[FireBeyond]

Even just a little 'context' can help. I had a candidate ask me after the last position I held interviews for "Can you tell me what to improve? I was honestly surprised I didn't get the position, given how well our interviews went".

And he was right, too.

But I broke it down as follows. We received 300+ applications, we filtered down to 100 that were worth even reading in detail. From those we took 50 that we discussed/scored as a group, and came up with 15 people we wanted to interview. Of those we interviewed 10, and of those we interviewed 5 a second time, and 3 a (brief) third time.

"So yes, you did well, and we'd like to keep your name and reach out" (said sincerely). But for him knowing that he didn't screw something up, there was just an even better candidate and he was realistically still in the top 1-2% of applicants was confidence-boosting.