You aced the phone interview and were called in to do a face-to-face with the hiring manager. You spent over an hour at the hospital that day, talking not only to the manager but also to several staff members. You even got to spend a few minutes chatting with the medical director. Everything seemed to go well.
But in the end, you didn’t get the job. And now your mind is swimming with all the “whys” that typically accompany any type of rejection. Was it you? Or was it them? According to employment experts, it could have gone either way—
Four reasons why you didn’t get the job that were never under your control
Someone else had an inside track: It is true that sometimes it isn’t what you know but who you know. If another job candidate was recommended by a current staff member—or worse yet, had worked for the hiring manager before—then of course that person had a leg up on everyone else.
They hired from within: Yes, as unfair as it seems, sometimes HR will insist that a job be opened up to all even though the hiring manager has pretty much already decided to give it to a current employee. In that case, you and everyone else who applied were just going through the motions.
The position was eliminated or revised: Occasionally employers will advertise for a position that is ultimately either cut by upper management due to budgetary concerns or morphed into a different position with different requirements. They either just couldn’t afford to hire you right now, or you no longer looked like a good fit.
The department or hospital underwent a reorganization: Changes happen all the time in health care and sometimes they come down fairly quickly. If consultants all of the sudden swooped in and decided to revamp the services offered by the department, the new job you were going for could have disappeared or been reassigned to current employees inside or outside respiratory care.
Four reasons why you didn’t get the job that you could control going forward
You don’t have enough connections: Going back to the “it’s not what you know but who you know” concept, consider making a better effort to network with your colleagues in the profession. With all the social media resources available these days—the best of which may very well be AARConnect—it’s relatively easy to establish professional relationships with peers all over the country. If you already know where you want to work, concentrate on making connections with folks who already work there.
You didn’t prepare well enough for the interview: Next time practice your delivery either by enlisting the help of a friend or relative to play the part of the hiring manager or simply go over what you plan to say by facing your own image in a mirror. Have your answers to standard questions down pat and be ready to share specific examples of your past accomplishments. Go into the interview with several examples of past work experiences you can use to answer the behavioral interviewing questions likely to come your way as well.
You didn’t dress for success: Appearances count big time in interviews, and if you showed up in anything less than business casual, they probably marked your name off the list as soon as they saw you—even if they went ahead with the standard interview process and still kept you there for an hour or more.
You didn’t show a big enough interest in the job: Employers are looking for team players who truly want to work at the facility. When you get the chance to interview again, go in armed with specific information about the hospital and its mission (which you can easily find on its website) and an enthusiastic attitude about joining the team and helping the department achieve its goals and objectives.
