11 Reasons Why Qualified Job Candidates Do Not Get Interviews or Replies

by | Updated Mar 31, 2023

Job Post Hiring Newspaper

Reasons why a qualified candidate is not offered a job interview:

  1. com and other job boards scrape millions of careers webpages and list jobs as “active” long after the company removed the job from their company-specific webpage. It’s better to check the hiring company’s website to see if the job is still listed. Then apply on the company website rather than the job board or apply on the job board but understand that a percentage of those jobs have already been filled.
  2. The company already hired someone for the role and forgot to remove the job post.
  3. In advance, the job was promised to someone else (e.g., an internal candidate, the CEO’s child). The recruiter was not allowed to consider external candidates but was required to post all jobs externally.
  4. H1-B Visa (allowing U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations) requires proof that the job was made available to U.S. citizens first. The employer has already identified a specific foreign candidate they intend to hire.
  5. The hiring executive prefers a skill or industry experience not listed in the job description.
  6. Geographic discrimination, the recruiter researches your location and perceives the long commute time to their office would make you less dedicated than another candidate who lives closer to the office job site.
  7. Hiring to fill the job was put on hold (but the job post is still online) as the employer is rethinking the need to add staff.
  8. The company extended the search time, or the recruiter has not evaluated candidates yet.
  9. January thru May is the primary hiring season. A big company’s annual spending budgets are not approved until November for jobs to be hired in January. Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day and Memorial Day to Labor Day has fewer job postings and interviews scheduled.
  10. The company uses job applications to collect timely salary data for their annual budgets to see how little they can offer current employees yearly raises.
  11. Jobs online for over six weeks are more likely to be filled or the final candidates selected.

Solutions:

  1. Applying to many jobs, even beyond your comfort zone. With the ease of digital applications, hundreds or thousands of resumes can be submitted for an opening. Even a resume and letter perfectly optimized for ATS resume scanners will have a tough time rising above all the others.
  2. Applying for positions that are a good fit for your skills, accomplishments, level, salary needs, and industry experience.
  3. Follow the directions or complete all the fields in the job application.
  4. Customize your cover letter to the skill keywords in each job posting when you apply.
  5. After you submit your resume via the job posting, email the recruiter and department executive your resume and cover letter.

We understand how aggravating a job search can be. Several causes beyond resume writing and LinkedIn profile quality control who gets called for an interview. A job search requires perseverance. Keep going!

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