13 reasons why best candidates in interviews sometimes don’t land the job (I)
with
Moruf Kolawole Nasir
(Experienced HR professional)
nmkolawole@gmail.com; jarushub@gmail.com
Yeah! You did a stellar job at the job interview, you are sure you aced it. One week no news; two weeks gone none still; a month, two, and so on. If the recruiter is a fair one, you get the “…sorry we are unable to… bla bla bla” story. It may not be you, it could be them. After all, you were polite, arrived on time, felt comfortable and confident with your answers and the dialogue and demonstrated required skills and experience for the position. You have done your best you need not belabour your brain over it, even if it has happened to you more than once, many factors (beyond your control) could have been responsible for that. Below are some reasons that could be responsible for you not landing the jobs despite being the best candidate at the interview sessions.
1. YOUR PAY DEMAND IS ON THE HIGH SIDE: Some people have the notion that demanding high pay gives credence to their competence and experience, while others accept low pay in order to be considered for the job in the midst of other competing applicants. Some are even of the opinion that if you are worth the claim and know your worth you will not accept low pay. In as much as I respect people’s opinion, I am of the view that the power of negotiation is not limited to applicant’s competence and experience, other factors come to play in determining how good an applicant can be at the negotiation table. My advice here is; before you discuss salary issue, always have idea of the pay package for the position within the industry. Demanding too high may present you as being too demanding, while demanding too low might send a message that you are cheap.
2. THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS HALTS: Well this may not be fair to applicants, but nobody plans to start a project and stop it abruptly, sometimes this happens. Recruitment process may be halted for many reasons either for internal or external reasons and that may be the end of it. Whenever this happen it is very rear to get the real gist. Instead of giving yourself unnecessary headache just forget them and move on, you can see that it is not you, you have done your part, it is their problem.
3. SOMEONE ON THE PANEL DIDN’T LIKE YOU: This may sound strange, but it is the gospel truth. You may be the best candidate for the job, you did outstandingly well at the interview, but sorry the person who call the shots in the panel did not like your face. Well it is not you, neither is it your fault, it is the ‘hater’there is absolutely nothing you can do about this. I have had a case where I presented the best candidate to an employer and she told me “Kola my spirit does not work with the guy, get me someone else”.
4. YOUR APPEARANCE: I stumbled on a material last year; it was a research on whether beauty (candidate’s look) influences recruitment decision in Nigerian companies or not. Although the research proved more professionalism in the recruitment process of these companies, it actually recorded some percentage of influence candidate’s look has on recruitment. Despite the fact that the research covers only well structured companies. One can imagine what the situation will look like in unstructured settings. It is worthy of note that this is not true for everyone and a true professional recruiter will always pay more attention to what you’re bringing to the office instead of being just a pretty face.
5. PRESENCE OF ANOTHER GOOD CANDIDATE WHO CAME THROUGH REFERRER:Many a time, this is the reason why the best candidates miss the job eventually. Recruiters have high regards for referrers especially if the referred candidate is coming from a trusted/reliable person, either from an in-house staff or from the HR’s respected colleagues in the advertised discipline. When you as an applicant have a tie with a referred candidate, just forget the job. Even if the referred candidate is the second best, in many cases, he/she is preferred to the ‘unknown’ best candidate. Unfortunately there is no way to know who was referred and who wasn’t, neither is there a way to juxtapose others performance with your own.
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6. AN INSIDER WAS CONSIDERED FOR THE JOB: In cases where a choice is to be made between internal recruitment and external recruitment, preference is given to the internal one. For this reason no matter how well you followed the due process, or do well at the interview a known candidate from within the establishment stands a better chance of being hired, unfortunately you get subjected to the rigour of the process to the final stage only to be kicked out eventually.
Continues….Next week
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wonderfully write-up. was quite informative