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I've worked in HR and the standard rejection we had was blah blah thank you for applying blah blah blah we found a better suited candidate blah blah blah.....that was if you were even sent a letter. Many times we didn't. That drove me nuts because I was the one who had to deal with the phone calls.
In some states, like Oregon, there are certain circumstances when an employer must tell you. As an example, if you failed a drug test or are a felon, they must tell you so. But if it's something more generic, then I doubt it.
For almost every job opening, there are going to be a number of applicants, most of roughly equal experience and ability.
So what does it come down to? A number of factors, the first being chemistry with the decision maker. If you click with that person, if they like the cut of your jib, then you are hired. If you don't click with that person, you aren't.
That being said, I've had plenty of people with decent resumes come in and raise all kinds of red flags. Revealing too much about a turbulent personal life is one of them. Show me someone with a ton of drama in their personal life, and it will doubtless seep over into their professional life. Of course, everybody has a bad run of luck. An accident. A death in the family. Breakups. Disagreements with the boss or creditors. But when someone has this endless litany of woes – And it's never their fault -- then you have someone who never thinks ahead or, worse, spins matters to make themselves the victim. Safe to say, a person who cannot manage his or her personal affairs will show a similar lack of judgment on the job.
There's the inability to function in a meeting. The shifty glance, the inability to shake hands, and a host of other social cues. Yeah, some will rationalize, saying that doesn't affect your ability to do a job. To that, I say nonsense. People do business with people. And if you can't connect with a client across the conference room table, that's not a good thing. Mind you, there are jobs that don't require contact with the public, such as the IT guy who works the graveyard shift. But for the most part? It matters a great deal. I used to laugh at Dale Carnegie courses. But, in truth, they provide superb training for those people not gifted with good social skills.
Then there's not being able to dress professionally. Let's just get it out in the open right now. In a perfect world, we would all be blind to what someone wears. But the truth is that how you dress tells the world what to think about you. It's a measure of self-respect, and it's also an indication of social awareness and the ability to function in a world of client contact. Hey, if you are going to work on an assembly line, knock yourself out. But if you wear the equivalent of a burlap bag to an interview in a place where a high level of client contact is required, then don't be surprised when that thin envelope arrives with the No Thanks letter. Again, there are any number of roughly equivalent applicants for the job you desire. If you dress as if the clothes were tossed onto you with a pitchfork, then you won't get the nod.
Finally, there's the issue of massacring the English language. Business requires, above all, communication skills. The better one can express himself, the more precisely he can make his thoughts known, the better he will do in any professional setting. Again, if you're working at Dairy Queen or some such, nobody cares. But, above those kinds of jobs, if you can't speak a couple of sentences without a grammatical error or the misuse of vocabulary, then you'll be quickly shunted into the discard pile. The biggest tell for me? The ones who seem to have forgotten the difference between adjectives and adverbs. Holy smokes, talk about fingernails on the blackboard. At the very least, you had twelve years of lessons in grammar. The fact that you can't speak reasonably correct English communicates laziness and indifferent standards to how you present yourself.
Actually, I have had a couple tell me the truth. Pretty much believe them because I doubt they'd lie to what they said. Both cases told me they had someone in mind and just went through the motions to satisfy HR.
Thousands apply for jobs. Getting selected is key. Not a single wrong move can be made.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
Absolutely not. As a hiring manager, I would refer any questions after to HR, who would say what you are getting, we selected someone better. It's a shame that we can't help people in the future, but you can thank the lawyers.
Many times the most truthful answer is that we hired someone else based on that person being more qualified for the job. I usually focus on the positive and tell candidates that they did a great job, we liked a lot of what they brought to the interview, they had good energy, but ultimately we had to make a hiring decision based on what we thought was best for the organization.
Sometimes we judge how a candidate handles this news and if they handle it gracefully, we've had situations where we end up hiring them later because of how they dealt with it. You find a lot out about a person when they are in these situations. I've been turned off by people who get super defensive, upset, or shut down when they get a hiring rejection phone call.
Like someone else said, hiring managers are people too and most of us hate having to make that call to tell a candidate they didn't get the job.
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
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I got feedback once from a contracting firm I was using to get a position back in 2004. They told me I lost against a Line of Business specialist with 30 years of experience. I had 13 years of experience and similar technical skills, but I didn't have the LOB strength.
Recently, after a number of weeks and multiple phone interviews, I was told barely more than 24 hours after the last interview that the role was "filled". In that last interview, I was also told there were still other candidates to get through, plus one more crucial step. A week and a half later, the opening is still listed. Yeah, thanks, but it wasn't filled in the ~27 hours. So sometimes, they won't give you a real reason and will lie on top of it. I still replied to the rejection email politely.
