Our friend Dianne Gubin, of Tech Exec Partners as offered some very insightful and helpful reasons as to why an employment candidate may have not landed the position. Everything may have seemed to go right, but here are some of the underlying reasons that that job interview was not as successful as you first believed–
- Overqualified and won’t stay
- Too much of a learning curve
- Not strong enough in _____ and we don’t have time to train
- Working with him/her would drive me crazy
- I didn’t like the way he/she answered a question
- We have stronger/more qualified people who work here already
- Talked too much
- Talked to me, but didn’t talk to everyone in the room
- Not enough eye contact
- Ugly outfit
- Won’t pass a background check because…
- Said too much about why last job didn’t work out.
- I know “So and So” who worked with candidate at his last company. We don’t want him here.
- He/She will be too distracted with family/child care/eldercare issues
- I don’t think he/she will get along with…
- He/She just won’t work out here. It doesn’t feel right.
Candidates don’t usually hear the true reason a position doesn’t go forward.
Larger companies and educational institutions generally include all stake holders in a hiring process. This can mean that 10 or more people participate in the hiring process, each taking a minimum of an hour per interview from normal work, and ranking the candidates. All candidates are asked the same questions and graded on answers. This process is subjective at best and designed to weed out as many as possible.
If you’re not offered the position, chalk it up as a learning experience and continue the search process.
