I had three interviews with an organization which ultimately did not offer me the job in question. In the email informing me of this, they told me to keep them in mind in the future. But having had three interviews and having been rejected, it’s hard for me to imagine how it’s possible they would see an application from me again, and not think “Oh it’s that guy” and throw the thing out automatically.
So, in your experience, is this kind of invitation to keep them in mind mere politeness? Or do hiring people actually sometimes consider applications from the same person again later on?
Sometimes it’s very mere politeness. But some places do consider applications from the same person again. You may not be the right match for a job, or someone else is more qualified, with you being eliminated from consideration. I know someone who received a call back from a company 6 months after being rejected because the person they did hire turned out to be a problem. Since it takes minimal effort to re-apply, it can’t hurt to try again in the future. I’d assume 3 interviews means you were in the running. You can’t win every race.
Yes, three interviews is a good sign that they liked you, but you lost out to another candidate. They didn’t keep bringing you back because they didn’t think you were a good possible hire.
Unless you meant it was three first-pass interviews with an HR drone for three different positions, in which case, yes, they probably don’t want to see you again.
Because when I was a hiring manager, I forgot the candidate litterally as soon as a decision was made.
Seriously, I must have looked at dozens of resumes and maybe a half dozen interviews for any position. Sometimes it was just part of our annual campus hiring grind.
Even if you were to interview with the company again, it’s unlikely you will interview with the same team.
And unless you did something embarassingly stupid during the interview process, chances are if you went through the entire process, it was simply a matter of one candidate being a slightly better fit at that point in time.
Not to mention that interviewing for one position doesn’t preclude you from interviewing others within the same company.
Plus, in 6-18 months you will likely have different experience to bring to the table.
It’d probably be the same people–it’s not a professor position but it is an academically oriented position at an online university, and the people I interviewed with were an initial HR person (probably would differ), then the regional manager here, then the manager of the academic area I work in. But as others above said, it sounds possible they basically liked me (because they gave me so many interviews) but had someone else who fit better at this time. They’re constantly expanding and looking for more people to fill similar positions, so if I apply again it will probably be for a similar position working for the same people, but I’ll go ahead and try it if I see an opening pop up, just in case it might work out.
It is possible that it was simply a timing thing–though I told them at every level I couldn’t start til a certain date, they kept bumping me up to the next interview level while also registering with me that they really want someone who can start earlier. Maybe they just found someone who could start earlier. Yeah, that’s what I’ll tell myself it was.
I hope you weren’t just offering up that information. Don’t let potential employers know about restrictions unless they ask specifically, or make an offer. You can feel confident that there’s a lot of things they aren’t telling you.
They asked me in the first interview when I could start (this was also on the application), and I said May 1st. Then they said they were looking for someone to start on March 1st.* I said “Well…” or something to that effect ;), then they continued with the interview, then bumped me up.
This happened during the first two interviews, and then in the third interview they asked again, we had a similar exchange, and they said something about how their “shift needs” are always changing though they really were looking for March 1st, but they went on asking interview questions.
Was odd but I went along with it. So I’m just sticking with the “it was bad timing” story.
*I double checked–this information was not on the job posting.
The bottom line is that whatever reason you didn’t get the job, reapplying can’t hurt. The worst that could happen is that they’ll say “saw him” and toss the resume.
I think it’s not just politeness. I interviewed once for a job it turned out I was incredibly unqualified for. About 6 weeks later a recruiter within the company called me to offer an interview for a job in the same department that was much more my speed. I had just accepted another job so I didn’t take the interview, but good things happen when job hunting, too!
I have gotten re-contacted multiple times by headhunters who weren’t able to place me at the first job I was perfect for. Not surprisingly, the second and subsequent jobs were not quite so perfect for me and they were therefore even less-prepared to get me the interview.
FWIW I know someone who interviewed 3 times at the same organization, within maybe a timespan of a year or two. The first two times she was told she had just lost out to another candidate but they really liked her and were passing her resume around. And eventually they did hire her.
That said, this is something they always say. If it were me I would reply with some version of “Thanks for the chance to interview and I appreciate the prompt follow-up. I would definitely be interested in other positions, may I contact you if I see a another job posted online?” And see if they reply. If they are serious that they liked you and want keep you in their pool of applicants than the HR rep will take 15 seconds to reply with something nice. If it was a brush-off they won’t reply.
“Keep us in mind” as an autoreply to your unsolicited resume means less than nothing, but after 3 interviews? They’d probably like to look at you again in the future if another job opens up.
I hire 5 or 6 people a year and often someone who doesn’t make it all the way to hiring one time ends up clearly the strongest candidate the next time because of a differently skilled (or weaker) pool of applicants.
When I was doing interviews, we had a “N2” - no interest now.
It was a “you just might turn out to be someone of interest once you get more experience”.
“Elsewhere”.
In out case, that “future” was 2-5 years. By which time yo will be talking to another set of people, so why bother…
It COULD be just politeness. However, they interviewed you 3 times, so I am more inclined to interpret this as follows:
“We wanted you, but our hands were tied. Someone else beat you out because of (insert damn good reason here). We can’t tell you this, but there’s going to be another opening soon and you REALLY NEED to apply for that position, nudge nudge, wink wink.”
Happens ALL the time with government jobs, I don’t see why it couldn’t happen in the private sector.
Next time they post a position, pounce on it. Don’t hold your breath, of course, but hell, the worst thing they can do is say no. I have been interviewed for a couple of jobs SOLELY because they knew damn well who they were gonna hire (as in, not me), and they needed warm bodies to interview so they could say “hey, we gave everyone a fair shake, we interviewed X people before making our decision.” However, if this job you interviewed for is in the private sector, I think it’s much more likely that they liked you, a lot. They didn’t interview you 3 times for their health, that’s for sure.
And the (damn good reason) may not be all that good. They may have loved you and wanted to hire you, but there may have been other factors involved that you had nothing to do with. For example, contractors and other organizations that accept government funds (such as schools) tend to have diversity requirements, either because their contract requires it, or because of institutional culture. There may have been subtle pressure to hire a woman or someone of color or a veteran or some other reason that had nothing to do with the ability to do the job. Or maybe they had to advertise the position externally but knew they had to hire internally. Or whatever.
In my experience, it’s mere politness. When I’ve applied to those cmpanies again, they seem to have no record of my previous application.
There WERE two cases where I later applied and got a job there, but these seem to be completely unrelated to my earlier application. In both cases, someone came by after I’d worked there for ovrer a year and brought me something interesting they dug up out of the file – my previous application, which no one knew anything about when they offered me the job.