Rejected for two internal positions

esj13

Last month I applied for a role that came up at work. I'd been waiting for this since before Christmas and a colleague who works in the department I've been hoping to get a role in let me know about it.
I applied using the job profile and I met the criteria on every level and provided extensive evidence for my experience.

The advert closed and I received an email a few days later from a HR trainee saying that they had decided not to take my application further and that was all.

I decided to check the company recruitment policy per internal applicants and it said:
As part of the Group’s commitment to investing in our people and developing a succession plan strategy; there is a real need to receive applications from internal candidates with the relevant skills and experience.

Internal applicants who meet the identified selection criteria for the role will be offered an interview and will be offered feedback on their performance, regardless of whether they are offered the job. This feedback is intended to be supportive with a view to helping them succeed the next time they apply for an advertised role. Where the internal applicant falls short of the essential requirements of the role, this will be explained to them so that they are not asked to go through an interview process with little prospect of them being in a position to perform with a successful outcome.

I replied to the email requesting feedback and/or a reason why I wasn't offered an interview under this policy and received a response stating that they felt my application was great, however, they received applications from people with specialist in depth knowledge and experience who were more suited and that they welcomed me to apply for future roles.

I then penned a scathing email: (which I must impress that I did not send as I was advised by my manager and colleagues as I may alienate HR and damage any potential future opportunities)
Thank you for your response,

While I can appreciate that there may have been applications from other people with a background in this type of role, I feel that to dismiss my application on this basis, considering that I have demonstrated experience and knowledge that fits the criteria, is unfair for a few reasons.

This is not conducive to the group’s commitment to investing in its people, where the policy states that internal applicants will be offered an interview and/or feedback if their application does not meet the criteria for the role.
I have not received either on this occasion and the policy does not stipulate that this is dependent on other applicants.
Either I have not met the requirements of the role (though I have been told that I submitted a great application, with clear experience), in which case I should be offered constructive feedback to enable me to improve this next time. Or I should have been offered an interview, as per policy.

I am not, therefore, encouraged to apply for any future roles within the group if this is the response that is received, and does not inspire confidence that the group’s commitments to staff development are being upheld.

Kind Regards,

And so I let this go by and after a couple of days I got over the upset.

Then another role came up which was a fantastic opportunity and, my manager offered some additional support on how to improve my application by using the language used in the profile to make it stand out more.

And again today I have received a no, with no feedback.
I'm so angry and hacked off.
Can anyone offer any advice what to do here?
Should I send them the aggressive email and jump ship as they don't bother to follow their own policies and values, what kind of example and image are they setting for themselves and hindering my career development.

KatrinaWaves

If you want to leave, then leave.

It sounds like you may not have hit the criteria of ‘specialist in depth knowledge and experience’ your own opinion on your application wont be the same as other people’s. I recently did the same, applied for an internal position, spoke to the current employee, tailored my app to the job spec as well as including extra from my chat with the current person in the job, nada. Not a peep, not even a sorry but no.

Meeting the requirements of the role/application is not necessarily covered by submitting a great application. You do not have in-depth knowledge and experience it seems, so they are interviewing those who do. This appears to be one of the basic requirements and they feel you fall short on this. I once interviewed for a job I was already doing and I didn’t get it. I was gutted. My interview feedback was that I didn’t mention X or Y or Z. I did X and Y and Z every day. I had been graded as outstanding in my X and Y and Z recently by an outside body. I literally could not have done my job had I not been doing those things, but because I didn’t trot them out in an interview I didn’t get the job. Jobs and interviews are now a point scoring basis.

If you really want to work in this department and have no experience, ask about job shadowing.

Mr.Generous

I'd send your email, I think it's fine and if you don't they will do the same again. At an interview you have the chance to impress, they can easily fact check what you say - external candidates can shine with bu****it.

In my career I saw loads of external candidates come in heralded as some great recruit who would be superb … only to see them fail spectacularly when internal candidates had been overlooked.

I once asked a HR guru why all the external appointments with sometimes zero relevant experience came in on higher salaries than internally promoted staff. The reply was they had to pay the market rate to attract talent. You can guess what I said.

esj13

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

If you want to leave, then leave.

It sounds like you may not have hit the criteria of ‘specialist in depth knowledge and experience’ your own opinion on your application wont be the same as other people’s. I recently did the same, applied for an internal position, spoke to the current employee, tailored my app to the job spec as well as including extra from my chat with the current person in the job, nada. Not a peep, not even a sorry but no.

Meeting the requirements of the role/application is not necessarily covered by submitting a great application. You do not have in-depth knowledge and experience it seems, so they are interviewing those who do. This appears to be one of the basic requirements and they feel you fall short on this. I once interviewed for a job I was already doing and I didn’t get it. I was gutted. My interview feedback was that I didn’t mention X or Y or Z. I did X and Y and Z every day. I had been graded as outstanding in my X and Y and Z recently by an outside body. I literally could not have done my job had I not been doing those things, but because I didn’t trot them out in an interview I didn’t get the job. Jobs and interviews are now a point scoring basis.

