Aaargh! WIBU to say if I’m such a strong candidate, why didn’t you give me the bloody job!

[Swosh]

So 4 interviews over the last 2 weeks. All really great roles at a higher salary and better conditions. 3 through employment agencies who had already remotely interviewed me and said I would be great for their roles.

Feedback from actual job interviews were that I came cross really well, my answers were great and I was a ‘very strong candidate’ but I was ‘pipped at the post’ for all of them! Obviously a lie to make me feel better at wasting my time.

What on earth am I doing wrong?

Two interviews involved walking up flights of stairs to get to the interview room (why couldn’t the damn room be on the ground floor?!) and as I’ve put a bit of weight on over the last year as working from home, I admit that I was a bit breathless almost keeled over at the start of the interview.

Could it be because I’m fat? Most of the roles were WFH though and I look fine head and shoulders wise.

I dress smart, well groomed, well spoken (don’t smell of BO).

At the interview I had this morning they said they had more interviews lined up for the rest of today and all day tomorrow so would come to me on Thursday but they called me at lunchtime to say that I was great but pipped at the post again and they had struggled to choose between me and another candidate, which I thought was odd. What about the other interviews they had apparently had lined up for today and tomorrow?

WIBU to ask my thread title when I inevitably get knocked back from the two interviews I’ve got lined up next week?

I resigned from my last job due to toxic environment and crap pay last month (bit heat of the moment) so desperately need to get another one!

No. That's not it. It's about finding the person who will fit best with the weird people you work with. The over sensitive person, the snappy person, the gossiper etc

By the time you get to the interview, people have assessed your skills as being in line with what they're looking for. The interview is about them as a person, how they deal with questions they may not necessarily know the answers to, how they build rapport with the interview panel.

If you have two candidates with similar skills and capabilities, then picking the person with industry experience makes sense. They have less to pick up.

Never burn your bridges OP. Ask for feedback and take it constructively. You never know when the preferred candidate might pull out or not work out and you made a good impression so they give you a call to see if you're still available.

And you never know when the place you interviewed with might recommend you to someone else. I've gotten jobs that way, which turned out to be much better than the role I applied for.

I think you should take the responses at face value! If there is just one role available, it is common that there is more than one person interviewed who is easy capable of fitting it. Sadly if there is only job, a decision needs to be made.

Why would any company do this? Recruitment costs a lot of time and money, what possible benefit do you see from going through a Recruitment process if they already know who is going to get it? The truth is this never happens, it is simply a cover story for people who didn't get the job to make themselves feel better for failing.

Why would any company do this? Recruitment costs a lot of time and money, what possible benefit do you see from going through a Recruitment process if they already know who is going to get it

@Obbydoo Oh so naive! we do this all the time because we have an equality and diversity policy that requires outside advertising of every single post as a point of principle. We are required to have an E&D policy that provides for this or at least it's frowned on if you don't in the modern world.

Sometimes it is really annoying because the post has only arisen because of a specific external candidate that is wanted. Usually it's internal promotion though.

With external like Chairman happens to meet Ms A leader in field and gets a hint A is in the market to move. Coffee had. A writes in letter of application. at that point there isn't even a job, they just want A because A is so good. Then what happens is there is a flurry of activity creating an external job advert to match the policy. It's not entirely impossible that someone else could get the job in that case but its just not very likely and you'd really have to be stellar.

Interesting thread, lots of good guidance for answers. Hope you get one of next week’s jobs OP!

I think advertising posts externally when you have a worthy internal candidate is very much a thing in the public sector - certainly in healthcare. As PP said it's supposed to increase diversity by advertising to a wide audience of candidates and thus reaching the best person.

Which is lovely and laudable in theory but can be miserable for candidates. Internal candidates sometimes miss out on worthy promotion - I've had sorry experience of helping someone to develop themselves ready to move into a new role only for a more experienced candidate to apply.

It's also often a complete waste of external candidates time and emotional energy.

I think advertising posts externally when you have a worthy internal candidate is very much a thing in the public sector

I'm private sector and we do this. It's because we have various organisations that the business wants to be a member of that require commitment to various E&D directives.

I agree with you @Dinopawus that it is shitty. It's happened to me where I went for an interview for something and thought it went really well and then when I saw who got the job I was really angry I'd wasted my time. To give you an idea, it was like going for a football related role with senior good experience working for the Football Association and then finding out the person who was appointed was Gary Lineker.

I suppose it gets justified on the basis that if some like Pele/Sepp Blatter [not best example but can't think of anything better] whoever had applied they would have got it but everyone knows that it is so unlikley that the other candidates are being mucked about especially if called for interview.

Sometimes a very good candidate is beaten by a slightly better or more experienced one. It’s frustrating but as a PP has said there’s usually only one job. Keep at it and good
luck!

No, because their minds are already made up. They are just wasting everyone's time so they can tick "equal opportunity employer" boxes or similar nonsense.

This works the other way too. I was in a crappy job that I hated for years when (finally!) something came up in my very niche field. The company had a hiring freeze on so the post was filled by a 'temp' in the short term. When they finally could recruit, the former temp was hired. There were only two candidates (me and him). It was clear from the nature of the (very specific) questions that they had already decided he was going to get the job.

The Op left previous employment very suddenly due to a toxic environment

The OP got very out of breath going up stairs. Not a good look if concerned about potential high sick leave

The OP always tries to inject humour into interviews and makes the interviewers laugh

I would say that all three of the above are the reasons for the last of success to various degrees