To not understand the feedback?

[Sparklyshoes16]

Had a job interview, which in all honesty was surprised to have got. I did a lot of research, asking friends that work in a similar role, visiting the place, my own experience and practised the questions, scenarios etc. Found out today that I didn't get the job, the feedback was I needed to research the job description...me and my husband went through the job description and person spec with a fine tooth comb. When I asked if I could have a little more detail I was told to expand my answers and research the job description

I just feel like what was the point of offering me an interview if I needed to research the job description? They wrote down loads in my interview and I thought it had gone well.

It's a job I haven't done before but my current job has plenty of transferable skills and I could do the job standing on my head. I honestly can't think of what I've said to get such terrible feedback.

I’d just let it go. You probably feel a bit shite about it but there’s very little you can do. You may have been interview fodder, get a certain number of people in but they know exactly who’s getting the post. Don’t doubt yourself here.

Could they have mixed your interview notes/feedback up with another candidate?

If you are 100% confident that you did well I'd probably follow it up with a reminder of your answers giving specific examples and ask if they could perhaps have made an error as the feedback doesn't match.

i'm not sure that most interview feedback is that useful - i wouldn't let it get you down, move on and keep applying. That feedback is meaningless - if they'd said, 'when you said x, this made us suspect you didn't understand the job description' you'd have something to go on but I'd just move on from this swiftly. I know it is grueling when you tried hard.

Last time I had vague, unhelpful feedback, I found out the interview was a farce anyway (I suspected this) and the person had already been chosen. An unsuitable, unqualified person who happened to be best mates with someone senior. It's shit but try and move on from it.

Thanks all, now I've had time to think about it and have a good cry...there was a lot of things that didn't sit well move on to the next application and hopefully interview!

Sounds like the job was already earmarked for an internal candidate and you were just there to make up the numbers. It happens a lot

I think they have made up some bollocks feedback which was untrue, just to palm you off. Think of it as a lucky escape.

@NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 I think you and the others are right, so frustrating as the application took ages and cost me £15 in a taxi to get to which is a lot to me right now as I'm not working (parking would have been a nightmare and public transport at the mo is unreliable near me as the bus just turns up when it wants or not at all 🙄)...ah well will spend today job hunting again.

@shearwater I definitely am now...if they can't be bothered to at least give honest feedback it's definitely not a place I want to work at and the fact there were a few inklings that something didn't sit right whilst there.

@NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 beat me to it.

They might have already had someone lined up for the job....... You don’t have to accept every bit of feedback you receive. You don’t seem to agree at all so dismiss it as bull 💩. They’ll be a better job for you out there 😁

Definitely sounds like someone was lined up. I had this once- all day interview, video, presentation etc. I spoke to the other candidates over lunch, I was the only once with any experience in that particular role (and one candidate had worked for the company in a different role). I didn't get the job, asked for feedback and was told it was because I didn't have enough experience in the role. I was quite annoyed by that, a whole day wasted, when they could have just done a 30 minute interview, as was the standard for that job type at the time.

I also had this happen and they had clearly decided who they were going to recruit and the interview was an utter waste of time. They rushed my questions and didn't take the time to answer mine, it was a 5 hour round trip for a 30 minute interview! You're better off somewhere else!

I never ask about feed back. If they don't want me, I am no longer interested in anything they say, or the fact of their existence :)

@TeddybearBaby I don't agree with it because if I hadn't read the job description why would they invite me to interview keeps whirling round my head.

I've just took it as a learning experience of the mess around some employers give candidates...I know deep down I worked my socks off to make sure I was prepared...moving on from it now and hopefully something better will come up.

Top cat I agree. Anyone foolish enough to turn me down can fuck right off

Have you looked at Civil Service jobs Sparklyshoes? If not, I would recommend. Vacancies come up all the time and they have a really open and objective selection process. The application and interview require some research and preparation but once you know what they're looking for it's fairly straightforward.

I really wish HR departments wouldn’t do this to people. Presumably it’s just to justify their existence. If there’s someone earmarked for the role, why go through the ridiculous charade of interviewing others who have no hope of getting the job. Especially when they are external candidates. It’s not equal opportunities if someone has literally no chance of getting the job, is it? If there has to be an interview process, at least limit it to internal candidates, so you're not expecting people to give up their time, potentially cost them money from taking time of work and the costs of travel. It’s a farce.

It depends on the job! I recruit for a post that is so unbelievably in demand that all the candidates are amazing! If one person knew something which you didn't about the job (perhaps from knowing someone in the inside) and was able to sound in the know more than you - even just a smidgen, well they'll have taken the edge on you. Not getting the job doesn't mean you did badly, just that someone else did better - which with stiff competition for some posts happens to a lot of people a lot of the time. Well done for getting to interview. My last post had 140 applicants, 10 were interviewed. They were all v v good, but 1 was a tiny bit better than the others. Fine tooth comb OP. Move on!

OP. I think it should be legally compulsory for employers to pay the expenses of anyone attending for an interview.

I always ask for feedback from interviews, and have only rarely got helpful advice from doing so. So often it is just a standard response, which may be what you have got here. But occasionally I have had really good advice which has been useful, so I continue to ask (even though it isn't always easy and when the feedback is meaningless, it can make the rejection feel more like a 'kick in the teeth' than it had in the first place. In practice, what has happened here is that there is another candidate who they felt on this occasion was a better match than you, possibly because their experience more closely matched the job.

Last time I had vague, unhelpful feedback, I found out the interview was a farce anyway (I suspected this) and the person had already been chosen. An unsuitable, unqualified person who happened to be best mates with someone senior. It'll be this, or similar. IME, as annoying as it is, the work you did will pay off at some point in the future. Good luck with the job hunting!

There is also the possibility that they’ve given you the wrong feedback - that happened to me once with an utterly shit recruitment consultant. However, getting a job they wouldn’t put me forward for because I ‘lacked the required skill set’ was a nice ‘fuck you’.

Sounds like a bullshit answer to fob you off. I went for an interview once and I happened to bump into the other person going for the same job. We found out that we were the only two candidates but the recruiter simply wanted to 'see what was out there' and promptly gave the job to the already earmarked internal candidate. She'd simply used us to benchmark the internal candidate

I was once given feedback that they were looking for someone with more experience in the sector - this for a fairly senior role. I'd been alerted to the job by two of their own senior managers who knew me and had worked with me before. My response was to ask if they'd managed to find someone with more than the 30 years experience that I have. The woman had the grace to be embarrassed... Don't dwell on it OP.