The Surprising Reasons Why You Didn’t Get The Job

By Ken Zwerdling on Nov 12, 2022

According to an article in Forbes magazine - 

How many times have you gone on a job interview, thought you nailed it and never heard back? It feels like this is a regular occurrence—lack of constructive feedback and getting ghosted. Well, you are not alone. It has become the new standard. Here’s why you aren’t moving on to the next round of interviews or being offered the job.

Why You Don’t Move Forward In The Interview Process

Corporate management can’t be honest. They need to keep up appearances. The CEO and executives think they have to be in command of all the events at their firm. The top brass doesn’t want to admit problems, as they’re concerned about adverse publicity.

This is one of the reasons why you don’t gain traction during the hiring process: the company may have a stealth hiring freeze policy. The firm doesn’t want to publicly announce this, as the media will pick it up and there will be the assumption that something is wrong at the company.

Broadcasting a pause on hiring raises questions about the organization’s business model, revenue stream and profits. To avoid negative press, the company will tell its human resources department, internal talent acquisition recruiters and hiring managers to go about their business searching, recruiting and interviewing candidates.

They go through the motions, but they have no intention of actually hiring someone right now. The HR team wants to build a pipeline for when things turn around in the future. Since they are not honest about it, you’re left dazed and confused.

The Manager Is Intimidated

You always hear that businesses want to hire the best and brightest. However, that may be the top-line corporate talking point. When it comes down to the granular level, some managers pass over highly qualified applicants. The unfortunate reason they won’t admit out loud is that they are intimidated by the candidate. The manager may suffer from imposter syndrome, lack self-confidence or genuinely isn’t good at their job. The manager views the rockstar job seeker as an existential threat to their job. If hired, it would only be a matter of time until the person quickly outshines the boss. They know that the team will pick up on this new shift. The workers will turn to the new fast-track professional instead of the boss. It's not worth the risk for the manager. Even though the job hunter would add tremendous value to the organization, the manager feels they’ll be exposed. They care more about holding onto power than helping to improve the company by choosing the brilliant applicant.

Biases And Prejudices

Hiring managers hold their own preconceived conscious and unconscious biases. They wouldn’t say this out loud, but the interviewer may not be inclined to choose people of a specific color, religion, race, age, weight, sexual orientation or by the way the candidate looks or dresses.

How many times have you gone on a job interview, thought you nailed it and never heard back? It feels like this is a regular occurrence—lack of constructive feedback and getting ghosted. Well, you are not alone. It has become the new standard. Here’s why you aren’t moving on to the next round of interviews or being offered the job.

They may judge your intelligence if you went to a state college compared to a top-tier university. How you talk and act could be seen through their lens as someone who isn’t intelligent or sophisticated.

Sometimes it goes the other way around. To meet internal quotas, the supervisor may select a person from a disadvantaged group, in an attempt to help create a more diversified and inclusive workplace.

Negative Comments Through Backchannels

It’s not good protocol for a manager to go behind the candidate’s back and ask someone they know from the job seeker’s current firm their opinion of the candidate. Leveraging their contacts to extract inside information about the job hunter isn’t illegal, but it feels wrong. If word gets back to the boss, the job seeker could either lose their position or be brushed aside, as the company thinks the person is a flight risk and will eventually leave.

The person the manager spoke to may be purposely sabotaging the applicant by saying something derogatory, as they don’t want to lose the employee. The company may have a hiring freeze in place or downsizing personnel. If a person quits for another job, the boss may not have the go-ahead to replace them when they leave. It puts the manager in a tough bind.

With one less person, the work will be dumped on everyone else on the team. The extra tasks and responsibilities could alienate the remaining employees and they’ll start searching for new jobs. It becomes a snowball effect, as one person after another resigns because they resent having to do more work and enduring additional stress without any increase in compensation.

Making Everyone Agree On A Candidate

It used to be that an applicant would meet with human resources, the hiring manager and maybe one or two other people with whom the person would interact with daily. It's different now. Companies now put candidates through the gauntlet of six to 10-plus interviews scheduled over the course of several months.

In the current challenging economy, it’s natural for people to worry about holding onto their jobs. There is a fear that if the supervisor hires a person who later turns out to be a dud, it reflects poorly on the person who decided to bring about the toxic employee. All fingers would point to the manager when the new hire makes mistakes, lacks drive, annoys co-workers and is generally perceived as someone who needs to be let go. Since it's still a tight job market and businesses are pausing on bringing new people aboard, senior management may not allow a replacement if the person is let go. They could have a policy of attrition, in which the role won’t be refilled when an employee leaves. Senior executives are also concerned that if a person is summarily fired, allegations of discrimination may be raised, creating problems for everyone.

To deflect blame, the trend is for the hiring manager to include feedback from all the other interviewers. This requires three to 10 people to sign off on the new hire. It’s not easy to get that consensus. Think of how hard it is to get your family to agree on what to order for dinner and what movie to watch. The fighting over the food and type of movie takes longer than both activities combined. Similarly, getting 10 people to agree on a candidate is not easy. All it takes is one or two people, who aren’t even that invested in the role, to take a pass and it's all over for the applicant. A weak, unconfident manager won’t want to challenge the dissenters because it will all be his fault if the worker doesn’t do well. Conversely, if everyone agrees on giving the green light, should the person fail in their new position, the hiring manager can say in their defense, “We all thought the person held the right background, exceeded the requirements on the job description and possessed solid interpersonal and social skills. All of us are shocked that the person isn’t thriving.” The subtext is that the boss is really saying, “It’s not my fault. Everyone else wanted this person too.”

How To Fight Back When Interviewing

Let the interviewers know that you are interested in the role. No hiring manager wants to lose political capital by going through the lengthy approval process just to find out the candidate isn’t interested in accepting an offer.

When the time arises, say, “I enjoyed meeting with everyone, love the people, corporate culture, your mission statement and feel that my background, experience and skills are perfectly aligned for this position. If offered, I would gladly accept the job!” This statement makes it easier for the manager to push for an offer.

Alert trusted people at your company that you are in search mode, and they will likely be contacted for an unofficial reference check. You want them to provide only positive and glowing endorsements. They should never say, “He’s good at X, but needs work on Y.” While that may be technically accurate, you need to play the game by getting people to champion your cause.

HR and others involved with the hiring process will likely check out your social media footprint. Clean up anything that could be construed as harmful to your reputation. Upon starting your search, wage a campaign online to highlight your achievements. For instance, on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, intelligently respond to posts on high-profile accounts in your space. Make your own content that positions you as an expert and leader in your field. If you’re comfortable, create a short video that burnishes your brand and makes you come across as likable and charismatic. Post it on relevant social media platforms for your profession.

Just as the interviewers go behind your back to gather intel, two can play that game. Seek out people you know at the target company you’re interviewing with and let them know that you’ll be applying for a job there. Politely ask them to make glowing recommendations on your behalf. Internal referrals and recommendations are most often prized and let them know to pay close attention to this candidate. You’ll have the “halo effect” when interviewing, as the recommendations already position you as a strong contender for the job.