Contradicting Rejection

Tinkberbell

Recently, I interviewed for a HR position at my current place of work - I work in a completely different department so when they advertised for the role, I emailed the HR Manager to with a few questions - one being if they required someone with previous experience. She said although it would be a bonus, that's not what they are looking for specifically for this role.

I applied and completed a task and then was invited for an interview over Zoom, I told them about my previous job (it was my one and only but I was there for 9 years until I was made redundant due to Store Closures) in the 9 years, I progressed from a temp to a Sales Manager and did gain some understanding of HR along the way etc etc

I received an email today which said that I was not successful for the role and that they had feedback to offer, which of course I am happy to take as I do want to get into HR however the emailed was signed off with the following:

"I really enjoying talking with you and hearing about your career so far and I'm really sorry that in this instance its not a match for this particular role"

It's the above which confuses me and slightly has me annoyed because it now seems to me that I was not successful because I don't have HR experience.

Can someone maybe help me understand what the above may have meant as I feel like it's knocked my confidence to apply for any HR roles again, internally or externally?

Dakta

I wouldn't read into it - not getting an opportunity is never pleasant but the feedback you've been given is positive - i.e they did like to hear from you.

Someone likely ticks more boxes and sometimes its more to do with what others have than what you haven't 

also there can be more capable candidates than jobs, so i wouldnt overthink it

TELLIT01

The feedback could have possibly been worded better.  'Not the best match' maybe, but the result is still the same.  You didn't have as much relevent experience as the person they gave the job to.

General_Grant

"my previous job (it was my one and only but I was there for 9 years until I was made redundant due to Store Closures) in the 9 years, I progressed from a temp to a Sales Manager "

By the way, when I began reading that you had had one job for 9 years I was surprised because jobs change over time - and then I saw that not only had the job changed but you had had more than one job.

I expect that when you completed the application you showed that you had had one employer but then listed the different roles you held and your achievements in them.

Marcon

Tinkberbell said:

I received an email today which said that I was not successful for the role and that they had feedback to offer, which of course I am happy to take as I do want to get into HR however the emailed was signed off with the following:

"I really enjoying talking with you and hearing about your career so far and I'm really sorry that in this instance its not a match for this particular role"

It's the above which confuses me and slightly has me annoyed because it now seems to me that I was not successful because I don't have HR experience.

Can someone maybe help me understand what the above may have meant as I feel like it's knocked my confidence to apply for any HR roles again, internally or externally?

It's a pretty standard sign off and is doubtless the same final line received by every candidate who wasn't offered the job. 

Was that the extent of the 'feedback'?

Sandtree

Most the time when you apply for a job there is a minimum standard they will accept but its not a case of getting over that threashold alone, its about being the best candidate they speak to in the process. It is therefore a reasonable amount of luck of the draw over who the other applicants are. You can be well above the minimum standard but if someone comes along with better and more relevant experience you wont get the job.

The last recruitment I did was for a Data Analyst, I wanted good technical skills and said experience of reinsurance would be very helpful but insurance was sufficient. When the CVs arrived and one candidate not only had reinsurance experience but experience with the explicit system we were intending to implement it was fairly clear they were the strongest candidate in the field. That didnt mean my ad was wrong or misleading in any way and indeed someone with insurance but no reinsurance experience got a job too (just not the one I was advertising) as they were very impressive and I knew where we could used them even if not in my team.

I would certainly ask if there is some more precise feedback they can give but there is a reasonable chance they wont... its water under the bridge and if you tell a candidate that, for example, you didnt feel they took criticism well then half of them will come back with a load of examples of when they have but that isnt going to change the decision.

Undervalued

Marcon said:

Tinkberbell said:

I received an email today which said that I was not successful for the role and that they had feedback to offer, which of course I am happy to take as I do want to get into HR however the emailed was signed off with the following:

"I really enjoying talking with you and hearing about your career so far and I'm really sorry that in this instance its not a match for this particular role"

It's the above which confuses me and slightly has me annoyed because it now seems to me that I was not successful because I don't have HR experience.

Can someone maybe help me understand what the above may have meant as I feel like it's knocked my confidence to apply for any HR roles again, internally or externally?

It's a pretty standard sign off and is doubtless the same final line received by every candidate who wasn't offered the job. 

Was that the extent of the 'feedback'?

Exactly this ^^^^^

Grumpy_chap

That feedback seems like a fairly generic and "safe" comment for the company to make in a formal manner.

As this is at the OP's current employer, can the OP speak informally with the interviewing manager for some off-the-record commentary?  If everyone was in the office, that would mean accidentally bumping into the individual at the coffee machine.  I am not sure what the remote working version of a casual meeting like that would be.

pinkshoes

I would contact them again, thanking them for their time and feedback, and say that you're really interested in getting into an HR position, so would it be possible to have some advice on the best way to go about doing this.

When I was at university, I applied for a job with Gap to do their graduate retail management program. I knew lots of people that applied but I was the only one to get an interview.

I quite enjoyed the experience, did my best, only to get a rejection letter saying that I did really well in all their assessments, there was a long list of things I did really well but unfortunately due to having no retail experience they were not offering me the position.

I politely replied thanking them for their detailed response, but said that I was a little confused about being rejected due to having no retail experience when in response to the application question of "please describe any retail experience you have" I had responded with "none"! 

KiKi

I think you're misinterpreting the feedback, as you're assuming the lack of 'match' is down to your lack of HR experience.

I would say that a) they've been clear that in *this* instance, and for *this* particular role you're not a match.  They haven't said "never apply again" or "you're rubbish at HR."  And b), not a match doesn't mean experience.  They were clear up front you didn't need experience, so it's an odd conclusion to come to!  Let's say that three of their criteria for this role were 1. negotiation, 2. handling difficult conversations, and 3. balancing people and business needs.  You can demonstrate that outside of an HR role, so no experience needed, but perhaps you didn't meet those criteria.  Perhaps your negotiation example wasn't very strong, or your difficult conversations examples were all with customers rather than internal staff.  That would mean you didn't match their criteria in *this* instance for *this* role.

Hope that helps?

I would also add that for many HR roles now you do need experience or a qualification, even entry level roles.  So it may be worth a conversation with your organisation to see if they would sponsor you doing a level 3 CIPD qual ('Foundation' qual) to support your career development.  Nothing to lose by asking!  Or ask to shadow, speak to them about how to get into HR as a career etc.

KiKi

TBagpuss

It's fairly generic so I wouldn't read too much into it. It's likely that they had other candidates who had more / more relevant experience.