How to word a difficult work email/WWYD

[4pmwinetimebebeh]

I currently work at a college teaching practical skills. I’ve been there 4 years and generally enjoy my job. In the past 6 months I’ve taken on a lot of additional responsibilities and roles, offered to me as ‘career progression’ and ‘role development’ with a view to progressing to the next pay grade/promotion. My manager has been very clear about my career path and I’ve done a good job (by all accounts) with the additional tasks.

After 6 months of this carrot I had an interview for the promotion yesterday and the phone call today. I didn’t get it. Someone external has. I don’t want to be petty but I am absolutely gutted and I feed a fool. The job description of the job I didn’t get is what I’m doing now. I was told I’m a highly respected and valued employee and assured they are going to apply to regrade my role to the higher one anyway within a couple of months. If that’s the case why didn’t I get the job? And also why have I waited 6 months for this job to come up when they could have regraded it!

I don’t want to sound petty and it’s an interview, of course it should go to the best candidate. But I’ve been assured that this was coming, the whole department expected me to get it and the interview went really well.

I feel so embarrassed and also taken advantage of. I want to email and basically say I’m disappointed and don’t want to continue to work at a higher level than I’m being paid for long term.

I mean one for the new external candidate!

don’t want to continue to work at a higher level than I’m being paid for" smacks a but of working to rule, which isn't going to sit comfortably with HR.
Is that not part of the issue for females in the workplace? What is it that won't sit comfortably with HR that they should be annoyed by people doing the job they get paid to do?

Given it'll take a couple of months for the regrading I would have plan a and plan b.

Plan a is allow the regrading process to go ahead and put all your eggs in that basket, but also not waste potentially no point time redoing your CV and searching job boards.

Plan b is allowing the regrading process to go ahead but also redoing your CV and beginning to search job boards for new positions. I always find it takes a couple of months of searching before I narrow down what I really want to do and where I want to do it. Then if the regrading hasn't happened you're starting from a moving position rather than starting cold from scratch.

You've had some really good advice here and your plan sounds a good one so I won't repeat that but I just wanted to mention something as a side note for anyone who goes for an interview internally. I work in HR so interview a lot and it is extremely common for internal applicants to be out-performed at interview. It's really disappointing when you know they're great but in a lot of cases they don't sell themselves as well or don't mention key bits of information and I'm sure it's because they feel the interviewer already knows them. They often don't come across as hungry for the job, I think mainly because they don't want to look too keen in front of managers they know. I'm not saying this happened in your case but it's a pattern I've seen a lot and it's really disappointing from an interviewers perspective. Recruitment can be tricky and legally you really have to cover yourself if questions arise about the decisions you make, particularly so you can show there was no discrimination. So often our hands are tied, we have to go with the person who performed best at interview. Sometimes it doesn't work out but often it does, it's a good thing to bring new people and fresh ideas into an organisation.

I think “don’t want to continue to work at a higher level than I’m being paid for" is totally valid as a thought, but can be put more positively to bosses as “I expect to be paid for the level of work I’m doing.”

If they don’t come up trumps on your timescale, just backing out of those responsibilities or handing them to new person is fine, don’t let yourself be guilt tripped about it! It might not “sit well with HR” to refuse to continue doing unpaid work but that’s because HR work for your bosses not you and don’t give a fuck as long as the work gets done for the lowest possible outlay.

As a PP said I’ve done internal interviews before and only got them when I basically act like a completely alternative version of myself in front of colleagues that know me, it can be embarrassing but I JUST DO NOT CARE any more. Super peppy, talking on and on about projects that they already know perfectly well about as if they’d just been born, showing loads of enthusiasm for the job like it’s my dream. It’s cringe but that’s what external candidates will be doing so I just have no shame now.

Thanks @FireworkParrot that’s really helpful!

I have been successful at internal interview several times.

The words I always use at some stage during the interview, which shows enthusiasm but doesn't come across as "try too hard" are:

I have thought carefully about applying for this role and I came to the conclusion that I would live to regret not throwing my hat into the ring, so here I am. I have the skills and experience for the role.