Whys & wherefores of job rejection

Rejection for a job is perhaps the most difficult to live through. If you have had a couple of such experiences, you would be wondering why it happens to you. Why did you not make it?

With no convincing answers, do you think it is appropriate to seek a feedback? There could be a horde of factors that contributed to your rejection.  And if you can get to know the precise reasons, your job search henceforth could be more meaningful.

At what stage of the hiring should you seek a feedback? Who should be approached for it?  What is the appropriate time to ask for a feedback? And more importantly, how should you go about it?

· Stage of hiring process: It goes without saying that a feedback from a hiring company will be meaningful if it has got to evaluate your candidature in details. If you were not shortlisted for an interview or even rejected after a telephonic interview, it would have been because of some superficial reasons like mismatch of your qualifications, experience or background, Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong in requesting to know the reason for your elimination; it should be appreciated that since it was initial screening where you were excluded, the response may not be detailed and very convincing. If you go through the initial two or three rounds of the selection process, you were qualified for the job. But since you were rejected midway, the reasons could be more than one; you either were unable to make an impact, displayed casualness or others were judged better than you. Therefore, getting to know the reason for your elimination will help you in your successive interviews.

· Person to be approached: This would be contingent on circumstances and the person who conducted the interview. Your query should be directed through the recruiters as they can offer provide you some reasons based on the preliminary interactions they had with you as also responses obtained from others. If you were interviewed by a company representative, you can surely ask the concerned person. You should remember that a feedback is not mandatory after an interview, largely because of the menaces involved in doing so.

· Best time to seek a feedback: The most opportune time to seek a feedback is immediately after your rejection, preferably via an email or even telephone as nobody would like to get involved face to face in such a situation. The foregoing notwithstanding, it is always in good taste to respond to a job rejection by stating how keen you were to join the concerned company and would look forward to an opportunity in the future. A move like that on your part will help keep associations robust in times to come.

· Going about seeking feedback: No company is obliged to let you know the reasons for your rejection, however, should a person at the other end decide to lend you a favour, the dialogue that you may have could be rather sore. He is actually violating conventions in devoting time to someone who is not being hired. If you are indeed afforded an opportunity for an interaction, which by all standards is unauthorised, you should proceed in a manner that is cordial, tactful and candid. You should also remember that any such interaction is otherwise not authorised. Expressing your gratitude to the interviewer for having showed interest in and devoted time on you is what you ought to commence your conversation with. Thereafter, you could seek to know why you were not selected but without making your request sound like an imposition. “I will be grateful if you could give some inputs on my shortcomings so that I can be a stronger contender in the future” or words to that effect is undoubtedly an excellent way to solicit feedback. Any vehemence and insistence should be avoided.    

You ought to appreciate that getting a feedback is testing alright, but more testing is your patience and readiness to hear the truth. You would generally react by offering alibis or setting forth explanations to indicate that you were probably misunderstood – all in your mind of course. What has been done cannot be undone and whatever has transpired, cannot be transpired cannot be reversed. So even if you get to know the precise reasons for your job rejection, you should not take them to heart, but take not of them to fare better in subsequent chances. Take them as someone blowing a bugle in your ears to wake you up and get going, rather than ebbing.