"The other person didn't do so well so we want to interview someone else"

Jonathan_Powell

Dox said:

Jonathan_Powell said:

That was the response I got yesterday from a final interview. I got to the final stage, from my perspective done well in the final interview and then the manager calls me. She said that it was between me and another candidate and it didn't go too well for that candidate so they want to interview someone else so it's a "level playing field".

Can you really not read between the lines here? They are hoping to find someone who, for whatever reason, is 'better suited' than you are to whatever vision of the ideal candidate they have, but they are keeping their options open in case you're the closest thing they can find.

In your shoes, what would really worry me is whether the company might reluctantly appoint you but carry on looking after you've started, and then show you the door when they happily think they've got the person they would have preferred in the first place.

Instead of posting here, I'd be job hunting instead of putting up with this nonsense.

Oh trust me, I read between the lines. I just find the response insulting and weird. As you alluded to, how can they expect the candidate to faith that they are not going to be kicked to the curb a few months in?

I'm under no illusion that people offered jobs may be second or third choice, but if you've had a bucket load of CV's and interviews (you can see the number of applications on LinkedIn which was in the hundreds and it was more than 3 weeks from my application to a response) and you've narrowed it down to two people, surely you either hire someone or start the process again.

In the end, they could have told me no so I guess I should be somewhat grateful. Always going to be !!!!!! because of the effort you put into these things (an entire 90 day business plan which they probably couldn't even put together themselves).

[Deleted User]

I would work on the basis that you don't have the job and keep looking.
If they come back later then consider it on it's merits including how they've handled this 

AW618

Why does everyone assume he should "keep job hunting"?  It's more than a little patronising,  For all anyone knows he has a perfectly good job which he is happy with, and this is just one he applied for because it was even better.  I don't get the constant assumptions that everyone is unemployed here.

unforeseen

The best rejection I've had was the agency forwarding the rejection email on from the manager that I would have been working for without fully reading it. 
He said that he rejected me because I was better qualified and experienced than he was and was afraid that I'd be after his job. 

[Deleted User]

Aye I don't know, it can happen when in the job too.
An employer accesses and can reconsider someone's skill set any time, whether it was the natural plan when I took my current job on, very hard in one way knowing the promised training and development for a particular part of the role I was meant to be doing never happened (so set up to fail) due to the virus and where the company has rapidly grown, another person was brought into be admin assistant and moi has turned into Call Handler. (really good job I don't mind the call centre environment and have wonderfully good reason for leaving in the future)
Equally I remember when I went for the job interview, one point was respect for the technicians when communicating which I absolutely meet, but now my boss seems to have kind of done a u-turn on what they even said.

Pajaro

Yes, something similar happened to me.

They said that I was the best candidate they interviewed but needed to interview someone "comparable to compare me against".

That made no sense and so I gave them an ultimatum to say yes or no within a certain period of time and never heard from them again.

Wyndham

It happened to me.  In the end they went with someone else.  I did get to the stage where if they had offered it, I would have (politely) refused - it just went on for ages with no real explanation.

steampowered

It is indeed a very weird thing to get told by an employer, and does sound like they think you might not be the perfect fit for the role.

Still, it might be worth going along to the interview. Who knows, perhaps you might blow their socks off and persuade them that you are in fact the best person for the role - unlikely but could happen.