You applied for a job, and maybe you even got an interview. But as the days and weeks tick by with no response from your prospective employer, the familiar feeling of disappointment settles in once again: you didn’t get the job.
But why? You hit it off with the interviewer, and your credentials met the job description. Forbes explains why you may not have landed that position after all.
There are several reasons your resume might have landed in the reject pile. For starters, perhaps you unknowingly intimidated the hiring manager. Hiring managers have to consider how they will look when they choose a candidate, and he or she may have worried about how your hiring would have been perceived.
- See Six Reasons They Didn’t Call You Back for more information.
Additionally, you may not have been hired because the hiring manager sensed that you would not hang around for long, due to the level of disorganization and chaos within the workplace.
Also, remember that the manager’s superiors may have recommended someone for the job.
If you applied for a job online, and you never heard from the company, it may be that your application was never even received.
Job descriptions may change after the interview process. Therefore, your credentials may no longer match the available position.
Even if you told the manager you would accept the proposed salary range, someone may have been convinced otherwise if you previously earned more in a different position.
The manager may have simply chosen someone else if that candidate came from the same industry.
Maybe no one got the job. Maybe the company posted the position just to check out the market and pick up some free consulting ideas from potential candidates.
Maybe you bombed the phone interview during one of those strange interview questions, such as “What do you think of lava lamps?” According to Business Insider, Boeing asks potential engineers to answer this question.
The company may have stopped all hiring and simply not revealed it quite yet.
Therefore, if you didn’t get the job, don’t beat yourself up too much. Chances are, the reasons why were out of your control.
As for reasons you did not get hired that were within your control, The Muse explores a few of those.
Do your statements sound like questions, or is your tone usually highly formal or casual? If so, you may have been skipped over for a job. Perhaps an interviewer thought you sounded too harsh, or perhaps a manager didn’t think you’d be up to managing a 20-employee department if you were too soft spoken.
Did you splash on too much cologne, or did you hit the interview after a trip to the gym? Funky odors would clearly have a negative effect on an interview.
Were you way too eager for the position? Did you hang out in the waiting room for an hour before the scheduled interview, or did you offer to work for free? Show your enthusiasm for the position, certainly, but don’t go crazy.
Were you too cocky about your skills and experience? Coming off as arrogant can lead to immediate dismissal. To emphasize your traits, back them up with examples. For example, if you say that you’re a great team leader, provide a story or two about how you organized a team effort in a previous position.
Keep these pointers in mind as you apply for your next position. Make a good impression, but at the end of the day, understand that there’s a lot more going on in the hiring process than meets the eye.
Source: Forbes
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