? How do the employees behave when they see you with their boss? Are they making eye contact, friendly-curious? Do you get a coffee? Do you like the people you talk to as persons? Are they competent? Are their questions obnoxious or relevant? Does the conversation move toward possible specific tasks waiting for you, or are they trying to wind down the conversation in a polite fashion?
I would consider putting that in words, especially if you had a good feeling about the visit, the company and the people, and if you would love to work there. The positive feedback I'd give to a third party recruiter and a company HR person would be similar.
Something like
If the experience was disappointing I would also communicate that, even though some contributors here seem to prefer nondescript boilerplate answers. But I would be very polite and circumspect to a company person.
To a recruiter I might be more explicit. The reason, besides me being German, is that negative feedback can also be helpful. You may say "The interviewer seemed unprepared so that we had to read through my resume together", or "we were interrupted a couple of times during the interview, I think we could not get to know each other very well", or just "somehow the interview didn't go well, even though I still would like to work there. I can't really pinpoint it, we simply didn't hit it off very well."
I have a specific experience that can give a different perspective than some of the other answers.
When an in-house recruiter asked this question after a screening interview, I told them honestly that there were some errors in preparation on the part of the interviewer. I did poorly in this phase, and they were going to decline to do a full interview. But, since the recruiter had this specific feedback to ask the interviewer about, they were able to go to bat for me and get me scheduled for a “do-over,” which I then passed. If I had given a warm-yet-vague answer, they wouldn’t have been able to fight on my behalf, and I wouldn’t have gotten the full interview!
While I think Sourav's answer is the best choice, he did mention, "unexpected incident." I want to expand on that. Whether or not the request comes from internal HR or a recruiter, and depending on your gut feeling, letting them know something was wrong with the interview might be in order. For example, I have been on interviews where the interviewers were unprepared, uninterested, the job description didnt match the interview, and other negative things. Letting them know will hopefully fix these issues going forward.
The more specific the question, the more useful the answer.
If the outreach is done by the HR then this could be an attempt by the employer to solicit feedback from job candidates, as part of an effort to improve the interview process.
A safe yet proactive strategy in this case is to appear open and helpful: "Overall I think it well well, giving me an opportunity to showcase my strengths while also learning more about the company and the potential fit. Are there any aspects in particular you are curious about?"
The last part is key. Yes, you are answering with a question, but this achieves two goals at once:
Even if that's all they wanted to know and have no further questions, they are walking away with an understanding that you had a positive and productive interview experience (assuming that it was).
More importantly, such response communicates that you are open and willing to help while forcing them to be more constructive about the feedback they seek, rather than put you on the spot and sit back.
Instead of a question-answer interaction, it creates a partnership space where both you and the solicitor are now collaborating around their goal of learning more about your interview experience.
It also makes an impression of you as a candidate who thinks before s/he talks. Good luck!
As a general rule, I'd say this question mostly serves a general politeness combined with a check to make sure you're still interested.
If an internal recruiter (or HR) calls you a few days later, 999 times out of a 1000 the decision would already have been made, and it doesn't matter all that much what you say (as long as you don't say anything particularly objectionable).
If a third-party recruiter calls you either immediately afterwards or a few days later, they generally can't influence the decision, so 999 times out of a 1000, it doesn't matter all that much what you say.
If an internal recruiter calls you immediately afterwards, they typically wouldn't have much of a say in the decision 99 times out of a 100, so it doesn't matter all that much what you say.
There is, however, a chance that if you have a good and acceptable explanation for something you did wrong during the interview (that may otherwise be the difference between getting and not getting the job), presenting that explanation may improve your chances of getting the job.
If the hiring manager/your future boss/etc. calls you immediately or after a few days, what you say could very well influence their decision.
In any case, whether it is or is not likely to change their decision, I'd suggest you:
I think you should just answer honestly with how the interview went, instead of trying to calculate the optimal answer based on feedback from comments on the internet.
