In a previous blog article I discussed the issue of candidate screening, what it means to you and your job hunt, and how you can better prepare yourself; ideally landing your perfect job! But, not every story and experience has a happy ending, so it’s just as important to prepare yourself for a job rejection: not because I believe it’s important to plan for defeat – I would never suggest you do that – but rather because it’s all part of the job hunting process; a job rejection from one company can lead to landing a job at another!
It’s important that you look at your job hunt as a process rather than one or two interviews that will hopefully have a positive result. As discussed in the past few week’s articles about job hunting, which you can read here and here, I have talked about how important it is to take every stage of the job hunting process and dig deep, research everything you can, prepare yourself in every way possible and prepare yourself for every eventuality – a killer CV and cover note will not be enough to get you an interview anymore!
There are many reasons why you might get rejected from a job application, and there are times when you won’t get much, if any feedback, but it’s important not to take it personally. Not everyone is best suited to every job, and you might be that person that is just too qualified, or maybe the company isn’t ready to take on a candidate like you; budgets can get cut during the hiring process!
Getting feedback about your interview is always a tricky one. But at the same time, feedback provides the interviewee with information that could potentially help them land their next interview and get the job. Therefore, as the interviewee it is important to ask for feedback in the right way. Your best bet is not to ask directly why you didn’t get the job, but rather ask questions such as “could you give me some advice on how I could improve my interview style?” or “did you identify any key qualifications for this job that I didn’t posses?” or “do you have any advice on how I could improve my CV and cover letter?”.
By asking these types of questions you’re avoiding the direct question of “why did I not get the job?” which, in many cases, won’t result in the best (if any) feedback. Also, it is important to ask these questions verbally rather than in an email.
By better understanding the whole job hunting and application process you can prepare yourself properly. Knowing that however talented you are and however skilled you are there is a high probability that you’re not only going against many other applicants to each job, but you’re likely to have one or a number of job rejections – and it’s not necessarily because you’re not well suited, but rather someone else is more suited. But don’t let this put you down. Expect a few falls to begin with, ensure that you’re investing time in bettering your application and interview and you’re sure to land a great job!
