Keep getting interviews and then not getting the job for jobs below my pay grade !

[hirolla]

What is happening ?

I'm interviewing for jobs I easily got in 2018 with less experience?

I've had two maternity leaves in the last 4 years and I can't help but think it's that.

For reference, I work in Business development, tech.

I've been interviewing with 5 companies in the last 4 weeks and only for one role, I made it past the sales manager stage. All others have failed at that stage.

In my industry, it’s very difficult to get hired to a role below your current pay grade. You are viewed as a liability (likely to leave) and you are expensive. Even if paid at the lower pay grade, I’m costly to budget in because of my experience. Ultimately, I cost more than someone with less experience and they worry they’ll retain me. The only jobs I’ve not been successful getting were ones where I was overqualified. They’d rather have a new graduate than me with 20 years experience.

If you are interviewing for positions for which you are overqualified, you are very unlikely to be successful. I would be very careful giving a job to someone who is likely to be very underwhelmed with their workload and will be understimulated and, frankly, bored in a role. I would also have concerns about their longevity in business as they are likely to chase progression opportunities elsewhere. Unless they have a very good reason to do it (like needing flexibility for childcare so would like to work as bar staff even though they are a chartered accountant).

Well it's not as black and white as this.

The roles out there I'm interviewing for are 20-30 k below my current salary, however I am probably not overqualified for them- if that makes sense ?

I am not demanding my current salary as I know it's pretty high and some don't even know that's my current salary, as they haven't asked.

But in terms of experience, I got a similar role in 2018 at a similar pay.

Maybe you're right and it's the problem.

But I really need a job and I'm afraid I'll be up against people with a lot more experience than me if I start going for the roles that pay what I currently make. It's complicated.

Are you up to date in your knowledge? Are there any common questions coming up that you may be giving limited responses on?

I know that Business Development Team in the company I work for is heavy into AI innovation and how it can be used to streamline their processes and how they can integrate it for growth and improved customer experience. Anyone who couldn't speak confidently about that in an interview today wouldn't be considered.

It's likely people with more experience than you are also applying if thats the case, OP.

No that shouldn't be the problem.

Is there a reason why you’re not staying in/ going back to your existing job?

I think this could be a problem

I don't see a future where I am, for reasons I didn't wish to disclose, as too outing.

But it's not a reason that's a bad reason to leave from a recruitment point of view. It makes sense for me to leave.

Why would they need to know that you've had 2 maternity leaves? I wouldnt add maternity leave to a CV as I'm still employed at that job.

Do they know your current salary? I wouldn't hire someone on 20-30k less than their previous role. For me personally I'd feel too guilty, but there are plenty of others out there who would be against it for different reasons and it can be interpreted as you being overqualified even if you don't think you are.

Because I'm in business development and I didn't have a target for those years and you have to list your achievements every year. So it kind of needs to be in there as an explanation of no achievement. I don't know another way to put it.

Not all of them have known it at all. I may have told a recruiter for one of the roles ( external ) but most of them didn't know.

Fair enough. In your position I'd probably try and stay at the current role to be able to get maybe an annual achievement back in there as your most current achievement.

@Blinkii I have that already.

Then maybe it's a different issue than what you think it is? There might be a lot of candidates and other people for whatever reason are scoring higher.

Have none of them responded to a request for feedback?

Unless your mat leave was exactly 1st January - 31 December though, couldn't you still have something to put down for each year? E.g. if you were on mat leave April 2020 until March 2021 you could still say "in 2020 I..." and "in 2021 I...".

@takealettermsjones yeah but there's still 1 year of numbers missing each time.

It's been pretty weak, none specific feedback.

Some has made sense and I've implemented it but others have just been like ' sorry we found someone more suitable '

Ok I'm not following but I don't work in that industry so that tracks 😆

Could you say you were on secondment/detached duty for those periods?

I'm not saying it's definitely the ML issue but like a PP said, I would also be unhappy having to reveal it in a CV. We live in the world we live in and all that 😕

I’m in the same boat.
IT is very sluggish at the moment. there’s not a lot around at a senior level, so competition is huge. There’s loads of junior roles, that I wouldn’t get a look in because I’m too experienced.

There are a lot of roles in my field I think. Well at least I'm getting a lot of interviews.

I'm already in the process with another 4 companies now. But I feel like I won't get them

OP, just an observation, but your tone is a bit negative and prickly. If you're like this IRL, perhaps interviewers are picking up on it and so they don't think you're a good fit personality-wise rather than qualification/experience-wise?

I know that in my industry, "vibes" are a big part of who gets hired, and if you're giving off any sort of "I'm better than this/I'll be difficult to work with" aura, the company might decide to go with someone who seems more easy-going.

Well it has to be something I'm doing wrong, right ?

I am feeling negative about it all at this point, maybe it's coming across to them or something like that.