To think employers should just say don't bother

[feelinguseless2019]

I've NC and posting here for traffic I've had two interviews recently both have gone to internal candidates both have never done the job before...was told I gave excellent interviews and clearly knew my stuff...I've lost money for taking time off to go to the interviews...why can't employers be honest and say we have somebody already lined up for the job don't bother!

I have cried my eyes out as I'm genuinely fed up I've not had a permanent job in 5 years...constantly worrying about pay and when i have to take toke off etc how am I going to make the time up...just feeling useless, worthless and stupid thinking that I might have actually got the job. This is the 5th interview this year all gone internal.

@motorcyclenumptiness agree completely!!

There is a particular company I really want to work for and I have applied for so many jobs, but they always go internal. Everybody knows that, but I keep applying just in case. It sucks. Sorry OP.

This is really unfair and I can totally understand you being furious.
On the other side of it, I've been a public sector interviewer with an internal candidate who had already been doing the job for four months, we had to advertise externally and the job ended up going to an external candidate as they interviewed so so much better for the role. So it's rare, but it can happen!

@UnsolvedTheory out of interest was the person who was doing the job good at it? The reason I ask is if they are good at their job as you've seen them in their job and know they're doing it to the standard or exceeding it...and then interview someone who you you've not seen do the job but has the ability to win you over in a talking situation and hire them over the original person!! I'm just surprised that person gets the job and what happens when you discover the person who was taken on isn't actually as good you thought? I've seen this so many times recently including a colleague who was taken on but jumped before he was pushed...had the gift of the gab etc but had no clue what he was doing everyone was disgusted when they tried to ask the original person to come back!

It probably isn't any consolation, but it can work both ways. After my manager left I was appointed Interim Manager, until they could do a review of the post. It was supposed to be for two months but ended up being for 14 months. The consensus was that I did an excellent job and I was told that the role was mine but that they had to advertise it. They gave it to an outside candidate who quickly deleted my post and made me redundant.

@feelinguseless2019 I would have said they were doing an adequate job but they hadn't a lot of prior experience at that level, so I think we made the right decision.
Good luck with your job search!

Yes, it totally sucks.

My dh had been looking for a new job for a good two years, been unemployed for the last year of it and the weak excuses for not employing him were cringeworthy. A lot of the time we got the impression the companies already had someone in mind for the position, maybe an internal candidate and were only interviewing because their policies said that was the procedure.

One that really took the biscuit was a small, local company who advertised a job on Facebook but with no details. Dh asked for info, along with a few other people, and no one got a response. Two days later there was a post put on saying the job was taken. No details had been given out and we assumed a friend of the employer was hired.

Dh has extensive experience in sales but was always 'a close second' after interviews. The job he recently started is a sales job, but not a product he has sold before. Knowing the area we live in there had to be many other candidates applying for the same job, some of which would have had experience with this particular product, but dh got the job because of his ability to sell etc. So he was deemed so good he could be employed selling an unfamiliar product yet in the past was refused jobs selling products he knows inside out. For me - good salesperson and knowing the product would trump being a good salesperson and not knowing the product. Doesn't make much sense to me.

@Pollywollydolly that's appalling