The most common reasons for NOT getting the Job?

Karen_taris

What are the most common reasons for somebody who goes for a job interview for an IT job not to get the job ?


After interviewing another candidate, they were better for the position.

Your answers were all weak.

You dont have the skills for the job

??

what other common reasons are there for not getting a job?

J_i_m

Latterly for me it's been;

"You interviewed very well, but someone else raised the bar and leapt over it"

Or

"You interviewed very well and impressed us, but we felt you were too clinical"

After a year of roughly 2 to 3 interviews per month, most of which have been complimentary in feedback I'm getting really tired or NOT getting the job.

BillJones

When I've interviewed people and rejected them it's normally been,

Not intelligent enough
Not knowledgeable enough
Arrogant (which implies unlikely to listen and learn as well as I'd want, and hard to work with)
Poor English
Skill set not in the right area

And sometimes it just comes down to the person not seeming interested, turning up late, not trying to answer the questions well, etc. you can't tell everything about a candidate at interview, and it's inevitable that occasionally someone brilliant will be in a bad mood that day, have decided to wear jeans, will stumble on questions they'd normally love, etc, but you can really only go on what's in front of you in that interview.

Tigsteroonie

I've come across "We've decided to withdraw the position" (i.e. the company has just announced yet another reorganisation so either the job doesn't exist or there's a recruitment freeze)

Woolwich_Kim

Having worked in recruitment and being part of the recruiting processes, I can tell you that the reason interviewers give may not always be the real reason.

In most of the cases I've dealt with, the job has already been ringfenced for one of the interviewees anyway (normally the temp whose currently doing the actual job). Some companies or organisations just have to go through the application & interview process as a matter of procedure.

thehappybutterfly

Woolwich_Kim wrote: »

Having worked in recruitment and being part of the recruiting processes, I can tell you that the reason interviewers give may not always be the real reason.

In most of the cases I've dealt with, the job has already been ringfenced for one of the interviewees anyway (normally the temp whose currently doing the actual job). Some companies or organisations just have to go through the application & interview process as a matter of procedure.

Completely the opposite in my work place! We often use agency staff and they don't always get the permanent job even if they've been doing it for weeks.

Ive turned people down if I know they're just telling you what they think you want to hear.

bluenoseam

I was getting sick & tired of hearing something along the lines of "too much experience" or "we feel you'd get bored in the role" - no, what I was bored of was being unemployed & since when has experience been a bad thing!

Mind you, it's better than the silence which says "we got your application but aren't going to interview you".

J_i_m

Woolwich_Kim wrote: »

In most of the cases I've dealt with, the job has already been ringfenced for one of the interviewees anyway (normally the temp whose currently doing the actual job). Some companies or organisations just have to go through the application & interview process as a matter of procedure.

I'm pretty sure I've been disadvantaged by that, I hate feeling like I've wasted my time and effort on an interview when the job has probably been promised to someone else well before.

bluenoseam wrote: »

I was getting sick & tired of hearing something along the lines of "too much experience" or "we feel you'd get bored in the role" - no, what I was bored of was being unemployed & since when has experience been a bad thing!

It's almost as if interviewers like that think that they're doing you a favour by not offering you the job. I'm very much of the position that, if I weren't interested in a job than I wouldn't have applied for it and attended the interview. I'd like to be the one to decide whether i'd get bored or not, and it's a lame reason to be refused a job in my view.

I'm currently trying to move my career from clinical to clerical. And the past couple of feedbacks have called me "too clinical". Which is all very well.. but that forms the bulk of my experience, but still has plenty of clerical and administration as part of it. How are you supposed to demonstrate transferable skill without referring at least in part to your actual experience?

noelphobic

I think it's quite common now to have set questions and award marks for each answer. At my last interview (and the first one in a long time), I was told that there would be 9 questions and I would be scored from 0 to 3 on each of them. Whichever interviewee got the highest mark would get the job.

It wasn't me. :mad:

JKSandy

I guess any reason is better than no response after an interview.

the_bottler

As I've only very recently established perhaps it is company preference you go through an agency as weird as it sounds can I suggest!?


Or for example HR or dept manager interview and I imagine big cheese then changes mind and won't authorise any new starts?


And I'm sure some people have gone to interviews for 'the practise'; (shuddering) nothing stopping a recruiter doing the same?