8 ways to work out why you didn’t get the job
By Career Advice,

Getting feedback about job applications and interviews is often a difficult territory for people. One of the big impacts of digital technology in job search and the recruitment industry is that job applicants don’t get feedback on their applications. The fact is you may well have to cope with no feedback at all. Take a look at the points below and see what areas you can work on next time.

  • 1.How You Read the Process
    Maybe you didn’t understand clearly enough what the employer was after. You were more focussed on broadcasting yourself than on trying to match yourself to their specification.
  • 2.The Interview
    In the interview, you didn’t impress them enough with how you could be useful to them. A job interview is a great opportunity to sell yourself face-to-face but we don’t always take this opportunity.
  • 3.Not Enough Research
    The amount of research you did in preparation for completing your application or attending the interview was not enough. You didn’t learn enough pertinent information. The kind of research you did was not specific enough.
  • 4.Asking Questions
    In addition to not giving the right answers to questions, another potential job interview pitfall for us is not asking the right questions when given the opportunity by the interviewer to ask away.
  • 5.The People
    How much did you already know about the people that you met at the interview? Do you feel you built a strong enough relationship with these key individuals?
  • 6.Personality Fit
    Did you come away thinking you weren’t going to fit in with the organisation? If you were thinking that, your interviewers probably were too and decided to choose a candidate who was a better fit.
  • 7.Elevator Pitch
    In your pitch for the job how specific were you? Even if you were really specific, perhaps there wasn’t a match between what you were offering and what they needed.
  • 8.A “Better” Candidate
    Alternatively someone else beat you to it – they were “better for them” because of their experience, background, technical knowledge, cost, profile and so on.
About the author

Simon North is the Founder of Position Ignition and the Career Ignition Club. Position Ignition is one of the UK’s leading career development and career planning companies. The Career Ignition Club offers a range of career support tools, advice and e-learning materials for its members. Follow Simon North and his team on twitter @PosIgnition and get more advice from him on their Career Advice Blog.