Sometimes there are obvious reasons why you weren’t offered the role you interviewed for, maybe your experience wasn’t the right fit or perhaps you struggled with some of the interview questions. However, there are occasions where it isn’t as clear. You had all the right skills, your CV was good enough to get the interview and you made it through multiple rounds before being told you’d not got the job.
There are several reasons why you might not have been offered the position, even after a great interview.
The job got put on hold
This happens more often than you’d think! Budget issues can cause a live role to be put on hold or even cancelled completely. Companies may decide they can’t afford to hire after all and the job may be revised to a lower level or consolidated into an existing position within the business during a restructure. Hiring freezes can happen at any time, even if an offer is imminent, and that is completely out of your control.
They hired internally
Sometimes advertising a role externally is merely a formality and the employer already has an internal candidate in mind. Even if this isn’t the case, going up against a skilled internal applicant can be tough as they already have the skills, systems knowledge and experience of the business to make them a good fit for the role. Many hiring managers prefer to offer internally as they already have an idea of that person’s capabilities and their work style and the amount of training needed is less.
The competition was too fierce
It’s not necessarily that you weren’t good enough for the job, just that somebody else pipped you to the post. You might have been the best candidate on paper but another candidate had the right soft skills or was perceived as a better fit for the team. Or perhaps the hiring manager loved your personality but your competition had more industry experience. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t the right time for you but that doesn’t mean that you did anything wrong.
You weren’t the right fit
Cultural fit can be a hard thing to define and it’s obviously at the discretion of the interviewer. You might have all the skills and experience needed for a role, but the hiring manager doesn’t feel your work ethic or style would fit well in the company. It works the other way around too, the job may sound ideal but you just don’t click with the person interviewing you. Chemistry is an important factor when hiring for a role and the truth is you’re never going to get along well with everyone! It’s hard not to take this kind of rejection personally but try to look at the positives in that you were right for the role just not the company.
The key is to not give up! It can be very frustrating to lose out on a job for any of these reasons, especially if you’ve put a lot of time and effort into the process, but don’t let it knock your confidence. If the roles you are applying for match your skills and experience then you are on the right track.
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