I have had a couple of occasions where I received a truthful answer. In one, they told me they hired a former employee. And in another, they changed their minds about even considering a nonlocal applicant. Other than that, generic nonsense. I still at least prefer that to hearing absolutely nothing, or having a status followup ignored. You take what you get.
For almost every job opening, there are going to be a number of applicants, most of roughly equal experience and ability.
So what does it come down to? A number of factors, the first being chemistry with the decision maker. If you click with that person, if they like the cut of your jib, then you are hired. If you don't click with that person, you aren't.
That being said, I've had plenty of people with decent resumes come in and raise all kinds of red flags. Revealing too much about a turbulent personal life is one of them. Show me someone with a ton of drama in their personal life, and it will doubtless seep over into their professional life. Of course, everybody has a bad run of luck. An accident. A death in the family. Breakups. Disagreements with the boss or creditors. But when someone has this endless litany of woes – And it's never their fault -- then you have someone who never thinks ahead or, worse, spins matters to make themselves the victim. Safe to say, a person who cannot manage his or her personal affairs will show a similar lack of judgment on the job.
There's the inability to function in a meeting. The shifty glance, the inability to shake hands, and a host of other social cues. Yeah, some will rationalize, saying that doesn't affect your ability to do a job. To that, I say nonsense. People do business with people. And if you can't connect with a client across the conference room table, that's not a good thing. Mind you, there are jobs that don't require contact with the public, such as the IT guy who works the graveyard shift. But for the most part? It matters a great deal. I used to laugh at Dale Carnegie courses. But, in truth, they provide superb training for those people not gifted with good social skills.
Then there's not being able to dress professionally. Let's just get it out in the open right now. In a perfect world, we would all be blind to what someone wears. But the truth is that how you dress tells the world what to think about you. It's a measure of self-respect, and it's also an indication of social awareness and the ability to function in a world of client contact. Hey, if you are going to work on an assembly line, knock yourself out. But if you wear the equivalent of a burlap bag to an interview in a place where a high level of client contact is required, then don't be surprised when that thin envelope arrives with the No Thanks letter. Again, there are any number of roughly equivalent applicants for the job you desire. If you dress as if the clothes were tossed onto you with a pitchfork, then you won't get the nod.
Do you think we would enjoy hearing a generic reason? I hate being lied to or avoided. It doesn't do me any good to hear a generic answer. If more employers were honest, I could persuade them why whatever their concern was that it wouldn't be a problem but if I don't know how can I prove to them that I would be a good candidate? I do not know what exactly you're looking for if you don't tell me (beyond the basics) I want a chance to explain things like I'm saying in this post but I never get a chance to prove myself because no one tells me EXACTLY what they want. I don't think it has anything to do with us. They don't want to be challenged or are paranoid about breaking standards and that's why they are never honest. For example, when an interviewer told me his concern was that I stuttered he got quiet when I explained how it wouldn't be a problem on the job. He acted like he liked me too other than that yet I didn't get hired. People are too paranoid about getting fired/in trouble.
Not true for me. I have had a difficult life but work would make that all better. For a while, the sites I would do kept me stable. If it had paid more/been more meaningful (meaning if it was a regular job) then I would still be doing it. My personal matters at the current moment are only due to lack of a professional life so wouldn't logic tell an employer that paid work is what I need to be stable?
Not sure what you mean by social cues but they are only increased by nervousness in my case. An interview is judgement and that affects my ability to hide my disability sometimes so of course as a disability you will notice it after a while but it won't be enough to be a problem in the job.
Define professionally because if someone doesn't wear a buttoned shirt with dress pants and dress shoes (if they are a woman) they are often considered to be dressed inappropriately. I do wear what is told for me to wear but at the same time I feel like a wolf in sheeps clothing. I do not feel like I have self respect if I'm conforming. It shouldn't matter what you wear because it has nothing to do with your job duties. I could understand more if I dressed like a hooker or something like that but my regular clothes are modest. It's so funny to me that people often tell me to be genuine and honest as that is the way to do well in an interview yet at the same time I am told that I should wear what I am told to wear. Well which is it? I think this proves that the many people who tell you you should lie if you don't fit the company's standards are right..too bad I am a terrible liar. When you go into a work you may wear a uniform but for me that's completely different than an interview. In an interview I am presenting myself but at work I'm just part of a team. The worst part is it is said to have little variation no matter what job you go into. If I wear a shirt with a dog on it for example and I go into an interview for a pet store I would be counted out because it is not "professional". Why? I am showing my love for dogs so you can know I'm passionate about the job.
Last edited by Nickchick; 08-04-2016 at 11:52 AM..
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