As a recruiter, I want to tell you something clear and plain: Anyone can get a job in almost any economic climate
The question then is: why do people still get rejected?
The answer is quite simple – once you get past the problem of communicating your own skills (30% rejected because they can not do that), it is rarely about your ability to do the function of the job (less than 10%, mostly too over ambitious types); but most often about their fit within the employers team. Over 50% are rejected for this reason.
So why does the rejection letter come back saying “I am sorry, but on this occasion you failed to be selected for interview because (insert bland reason)?”
Because that creates less legal liability, and less come back both legally and on them as a human being than saying “you won’t fit our team.”
How do they know, just from your CV, that you won’t fit the team?
Well, many people have a perfect view of themselves, and even more are ambitious – for their company, but mainly for themselves. Would you want to work with someone who could not spell can not – or who even mentions the word can’t in their CV? The two problems with that word are that: # It is negative – no one wants to work with negative people. Realism is OK, and highly desired in the professions, but negativity is translated as won’t fit
# It shows a lack of care about one’s self – hence you won’t fit with us
The reason CV writers talk about attention to detail is that it is a reason for rejection – little errors stand out like big red NO signs on a CV when read by the person thinking about employing you, confirming a suspicion that you won’t fit. Anyone can sell function, the key to interviews is assuring team fit.
Having removed all the errors and negativity from your CV, and you are still being rejected – why is that? Have you ever noticed how certain people talk in a certain way? They use certain words, a certain speed and accents of pronunciation? If you fail to pick up on that companies nomenclature – a posh word for saying speed and form of spoken or written annotation – you will be rejected for not fitting in with their team.
Your existing method of job hunting is probably to submit 20 applications a day, and you don’t change your Cover Letter or the introduction paragraph of your CV to match that job: a sales job is a sales job in your view. Each employers HR department have probably spent at least 100hrs and around 3,000 before submitting the advert you responded to. And yet, you spent less that 30minutes completing your whole application – why should you expect anything more than a rejection letter?
If you apply the why I was rejected test before you apply for any job (hence assuring functional fit of your skills), or better still do some research on that company – then you will pick up on both the skills and “talk” of that company. Picking up on those two issues improve your chances of a telephone interview by at least five fold for any job you are qualified for – but you still have to show the evidence of that by passing an interview, so be prepared for the next stage.
A fair question at this point is: “Does this mean that unless I look and act like the company I am trying to apply for, will I get rejected?” If this was taken to the ultimate extent, then there could be logic as to why there was a need for discrimination legislature on ethnic, sexual, age and ability discrimination. But good companies recognize that if everyone were a cardboard cut-out of everyone else, then they would not survive let alone thrive. Diversity is a necessity, in that simply they would not be reflecting their market – hence fit is essential, and diversity is good. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for a company that rejected people because they were/not for instance of a particular ethnic, or below a certain age – unless companies reflect their own market, and fit their whole of market, then simply they will die.
So when you read a job advert next, once you have assured yourself of your ability to undertake the job function, think about and pick up on issues of fit within their team. Understanding and reflecting that will give you a far better chance of getting your next job.
Good Luck!
