Slowing down your job-search efforts when a particular opportunity starts looking very promising is a natural pitfall that all job seekers fall victim to at least once.
While you might start planning a future with a company that looks like they’re going to make you a great offer, you might also be losing out with the time and effort you’re neglecting to put in for finding other great prospective jobs.
This post has been created to help you identify the subtle hints that say “No, you’re NOT getting this job.” Once you read that subliminal message, you’ll know it’s time to move along and invest your time and effort towards something with more genuine promise.
Take a look at these 3 statements, off-handed remarks, and comments that recruiters and hiring managers will let fall during the interview…
1. The HR Manager Suddenly Becomes Impossible to Reach
This one works a lot like a spouse who wasn’t focused on her appearance at all during a 10-year marriage. One day, she gets up and dresses to impress, behaving completely out of character. In any scenario, this behavior spells out TROUBLE.
Let’s say you went for that initial job interview with the in-house recruiter, and she used to be on-the-spot when it came to correspondence and follow-ups. Suddenly she becomes hard to reach and takes forever to respond to your queries. Red lights, red lights everywhere!
You see, once a recruiter realizes that one candidate won’t fit the role they have to fill, they’ll just shift the initial candidate off the radar and start focusing their efforts on a more favored candidate.
It’s not cool, and you obviously don’t deserve this kind of treatment, but in reality, this kind of behavior happens every single day. The sad news is that most people suck at the task of delivering bad news, so they’ll just avoid the issue as far as possible.
If this happens to you after an initial interview, don’t allow it to unravel you. Stop for a moment, focus, and then keep on keeping on with other job search opportunities.
2. The Recruiter is Always in a Meeting
Thematically, this one works like the unresponsive HR lady, but it’s a little worse. Without any decent explanation, the recruiter just goes dark on you, abandoning you and all hopes you might have had for this position.
Not only is a completely unresponsive recruiter downright rude, the reality is that she’s probably not interested in you or what you have to offer anymore.
3. You Hear “We’re just going to see a few more candidates”
If ever there was a cue to bail out of a job opportunity, the “We love you but we’re going to see a few more candidates and then get back to you” line is IT.
Sorry, but if they liked you enough to actually give you an update on how the progress of filling the job was going, they would not be interviewing any other candidates. As easy as that.
Final Thoughts
As a job seeker, you’re probably investing countless heart and brain cells into landing that perfect job opportunity. Hard as it may seem, try not to let a negative outcome break you down. The world is big, and opportunities are everywhere around you, you just need to focus your energy on finding and applying for the perfect position!