Learn from Job Rejection

19 November 2015

Despite your brilliance, your thorough preparation, your interview practice and your deep desire for the role, sometimes you won’t be successful in jobs you go for.  As much as you might want to yell and scream, or curl into a ball and lick your wounds there are a couple of things to realise and a few actions you to commit to doing in the face of having your application rejected.

The reasons people get rejected for jobs can be broken down into roughly 4 categories.  In order of prominence these are:

1.     Often - They didn’t understand your claims or see your potential

2.     Often - Political maneuverings (i.e. an internal applicant who was wanted)

3.     Occasionally - You don’t have the skills, knowledge, experience or personal attributes needed to do the job

4.     Rarely - There is something wrong with you

In the vast majority of cases the rejection you have received is not a rejection of you.  It is not personal.  What usually happens is that the employer has had a ‘story’ that they wanted to hear about the ideal candidate and the ‘story’ you presented of your skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications, potential and personal characteristics just did not match closely enough.  You simply didn’t tell them what they needed to hear.  In some way you failed to present yourself in a way they could easily match what you have with what they were looking for.  Your job, in the face of rejection, is to learn how you could have presented your story better. 

Occasionally you are not selected for a role because there is genuinely a mis-match in what they want and what you have – you simply don’t have the ability to do the job.  If that is the case you want to be thankful that they haven’t selected you.  You would have been miserable in the role as you struggled to do it.  If you suspect this is the case, again learn from this.  Ask your self what skills you need to develop; what experience you need to gain; where you need to go to seek the additional knowledge you need; or what additional learning you need to undertake.  Then go do those things.

The biggest fear people have when they are rejected for a job is that the rejection is based on a flaw in their character, and that the people on the selection panel have seen that flaw and decided they couldn’t stand having you around.  This is very, very, very rarely the case.  The people who experience the greatest level of success in their career are people who have a very clear understanding of themselves.  They have put the time and thinking in to understand their personality, their values, their beliefs, the way they are perceived, and their social and emotional intelligence and choose jobs to apply for that align with who they are.  In a subsequent article we will explore how you can develop this knowledge of yourself, but in the face of a job rejection, in the very rare cases that it is you who has been rejected, look for the small kernel of learning you might be able to take from the experience.

On a side note – Occasionally there are political factors that conspire against applicants.  Please don’t let these put you off applying if you truly believe you are an outstanding applicant for the position.  I have seen lots and lots of cases where the external applicant has won out over an internal favorite.  The key thing is that you need to know that you are truly an outstanding applicant.

The most important action that you need to do in the face of a job rejection is to seek feedback from the employer.  Seeking feedback can achieve 3 things.  The first is that you may gain valuable information that will help you be successful with the next job you go for.  The second is that seeking feedback gives you an opportunity to continue building your relationship with this employer and impress them with the gracious, mature and learning approach that you take to difficult situations.  The final benefit is that it keeps you front of mind for potential other roles the employer may have now or in the future (this can often occur if the successful applicant was an internal candidate).

One thing to keep in mind when seeking feedback is that often the person you are seeking feedback from will be fearful of giving it to you.  They are concerned that you may take offence to something they say.  They also fear that you may use something they say to appeal the decision.  You need to put their minds at ease.  Explicitly say to them that you are seeking feedback so you can learn and do better next time.  Two things flow from this statement. The first is that their esteem for you rises and the second is that it helps them be more honest with you.

When seeking feedback the best approach is to have a series of prepared questions that you want to ask. Some good questions are listed below.  If you don’t have prepared questions it is unlikely that you will receive valuable feedback as the default approach of the employer is to say that you were good, but the selected candidate was simply better.  This feedback doesn’t help you because it doesn’t give you specific information that you can take action on to improve your chance of being successful next time.  Don’t ask for general feedback ask for specific feedback in the following areas:

·       The quality of your written application

·       The way in which you performed and presented at the interview

·       The level at which they rated your skills, experience, knowledge and qualifications

·       The appropriateness of the examples you presented to substantiate your claims and the stories you used in interview

·       Your physical presentation and the level of positive engagement they felt with you

Here are some questions you could ask (please don’t use all of them as that would be quite intimidating – select 3 or 4).  Be curious, be open and don’t be defensive as you ask these.  Sincerely thank the employer for any information they give you.

“Were there any habits, or ways of presenting, I had in the interview (e.g. annoying hand movements, ways of saying things) that you think I could work on?”
“Were there answers to question/addressing of selection criteria that you found difficult to understand?” If so, “Which ones?”
“What specific skills (either technical or personal) do you think I could enhance in order to be successful with you, or with similar employers, next time?”
“Was there anything about my application/interview that made it difficult for you to select me?”
"If you had to name the key reason I was unsuccessful at this time what would it be?"

"In comparison to the successful candidate do you believe it was my skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications or potential that made the difference?"

"What would you like to have seen/read about me that may have made me more successful in this process?"
“Of the examples I presented of my work history which were the ones that resonated with you the most?  Which were the ones that failed to sell my skills?”

Seek this feedback personally – don’t use email to ask for it.  Call, or if you can, arrange for a face-to-face meeting.  The bonus is that doing so is such a great personal development activity.  If you can seek feedback in the face of job rejection you show you can handle just about any job requirement!