Janice Worthington MA, CPRW, JCTC, CEIP Send Janice a Question

When You Don’t Get Hired & It’s Not Your Fault! Everyone understands disappointment but I don’t believe anything causes a job candidate to lose confidence as much as submitting a great résumé, sporting a good-looking interview outfit, holding a compelling interview, passing the drug test, learning that your references were called and then waiting...for the job offer that never comes. This disappointment can be especially difficult if you developed a rapport with one or more of the hiring authorities. Knowing you impressed a decision-maker only to wait for a call that never comes is an all-too familiar job search killer. What did you do wrong? Perhaps nothing. Where could you have done better? Perhaps nowhere. If you thought you were a "sure thing" and nothing happened the following scenarios might explain why: The hiring authority may have assumed a different position or exited the company completely and thus created a communication gap in the hiring process on a long-term or permanent basis. I have always compared this phenomenon to a breakdown of a company’s "hiring nervous system" because the left hand can no longer transmit a message to the right hand. What is unfortunate is that any sensitivity to your job offer has gone numb. The company implemented a corporate-wide hiring freeze. When companies such as Disney announce a hiring freeze headlines are made. But when smaller corporations or privately-held companies suddenly "freeze," their own employees may never be told, much less the candidate who’s interview so impressed 24 hours before the announcement. The CEO’s nephew finally decided he wanted the job. While some companies have policies against hiring family members and relatives, just as many have open-door policies and are very likely to be faced with the potential inheritance of these folks due to their availability from layoffs. There is nothing a good candidate can do to outperform that nephew. The current employee decided not to leave. This is another interesting situation that happens more often than we know, and while this revelation places that particular employee’s future on the list of what bosses call "diminishing returns," the brakes have been applied to any candidates under consideration. You eventually do get the job offer...just not within your preferred time parameters. There is a whole litany of unrelated reasons that can slow down a hire, or perhaps the timeframe to hire actually complied with that particular company’s norm all along...just not ours. When our priority is not the hiring authority’s we lose patience and assume rejection. The lesson here is twofold. It may not have been your fault so don’t beat yourself up! You may have been the perfect candidate in a particular hiring event but because of outside forces, you still may not get the job! These things happen and companies are under no obligation to notify of you with any reasons as to the fact that the job has been filled or what happened to your promising prospects. If you have enough "irons in the fire" the realization that one isn’t going to come through won’t leave you quite so devastated and you will have other events for which to prepare. You’ll also get hired sooner! Life’s not always fair but getting hired is still a numbers game; the more you have happening the sooner someone will ask, "When can you start?"

Janice Worthington is President of Worthington Career Services, Ohio’s oldest resume preparation firm and one of the oldest in the U.S. With 14 years of corporate recruiting experience, Worthington Career Services opened its doors focused on applicant empowerment in 1973. She is known for advising some of America’s highest-ranking industry leaders. Please send Janice your questions at janice@worthingtonresumes.com .  For more information on Janice, please visit her website at http://www.worthingtonresumes.com/!