Internal Vacancy - no interview

Gustav1982

I applied for an internal promotion a few months back and given time passed with no updates I doubted what was happening
Was informed recently by my manager that role was going to an external candidate following a successful interview.
I was not given an interview (nor was another internal applicant)

Do I have a case to query this with HR? No HR update has been given apart from confirmation of application.
Just feels worse given I wasn't given opportunity to demonstrate I could do this role.

Oakdene

Not really, some job adverts will state 'only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, if you are not contacted then please assume your application has been unsuccessful'.

Undervalued

Gustav1982 wrote: »

I applied for an internal promotion a few months back and given time passed with no updates I doubted what was happening
Was informed recently by my manager that role was going to an external candidate following a successful interview.
I was not given an interview (nor was another internal applicant)

Do I have a case to query this with HR? No HR update has been given apart from confirmation of application.
Just feels worse given I wasn't given opportunity to demonstrate I could do this role.

Not really unless you feel any internal rules have been broken.

Apart from any internal rules / policies / procedures, legally they can appoint who they please. Providing they don't discriminate one one of the handful of grounds protected by law (race, gender etc) they can follow any procedure they like or none at all.

paulharding150

It's very rude and bad practice, but your company hasn't done anything illegal/against the rules.

I once had a three hour interview (two hour written exercise, followed by a one hour face to face interview) with RNIB for a senior-ish position never heard back from them despite me emailing the director (who was on the interview panel) directly. Really irritating, especially as I'd used a full days holiday/leave for the interview.

Some firms, are bad at HR some are just sh.it

bouicca21

In a previous life it was common practice for vacancies to be advertised internally. But if the candidate pool was weak, we would then go external.

I think it might be worth contacting your HR people with a query along the lines of how can I improve my application, rather than complain about them appointing someone else. It's not uncommon for internal candidates to rely on their qualities being known rather than to work at a really polished application.

Savvy_Sue

bouicca21 wrote: »

I think it might be worth contacting your HR people with a query along the lines of how can I improve my application, rather than complain about them appointing someone else. It's not uncommon for internal candidates to rely on their qualities being known rather than to work at a really polished application.

This.

You have to write your application as if no-one there had ever heard of you, met you, or knew what you were capable of. Yes, you can refer to work you've done there ("since I started working at XYZ as a widget-maker I have doubled productivity while maintaining standards by polishing at an earlier stage of the process" and "I have really enjoyed my time so far at XYZ and would be very glad to continue my career here, especially to develop my skills within the widget design department" kind of thing), but you can't assume that everyone knows what a great chap you are and what an asset you'd be to any department.

Gustav1982

Appreciate the replies all

Was more in this instance I've been told they didn't pursue the internal candidates as they liked one external candidate and went with them.

Frustrating but onward and upward

Savvy_Sue

Gustav1982 wrote: »

Was more in this instance I've been told they didn't pursue the internal candidates as they liked one external candidate and went with them.

Which takes you right back to talking to HR and asking how you could improve future applications so that they like YOURS!