How to politely ask for feedback following a job interview I had a job interview three weeks back. To date I have not heard anything from them. Do I send them an email to seek feedback? What do I say to them?
I had a job interview three weeks back. To date I have not heard anything from them.


That really depends on the place. In most cases, I would assume to not be the first choice if not hearing anything after three weeks. However, there certainly are departments and research institutes where it takes much longer than three weeks to get any official decision on the road.

In general, and this is true for academic and industrial jobs alike, asking for "feedback" on how you did at a job interview is usually not useful as long as you do not have personal contacts to an insider (e.g., somebody on or close to the search committee). If you get any answer from the official channels at all, it will likely consist of platitudes. For instance, "the search is still ongoing" if no official notifications have been sent out, or some generic reason if you ask afterwards why you have been rejected: "Although you have been a very strong candidate, we have chosen to go with a different candidate due to a better match with the department's future development plans."

I understand that it is very awkward for a candidate to not know why they have not been selected (were you indeed just not the best match? was your job talk weak? did you not interview well? were you perceived as arrogant or not nice in some other way?). However, giving this kind of feedback truthfully is unlikely to help the employer in any way, and has a very real danger of backfiring. In the best case, it may lead to annoying discussions (e.g., you tell a candidate that she was not selected due to her research output being below the hiree's, and she starts arguing and negotiating about how this is not the case). In the worst case, and this may be true particularly if somebody from a protected class is involved, it may lead to a law suite.