If you really want to work in this department and have no experience, ask about job shadowing.

I sent my application to the person who actually does the job and said that she was surprised I didn't get an interview as I did demonstrate all of the specialist knowledge required.
But then she isn't HR.

The second role I applied for was as a trainee Tax Accountant as I am currently doing a degree with a focus in accounting and accountancy and finance is where I want to go in my career.
The advert said that I didn't need any experience or knowledge, just to demonstrate a desire to learn and a keen interest in this area, all of which I have and showed in my application.

My point here is less about my ability (as I know I am good enough for these roles, regardless of whether others think that is arrogant, this is how you should believe in yourself if you wish to succeed) and more about the company's falsehoods regarding values and commitments to developing people.

KatrinaWaves

It sounds like you are not happy with your current employers values so, find one you are happy without

I’m assuming role 2 is a step up from role 1 in the same department?

KiKi

I don't actually read that policy the same way you do. I read this bit: "Internal applicants who meet the identified selection criteria for the role will be offered an interview and will be offered feedback on their performance" to mean that IF you meet the identified selection criteria, you'll be offered an interview. If you don't get the job through that interview, then you'll get feedback. Ie. the feedback only comes if you get an interview. Not if you're simply turned down. Your email states that the policy is "an interview and / or feedback" - but that's not actually what the policy says, assuming you copied it here word for word.

You can have submitted a great application generally - lots of good stuff in it - but not meet the full selection criteria. Perhaps the person responding to you shouldn't have been encouraging by saying "you submitted a great application" - perhaps they should have been more frank and said "your application didn't meet the criteria". But presumably they were trying to be positive for you rather than making your feel rubbish.

If you don't like working there, then leave. If you harbour that much seething anger and resentment after two non-interviews, then it may not be the place for you! Certainly, writing an email like that (I appreciate you didn't send it - because your colleagues told you not to) would suggest to me a lack of awareness around how to manage difficult or emotional situations at work; I'd expect someone who was concerned about a policy not being followed / the lack of development support to go and talk to the team concerned - not do it over email which is open to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. I'd expect them not to jump to conclusions, but ask some questions first (eg, "this is how I read the policy, have I misunderstood?" "Do you offer feedback for those who don't get interviews?") I'd also expect someone in a professional workplace to consider why they didn't get an interview and reflect on it honestly, by asking for some helpful feedback rather than getting angry that a policy isn't being followed. (Eg "Could you please help me understand where I didn't meet the requirements so I can improve on my experience?")

Your overall response that this is their fault and the company is hindering you (rather than approaching it in a more professional way) certainly wouldn't give me confidence that you were right for a promotion. Obviously, I don't know you, I'm just offering a different perspective.

If, of course, they're not following their own policy, then you could raise that - but do it like an adult in a professional workplace, not by throwing your toys out of the pram and resigning.

TELLIT01

Your belief that you fit all the criteria is apparently not the view of HR. If there are specific skills required it may simply be that you do not have the level of expertise required for the role. For example an ad may say Excel required when the actual requirement is to be at 'expert' level.

ReadingTim

You got feedback the first time - you were good, but others were better. The only thing you could have done would be to gain more "specialist in depth knowledge and experience". Think of it like qualifying for the Olympics - everyone's at a pretty high standard, but there can still be only 3 medal winners. It's just not an efficient use of time to interview everyone who meets the criteria, regardless of policy.

I don't know what happened the 2nd time, but it might be the same as the first. Obviously, as with the first, the same thing might apply - don't forget, you're not going for the job in isolation, you're competing against others. You can be good, but someone else was better.

As for career development; ultimately, the only person who benefits from it is yourself, so you need to take charge of it, and don't sit back and expect your employer to do it for you. If you think you're not being developed with your current employer, find another. If you're as good as you claim your applications were, you'll have no problem finding another job, will you?

eamon

You could also be competing against already prefered candidates and would always fail no matter how good your application is. It does happen.


Don't send the email or indeed any email to HR. Should you still want to work there my thoughts would be to speak to your current line manager when another job/promotion catches your eye and ask them to assist with you application.

[Deleted User]

There is nothing you can do.

They have decided you do not meet the criteria which I imagine is set out in a person specification.

Their decision not yours to make.

Move on.

shortcrust

I understand the frustration. On the face of it they’re not sticking to their policy, but their assessment of whether you meet the criteria may well be very different to yours. My reading of the policy regarding feedback is the same as Kiki's. Feedback will be provided to people who've got to the interview stage.

If I wasn’t in with a chance of getting a job I’d rather get knocked out of the process as early as possible. I'd find going through an interview process just to tick a box humiliating. For all the talk, the feedback would likely be "you were great but there was someone better".

There’s nothing to be gained by sending the email. At best, they won’t care. At worst, you’ll ensure you don’t get future oppotunites.

It’s hard to face, but if you consistently fail to get promotion through internal applications it probably means you’re either not good enough, or not liked enough. I’d be applying elsewhere.