When you realised that you didn’t nab the job role, you might have asked “Why?” over an email, only to receive vague replies such as “We decided to go in a different direction”, or “We have chosen to move a current employee into the position instead”.
While such answers can be frustrating, there are really more reasons than meet the eye as to why you didn’t get the job, which could be within or beyond your control. Here are some of the most common ones, as well as how you can work around them.
1. Within your control: You didn’t demonstrate your positive qualities well during the interview
Positive qualities that are essential to demonstrate in a job interview include your skills, knowledge, experience and even company research. The interview process may seem long to you, but your recruiters only have a small window of time – usually just two to three interviews – to get to know your positive qualities and decide if you’re the best candidate for them.
If you had blanked out during your interview, this might not have left the best impression on your recruiter and made them think twice about recruiting you.
What you can do: If you didn’t manage to share adequately during the interviews, send your interviewers a follow-up thank-you email that includes elaborations of answers you might not have responded well to, as well as some company research that you had neglected to mention.
2. Beyond your control: You’re not the right fit
Your skills, qualifications, and experiences are just a few of the many factors that employers have to consider. Rather than just recruiting the candidate with the best resume, they look for the person who would be the best fit for the team and company, both skills and culture-wise. They may choose not to bring on board those who might end up being miserable due to personality clashes with the company’s culture.
What you can do: Although this factor is often out of your control, you can try to suss out the company culture in advance. If you realise that you might not be a good fit, at least you won’t be caught too off guard when you don’t land the position.
3. Within your control: You’re either overqualified or underqualified
Today’s competitive job market means a multitude of factors are taken into high consideration in the hiring process, namely the company’s requirements in experience, academic background and skills.
But that’s not to say that your qualifications, whether over or under, can disqualify you for a role! So long as you find that you are suited for the role and can contribute to the company in some ways, simply focus on what you can bring to the table.
What you can do: Rather than focusing on just your academic qualifications, explain to recruiters why you’re the best candidate by linking your relevant skills to the key requirements of the role. Similarly, if they require hard skills, clearly point out your professional qualifications.
4. Beyond your control: It really doesn’t have anything to do with you at all
While uncontrollable, this factor is an unfortunate reality in today’s job market, where company resources can be dictated by fluctuating economic situations or technological disruptions, which sometimes result in the company downsizing or restructuring to reduce costs.
What you can do: Recognise that this doesn’t have anything to do with you at all. Take the time to deal with the shock and grief, re-orientate yourself and your timeline, and jump back into the job hunt stronger!
There may be other reasons why you didn’t land the role, such as not cleaning up your social media accounts, lying on your resume, not dressing appropriately, or bad interview habits such as rambling on or checking your phone. If you have figured out which red flags you had raised, you can take the time to correct them. But if you hadn’t made any of these mistakes, it might be down to factors beyond your control.
Even in the face of rejection, hope is not lost – as you continue on your job search, you have a chance of finding a company that will appreciate you for who you are.
This article is contributed by gradsingapore.
