Didnt get promotion at work

[PinkButterfly56]

After being encouraged to apply for promotion at work I was passed over for the job in favour of an external candidate. The interview itself didn't actually go too badly it wasn't perfect by any means but I answered all the questions competently and felt that I had done myself justice.
I'm just having a hard time getting over it, we work in a small team and I feel like I am not rated by them. Opportunities like this also rarely come up so I can't imagine getting another opportunity in the near future. In the run up to the interview I took on a lot of work related to the position too and used some of this experience in my interview. So now I'm thinking maybe I was horrendous in the interview and second guessing myself. AIBU if I stop doing additional tasks and just focus on my current role. I don't see myself getting promoted within the team and sometimes find my workload a bit much, I seem to get quite a lot dumped on me as I am the lowest ranked in the team.

The additional tasks will have to be handed over to the new incumbent. I’d do it in an orderly fashion or it just looks like sour grapes.

I’m sorry you didn’t get the promotion. It’s unlikely to be much to do with interview and more to do with overall capabilities. It doesn’t mean you’re not capable, more they felt the other person was better for the role

If you can’t get past it, then maybe best to look for another job outside the company.

Just wanted to comment even though I haven't really got any advice. Have had this type of thing happen and wanted to empathise. It's especially annoying when you were encouraged to apply . I'd keep my cards very close to my chest if I were you but have an eye out for a promotion elsewhere. Hope it all gets sorted for you . Keep the faith in yourself xx

That must feel rotten.

The obvious question - have you asked for feedback on your interview? From your description, it's very unlikely you were 'horrendous' but there might have been some capabilities you didn't demonstrate as well as the successful candidate.

AIBU if I stop doing additional tasks and just focus on my current role.

If you'd like promotion, that's not the way to go, but have you looked at options outside your team? Could you aim for a role in a different team?

Your line manager should be working with you on your development, and looking at what you can do to make yourself ready for a role at a higher level. You can't be far off if you got as far as an interview and the feedback you get can be incorporated in your development plan.

Id work so hard and do loads of extra jobs. Id also try my best to find new employment. Tgen, when i left everyone would really, really miss my efforts

In my experience sometimes companies/orgs want someone external to come in with new ideas and overlook people who have been loyal, hard working and are perfectly capable of doing the job. It’s a risky strategy because you don’t know what you’re getting and such people may move on quickly. Even if you did a bad interview they could have given you the job if they wanted. It’s not necessarily a reflection on you, just that on this occasion, ‘newness’ was more important or impressive, and you literally couldn’t be that. What is odd is why they encouraged you to apply. Perhaps they thought it would be good experience or want to be seen to be encouraging staff development but it’s a pretty poor way to treat you. The interview feedback will give you some pointers for next time, there will be some justification for why you didn’t get it but it may take a while to accept. Sorry this has happened, it’s very gutting.

Definitely ask for feedback. Let them know you’re disappointed but would like to learn from the experience for next time.

Sorry I should have pointed out I am 40 now so really do feel a bit like this was my last chance to do anything with my career. It's been far from stellar so far and interviews have always been a big problem. I guess that is why when I finally feel like I have performed well in one it feels twice as bad. I can't imagine many positions coming up internally again as people tend to stay until they retire which is the only reason this job came up. Thanks to all who have posted with advice 💐

I can sympathise it’s no fun being passed over. I moved jobs for that reason.

I can't imagine many positions coming up internally again as people tend to stay until they retire which is the only reason this job came up.

Would you consider an external move? I know it's not always an option because you lose accrued benefits and so on, but 40 is too young to give up on your career - you've got nearly 30 years to progress!

If you've been there a while and feel this was your last chance to progress, look at other companies in the same industry and apply for new roles.

Allow yourself to feel disappointed, but don’t let this knock you. Your career isn’t over at 40!

I was in this exact position last year - passed over for a promotion I felt had my name on it (for an external candidate). The feedback was useless to me, too - vague and nothing I could really work on improving.

I felt really knocked and a bit hopeless for a while, but I decided to keep on being proactive, taking on projects, doing further training and started quietly looking for other jobs. Nothing else came up for ages, then I was shortlisted for an external job but didn’t get it. It was a bit of a shitty time. I’m in my mid-40s and this is a second career for me (started after having DC) and I haven’t exactly been setting the world alight with my career progression, but I’ve built a lot of experience abd skills now and really felt ready to step up, so it was a bitter pill to swallow. I had to really fake enthusiasm at work because I was actually quite fucked off and had lost motivation, but I must have pulled it off, because last month I got a new job! The role I’d been passed up for at my current place came up elsewhere and I got it. And the past year of being pissed off but pushing forward helped a lot, in retrospect, because it forced me to get really clear in my mind about what my skills and experience are and why I was definitely ready to step up and had basically outgrown my role.

I’m now going in to this new job as the external candidate who pipped an internal candidate to the job…so that will be interesting! At least I know how it feels.

Your time will come!

40 is most definitely not a last chance career point. Give yourself a bit of time to mope then start being more positive. Many women start flying career wise in their 40s due to reading family constraints. If you write yourself off, others will too.

OP I've been where you are 6 months ago. Exactly the same situation - I was encouraged to apply for the promotion role, but didn't get it at interview and they gave it to someone external.

I moped about it for a bit, got feedback from hiring managers - namely, the external candidate had different and more varied experiences. I realised I wouldn't get that variety if I stayed in my current role, so I applied for other roles, got one and took it.

Don't write yourself off. But you do need to look elsewhere (whether that's another role internally if you work for a big organisation, or in a different organisation).

And the irony is...the person they hired externally did the role for 5 months before moving on internally.

Another story. My OH went for an internal role working on a project that he knew inside out and worked regularly and well with the hiring manager and rest of the team. They decided to hire another internal person who had no experience of this project, had never worked with the hiring manager or team before, but came with glowing references from higher up types. OH scored 1 less point in the interview. Hiring manager decided to go for the other person based on their reputation, saying that swung the decision for them in the end, and when giving feedback to my OH said he'd ummed and ahhhed about it because of the 1 point difference. Anyway you can guess what happened - the other person did not gel with the people on the project, did not get to grips quickly enough with the project, and went off on long term sick leave with stress.

I've in a similar situation. Always good enough to cover maternity leave and sickness higher up management roles. They I get encouraged to go for permanent roles but never get the jobs. Always someone better apparently and one point in it etc.

I've been there. It feels awful, really shatters your confidence. Honestly the best career thing I did was leave the place where this happened to me.

I think you can reasonably pass on the additional tasks

It seems odd they encouraged you to apply for the job if they weren't going to give it to you so maybe you were close. Can you ask for feedback?