You’ve done the work, perfected an immaculate resume, crafted your portfolio, and submitted your application. You get a hit! You get an email to schedule an interview. Everything went well. You dressed the part, had perfect responses to all their questions, and felt like you and the hiring manager hit it off! But then, it happened. Weeks went by, you followed up but got no responses, and you started to think they ghosted you. All of a sudden, you have a new email from the company.
“Thank you for your interest. We decided to go in another direction.”
So, what happened? You submitted your resume. You may have even made it to the next stage. You felt confident. Then they reply with that dreaded phrase: “We’re going in another direction,” or “We chose a candidate that better matches our needs.” If you’ve ever received this response, you probably felt like someone just knocked the wind out of you.
Your first words were probably, “What does that even mean?” To put it plainly, the company can’t tell you the exact reason because…well, because sometimes they don’t know. Maybe their HR/Legal teams said they can’t share the reason, or they really don’t have a reason that they feel would be sufficient enough.
Could it have been your age? Of course not! There are laws against that! Age means experience, right? Yes, but the company may have wanted a newbie who would be willing towork 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they might have felt you wouldn’t agree to that. Maybe your experience demanded a higher salary compared to someone with no experience. Or maybe they got the impression you would come into the role and quickly start making process improvements, and they don’t want to deal with that.
All those reasons suck. Let’s be real. So, how does someone overcome this? Convey flexibility/mobility in your resume if you’re flexible/mobile: Don’t let your experience blind them. Let them know you still have it in you! Don’t be afraid to talk about financial competitiveness: If there’s ever a question about expected salary, research current average salaries for similar roles in that region, and consider the level at which you’re applying (entry, mid, senior). Usually, there’s room to grow once you’re in the door. There are a lot of assumptions hiring managers will make if you aren’t willing to bring up these questions at the end of the interview. Be curious, not demanding.
What about things that you can directly control? Let’s use this as one example: Are you ready to jump in and go with the flow, or did you spend half the interview talking about all the things you changed while at your previous job? Well, check the job posting again. Are they looking specifically for someone to make process improvements? If so, highlight that! If not, don’t mention it. A company doesn’t want someone who’s going to come in on day one and start asking why things are done they way they are. Unless “process improvements” was part of the job listing, don’t spend too much time talking about your experience in that category. Of course, this was just one example, but making sure the conversation and flow of the interview aligns with the job description is important.
As always, my thoughts are my own, and they’re based on my professional experiences. Take everything written with a grain of salt. Hiring managers are humans too (most of the time), so regardless of how well-prepared you are, sometimes things just don’t go your way. That’s why I never fall in love with a job posting itself. If you’re genuinely excited by an opportunity, make sure it shows in the interview and your communications with the company.