Being offered another role, on the back of an unsuccessful interview

[Quirkyme]

Good evening!

So I had an interview this week on Tuesday, didn't get the role... however, today I received a call from someone on the hiring panel, offering me another role, similar to the role I initially went for, but in another department, as she said someone had resigned today.
I accepted, and she said she would speak with HR and get the ball rolling - it's within my organisation, so an internal transfer.

Hopefully, it comes into fruition as tentative at the moment.

It just got me wondering if there were others who had been in a similar situation? Went for an interview , didn't get the role you applied for, but got contacted about a slightly different role?
And how did it work out for you?

Interested to hear others' experiences. Never thought I would be going into the field of the role I've been offered today!

I did this as an interviewer. Great candidate I saw for our role, but our role involved working for someone I knew the candidate was unlikely to gel with (very very different styles of work). So I passed the candidate on to another department who were looking.

Yes, I’ve had this happen to me twice. One time, the role I applied to had already been tacitly ‘promised’ to an internal candidate but they had to go through the motions of recruiting someone through a competitive process. However, apparently they actually preferred me and an enterprising member of the interview panel decided to offer me a similar vacancy on her team which had just become available. Something similar happened on the second occasion and I ended up being offered a slightly more senior role for a higher salary!

If the second role appeals to you, go for it! You obviously impressed them.

Yes, happened to me - an external candidate. The job they offered me was a level higher than the one I had gone for, and was more appropriate for my skillset.

Congratulations @Quirkyme , not the role you went for but presumably an attractive role for you?

I have had this sort of thing happen a couple of times. The first was when I applied for a junior role and I was offered the role of department head! Omg I was shocked. They said I blew them away 🙈 Disappointingly it turned out to be quite a poorly run organisation and I moved on after 18months but still I learned a huge amount.

In my next role I was told that the job had already been assigned to someone on staff but they created a duplicate role for me. It was fine. It’s always nice to be wanted!

I’ve had it happen. They told me they’d preferred someone else for the advertised job, but they had a couple of other roles they were about to advertise.
The biggest draw back was the role I’d applied for was 3 days a week, and the role I ended up getting was two different three day a week positions crammed into 5 days, so not quite the lifestyle I had planned. Interesting work though.

I've had this recently. Applied for a role which needed a specific qualification which I dont have. The people really liked my CV and asked me to go for an informal chat to work out how they could get me this qualification if I worked for them.

They made me a role and now I'm doing the qualification. I was really suprised by the whole process, it has given me a massive confidence boost.

Happened to me, went for a job I'd say could have been a dream job, but knew I wouldn't be offered but didn't want to not take a chance.

Impressed at interview, but someone else got it.

They called me and offered something totally different to what I went for, but half aligning to what I was doing in a step up position.

I thank that chance for paving a career I'd have never considered and has turned out to be something I really enjoy with great flexibility and reasonably paid.

It's happened to me twice. Once was for a more senior position as they thought I was "selling myself short" for the one I applied for and I'd be bored in the original role and the other was because there was one more commensurate with my experience that they knew was coming available.

Happened to me - job was given to someone with more experience (turns out they were very good at talking themselves up and the ‘experience’ they had wasn’t quite what they’d implied) and I was offered a lesser role with same salary as I was on before.
Took the job as it gave me an in to a department that was really hard to get into. Three years later I’ve now been promoted to a higher position than the origional role (and the person they origionally hired) and it’s a role I’ve always dreamed of doing. Was well worth it!

Hello, not suspicious about the offer at all!

Hello, yes it's more money - same pay as the original role I went for. I asked that on the call yesterday

I had this once - it turned out they were giving the job I applied for to a guy who had already been doing it for a year on a temp contract (but they had to advertise it as it was public sector).

I was so convincing they wanted to split his job and another job and give me the painful difficult bits of both while he had the high profile easier bits! I said no thank you but at least I knew I had done a good interview.

I used to work somewhere that did this a lot. If we interviewed and liked 2 candidates but the second choice was slightly less qualified, or looked like they were actually a better fit for a different vacancy we had that they hadn't applied for, or a different vacancy miraculously appeared, we'd call candidate 2 and offer it to them.

Basically we didn't want to lose a good person, who may well not have applied for the other job. It also saved a whole lot of hassle in recruiting for the other job. Win win for us.

Very rare that it didn't work out. Usually it was a great opportunity for a less qualified person to get in to our department and then we gave them all the training ourselves, they soon got promoted to the job they had gone for in the first place.

I went for an interview for a particular role and they chose someone else with experience (I had none) but they offered me a totally different role in another department. 18 months later, an opportunity came up for the original department I applied for and I got it this time round… still there 5 years later!

Just happened to me sort of. I started a new job about three weeks ago and realised it absolutely wasn't right for me so resigned - sadly.
That same afternoon the CEO phoned me in a panic asking how they could keep me. I explained the problems I had, met up with them two days later and now have a different JD doing what I know and they know I am much better at. It was a real surprise!

Yes to a family member twice, first time applying for an out of town job and had to spend a day at the local office and they created a roll to keep him with them so someone else got the out of town job and then another time getting offered a job at a higher level instead of the job he applied for.

A family member was still struggling to get work in her field 2 years after completing her art degree. Her mum suggested she was at the point she needed to give applying for any jobs going a go.

She applied for 100s of random jobs, one an apprenticeship for an office/admin type job at a construction company. While being interviewed the interviewer said, hold on a minute you have a first class degree in art, are you interested in this instead? She was offered a role in their graphic design department, company car, a very nice wage and loved it. Partly luck, but also would never had got their without putting in the leg work.

Yes happened to me- I went for a role as a payroll admin and got offered a recruitment admin role after the interview

Yes, me! Worked out really well, it was a slightly different role in the same organisation. I think it’s a compliment to you as the interviewer saw your potential and wanted you for their team. Good luck with your new job OP!

Interviewing is expensive and this is commonly done in local government.
It's quite unfair on people, internal or external, who've been waiting for a particular post to come up.

It happens quite often. It's why you should apply for jobs you're interested in even if you don't quite fit all the criteria.

I know someone who applied for a job as a librarian - completely not their natural personality as they were a very loud, gregarious person - and the hiring officer rejected them for that and a few weeks later offered them a management position that was much more suitable.

They worked there happily for years and years.

(Disclaimer - not saying people cannot do those sort of jobs, just that it's easier if your natural personality aligns to the role!)