Job Hunting: Why Were You Rejected? (Hint: It's not always about you)

Fellow jobseekers, if you've applied for jobs in the past few years, you've no doubt received generic replies in your Inbox such as these:

"Thank you for applying. This role is now closed..."

"...We will not be moving forward with your application. We will keep your resume on file..."

This can happen even when you think you are the PERFECT candidate. 

What's even more frustrating is the company then reposts the same job with the same requirements again, making you wonder if you should apply again, only to be met with yet another rejection notice. 

Photo of Candidate being Interviewed by Resume Genius on Unsplash

Here's some revelations that may be shocking to many of you: 

3 in 10 companies surveyed by Resume Builder said they are advertising for a role that's NOT REAL.  And 4 in 10 have advertised a fake role in the past year. 

The reasons vary, but ultimately it's to make the company look busier and healthier than it actually is, and to play mind games with existing employees (either they will get relief soon, or to make them feel replaceable). And yes, they will interview candidates, if only to keep up appearances. The most troubling part: 7 in 10 hiring managers believe the ends justify the means, i.e. it's morally OK to post fake jobs they have no intention to actually fill. 

Another possibility is the job role exists, but they have an internal candidate already slotted for it. However, due to procedure (and/or they don't want the internal candidate feel too confident) they will advertise the job and interview external candidates, even though it's mainly for show. 

THEN there are the scam listings from companies that don't exist or were impersonated, with hiring managers that don't exist, whose profiles are cloned from other profiles and whose photos were lifted from dating or social media sites... And the problem is a lot worse than you think. According to LinkedIn, they deactivated 63 million fake accounts in latter half of 2023. Technically, 46.3M were stopped at registration... but 17.1M accounts were deactivated AFTER they were reported by members then investigated by the internal security and trust teams. That's just LinkedIn. There are dozens of job boards out there. I've personally ran into a few of the employment scams.

Okay, what if the job's actually being filled, at a legitimate company? Why were YOU not accepted then?

Did you even make it to an interview? If not, that means you were rejected at "first pass". That means hiring manager didn't like your resume (as compared to others). Keep in mind hiring managers are flooded with resumes, HUNDREDS of them, for a single job posting. They don't have the time or the inclination to study each resume in detail. Instead, the hiring manager will look for ANY reason to reject your resume, including any of the following reasons:

• Resume looks ugly, badly formated, etc. 
• Resume is hard to read i.e. "block of text" instead of bullet points
• Resume is too cute/fancy / unprofessional
• Resume's top 1/4 doesn't tell me anything useful about the candidate (header too sparse)
• Resume's top 1/4 doesn't tell me why this candidate is a good fit for the role
• Resume's top 1/4 doesn't tell me what's unique about THIS candidate i.e. "why you?"

If your resume survived this round of culling, it has caught the hiring manager's attention. You *could* be a good fit for the role, you are showing something unique in your "value proposition", and it was easily gleaned from you resume because you made the top 1/4 of your resume packed with information, yet still perfectly readable and glance-able, takes minimal effort to understand it. 

Now, comes the hard part... The hiring manager wants to believe that you are good, but hiring manager is not stupid. Hiring manager will now look for LESS SUBTLE signs, between the lines, things that were NOT written, as reasons to reject your resume. Those can include any of the following reasons:

• Incomplete start and end dates on the jobs (what is the candidate hiding?)
• Short duration jobs (less than 2 years) (a job hopper, make me do this again so soon...)
• LONG duration jobs (more than 5 years) (so you're not good enough to promote?)
• Unexplained employment gaps 
• Lack of specific achievements in jobs 
• No cover letter 

That last one may be a shock to some, but some hiring managers view the lack of cover letter as "you clearly don't want this bad enough" and use that as a reason to toss your resume into discard pile. 

So please write a proper cover letter, customize it with content from your resume AND the job listing, and use that to tell a story about how you would be the perfect fit for the job. 

If you need advice on how to customize a resume, see my previous blogpost. 

Now write those resumes and cover letters, and get that job you deserve.