“Why Didn’t I Get This Job?” What You Wish You Could Tell a Candidate

confused rejected candidateComplaints. Questions. Verbal tongue lashings. Recruiters hear them all the time. “Why didn’t I get this job? I thought I was perfectly qualified!” It’s quite possibly the most common question amongst candidates, no matter the industry or organization. While qualifications are absolutely important, when a recruiter goes through the recruitment process, we know there are dozens of other factors beyond just qualifications to consider. While most recruiters don’t have time to go into complete detail with every candidate they reject, we’ve found that these are most of the main factors to consider when advancing or rejecting a candidate… and some of the things that we can (and wish) we could tell each and every one of them.

First, experience is huge! Recruiters can receive 500+ candidate applications for a single position. In this economy, we find that while we have many candidates that meet the minimum qualifications for a role and are, in every sense, qualified, we have another candidate that may have all that, plus many years of related experience.

Pay range for a particular role is another important factor. Often, this is where candidates who are “over-qualified” find frustration (yes, another one of those buzz words flying around in our down economy). If a candidate states a pay range that is outside of our current range for a particular role, that person may not be the best fit. Similarly, we have to look out for the long-term fit of that candidate and for the organization as a whole. If they accept a position that’s below their required pay range, they often find dissatisfaction within their job, as well as feeling taken advantage of for their skills and experience after some time passes. That leads to candidates looking for a new job that pays “better” (i.e. more within their original range), which leaves us as an organization in a lurch once again.

We also try to find candidates that are a fit for the culture of our organization. Candidates need to interview an organization almost as much as the organization interviews the candidate. We want to find someone that will find satisfaction within their team, with their manager and with the organization as a whole. Sometimes, it’s apparent that a candidate’s work style, while perfectly fine, does not match that of the current manager, department or the organization. We always have to think long-term and look to see what would be best not only for the candidate but for the organization.

Many organizations, and dare I say it, MOST organizations, have values, a mission statement or some other statement of purpose they live by. Recruiters look for candidates that exude these qualities within their work and their personality, as well as having a track record for exhibiting these traits.  

Similarly, we look for candidates that have a professional, positive and approachable attitude. If you work outside of the HR/Recruitment industry, you might be surprised to know that we chat with many job seekers that are surly, defensive, rude or otherwise unpleasant and unprofessional. We see this when candidates call our career center, chat with us on Live Chat, email us, contact us through social media, or are interviewed over the phone.  I think most people would recommend against it, yet it still happens.

There is clearly some gap in knowledge between a recruiter and a candidate on what is involved in the hiring process, as there are many additional factors that go into a hiring decision than meets the eye. This negatively effects the candidate experience. How can recruiters help candidates understand all the factors involved and in turn help improve the candidate experience?

What are we missing?  What other factors go into your hiring decision? Conversely, what do you WISH you could say to candidates?  After all, if we’re not being honest with candidates and addressing factors that are a problem, we aren’t helping the candidate be successful and nothing will ever change.

Post contributed by Dana Hoffmann
Follow me on Twitter @damahoff or connect with me on LinkedIn
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