When you are on a job search, you feel like every interview is a potential win. This one might be the one. This one will be the last interview. This is the one that will be perfect. But the reality is, more often than not, someone else will get the call. It’s just the truth. We will all send many more applications in than will be responded to and do many more interviews than we get job offers.
Often that is a good thing.
If only we could read the minds of the hiring managers, we would always know why we didn’t get the nod. And maybe we would change that something about ourselves that made us not the best fit for a role. However, is that the right way to think about it?
What if the hiring manager knew that, although you were qualified, you were looking for something that the role really didn’t offer?
What if the hiring manager could tell by your stories, your body language, your personal style, that the culture at the company was not going to make you happy?
What if the hiring manager knew from your interview that you deserved a better opportunity than the one being offered?
You will never know.
I know that in my work life I have escaped a bad situation more than once because someone said “No” when I wanted them to say “Yes.” If you’ve ever said to yourself, “Whew, that was a close one!” you have, too. Perhaps when we don’t get the call with a job offer, it would be better to consider whether “that job was not the right job” instead of “what was wrong with me?” What do you think?
Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative