Rejected for "not enough depth" and three follow-up emails later I still don't know what that meant
Five rounds, made it to the last one, got an actual phone call which I appreciated.
"Strong across the board, but we're looking for a bit more depth."
Asked which area. "Overall technical depth." Asked whether it was a particular round. "It was a holistic decision." Asked if there was one thing to focus on for next time. No reply to that one.
I know I'm not owed feedback and I'm not angry about it. But depth in what — the system design round, the language, the domain? I would genuinely go and fix it if I knew which it was.
If you've had that line and later found out what was actually behind it, I'd really like to know what it turned out to be.
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AnonymousAnon Usually it means one person on the panel said no and nobody wants to attribute it to them. Not much comfort, but it's rarely the broad verdict on you that the wording makes it sound like.
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AnonymousAnon Got the exact same line after a final round about two years ago. Ran into the hiring manager at a meetup nearly a year later and asked him straight out. Turned out one interviewer felt I'd described a system I'd worked on without being able to explain why the queue was in it. That was it. That was the entire thing.
It's almost always one specific moment in one specific round, and the process is designed so that they'll never tell you which one.