What Do You Do When You Don’t Get the Job?

Marcianne Kuethen

February 26, 2020

Interviewing for a new job can be so exciting, but what do you do when you don’t get the job? None of our recruiters loves having to tell a job seeker, “We won’t be moving forward with you for the position.” And neither do you enjoy hearing the news that you didn’t get hired.

Why Didn’t I Get Hired?

There are so many reasons for why you might not have gotten the job. Some may be about you. Perhaps you didn’t have the required minimum number of years’ experience. Or maybe you needed to make better eye contact with the interviewer. Perhaps you wore a suit when the company culture called for more casual clothing. But most likely, it’s not so much about you as what the hiring manager is specifically looking for, says Arnie Fertig of U.S. News and World Report. Plus, you don’t know how many other candidates you were competing against, how their resumes stack up against yours, and so many other variables.

What Do You Do When You Don’t Get the Job?

So what do you do when you don’t get the job? Fertig makes 5 good suggestions. Here’s a summary of them:

1. Don’t take the rejection personally. There could be so many reasons why you weren’t selected, as mentioned above. Don’t mix up your feelings of unworthiness with the fact that someone else was a closer fit for the job. Instead, move forward professionally by focusing on doing better with your next opportunity. (Read this to prepare for your phone or in-person interview.)

2. Always have options. Until you actually have an offer letter in hand, keep submitting your resume and taking interviews with other employers. Especially in a candidate-driven market, having multiple offers gives you leverage when negotiating with your future employer, or a safety net when a job offer falls through.

3. Figure out what you need to improve for next time. When you don’t get the job repeatedly, you may need to analyze what you’re doing wrong. Since few employers will help you out here, you’ll need to think back, reconstruct your conversations, and analyze your interactions to figure out where you might be missing something.

4. Use this rejection to become more self-aware. Not getting the job is, in essence, giving you feedback about your value as a candidate to that particular employer. It could be that you’re missing something that you can fix by getting additional training or education. Or maybe these rejections are telling you that you’re in the wrong field entirely, and you need to start looking elsewhere. Perhaps you have the transferable skills to make a big career change, and now is the time to try.

5. Other opportunities almost always await you! When you don’t get the job, don’t let the dream job you lost be your focus. Remember that there are other jobs out there, and that we can all be a good fit for more than one of them. The rejection you just got opens up the opportunity for another, even better one to come along.

Here at Amtec, we thrive on matching professionals like you with meaningful work. So when you don’t get the job, remember that it’s not always about you. Someone else was a better fit for that job. Don’t give up! Finding something you love to do will bring you fulfillment and please your employer, too. Implement the suggestions above, and another job will undoubtedly come along that is just the right fit for you!

Amtec actively serves customers all over the United States who seek top professionals with well-rounded skills. If we don’t have the most current version of your resume, please click here to post it, and visit our job board while you’re at it! You or a friend might be a good fit for one of our open positions.