“I’ve conducted
many dozens of job interviews in the past several years. I’ve hired some great
folks as a result of these interviews, but my experience rejecting candidates
is also pretty extensive. I’ve gained some decent insight into why candidates
fail, and it often comes down to some interviewing skills for which all good
interviewers expect, regardless if they know it or not.
You may be a
promising candidate, but you may be getting rejected because of bombing out on
some of these skills. So, if you’re getting a lot of rejection calls from
interviewers and you’re not sure why, these tips may be helpful. Here are my
top three reasons for rejecting candidates.
1. Failure to
Display Any Passion. To
be successful in almost any professional role, you need to have a high degree
of passion. That’s not to say you need to be bouncing off the walls with
energy, but if you look like you’re about to fall asleep in the interview,
you’re not giving the interviewer the impression that you’re going to dive into
the job with any degree of interest or professional curiosity.
Passion can be
demonstrated in your body language, inflection of voice, the light in your
eyes, and the way in which you show excitement when you tell that story about
when you saved the day in your last job.
2. Failure to
Connect With the Job Description. All
too often, candidates come into an interview thinking they know what the job
requirements are just by reading the job title. Most job descriptions do a
halfway decent job of explaining some of the main skills and/or experience
needed to be successful in the role. It’s unfortunate that candidates often
ignore this information and try to spend most of the interview talking about
skills and experience that have no relevance to the job.
It’s OK if you
lack some (or a lot) of the direct experience listed in the job description,
but if you make a conscious effort to connect your experience to the skills I’m
looking for, that’s a huge plus. This shows that you took the time to read and
understand the job description, understand the skills I’m looking for, and
properly prepared for the interview.
3. Failure to
Ask Questions. I
interviewed a promising candidate a few years ago who was well on his way to
getting an offer. His experience was relevant, his leadership and communication
skills appeared strong, and he was knocking the interview questions out of the
park. Towards the end of the interview, as I always do, I left plenty of time
for questions. He had none. He didn’t show the slightest bit of curiosity regarding
how our organization was structured, how the team worked, what challenges we
were working through, … nothing. Unfortunately, his resume ended up in the
“rejected” pile.
An internal
candidate may be able to get away with this depending on the circumstances of
the relationship with the interviewer, but there’s no excuse for an external
candidate to not have any questions. Even if the interviewer spends a large
amount of time explaining the ins and outs of the job, there are still hundreds
of questions a candidate could ask. Having no questions gives the interviewer
the impression that the candidate doesn’t understand the job well enough to ask
intelligent questions, doesn’t have any professional curiosity, or doesn’t even
care about how things are done at the organization.
A good candidate will have many questions written down in advance; ready to pull one out when the time is right. Ideally, the questions will come naturally during the course of the interview, but there’s nothing wrong with referring to your notes to jog your memory.
The majority of
the interview rejections I’ve given have had one or more of these three
failures. Notice that technical competency isn’t on the list. For most job
positions, a baseline technical competency is a requirement, but there are so
many other traits that can predict whether a candidate will be a good fit for
the job. The next time you’re preparing for an interview, practice
demonstrating passion, connect your experience with the job description, and
prepare to ask questions. You’ll have a much greater chance of landing that
offer.”
