Have you applied for a job, only to be rejected for no good reason? When it does happen to you, you’ll be glad to have the following advice on hand.
MY APPLICATION GOT REJECTED BECAUSE:
They just wanted to reject it for some unrelated reason.
IS THIS VALID OR INVALID?
If employment discrimination is invalid because the assessment of the candidate is wrong, rejecting an application “just because” is invalid because the interviewer’s motivations are wrong. This is essentially when you get rejected because of a “power trip”.
There are many reasons recruiters or hiring managers could have for doing this. If they know you personally and do not like you because of some past conflict, they could reject your application without even screening it. The only thing worse than that is when a recruiter who doesn’t even know you just rejects your application after seeing you, possibly due to some personal bias or prejudice they have. It can be something about your appearance; even if you’re properly dressed and groomed for an interview, they may form a premature and inaccurate impression of you. If you’ve been rejected after having almost no interaction with the interviewer at all, this is probably the way you’ve been treated.
WHAT CAN I DO?
- Be professional. Maintain your moral high ground. Being rude to recruiters who reject you for no good reason is a bad idea; it only gives them a chance to justify why they don’t like you.
- Ask for clarification. In this case, this is only to verify that they are indeed going on a power trip. If they cannot actually provide a good reason or seem to be making up excuses, then you are most likely being rejected just because.
- When possible, insist on speaking to the management. In cases where only the recruiter or their team are responsible for this type of unethical practice, reporting to the management may help them sanction the offenders and prevent a repeat of the incident.
- Contact state or other external authorities. The government is a valid authority to turn to when the problem with baseless rejection is firmly rooted in all levels of the offending company, from the front desk to the top management. Reporting such companies will ensure that unethical hiring practices will be stopped and possibly save other career-seekers from suffering the same experience.
- Take your application elsewhere. There’s no point in applying to a company where you are not wanted, especially if they reject people as a power trip. Be open to exploring other opportunities.
Dealing with employers who recruit in this way is a losing battle. Better to just report them to the proper authorities, and move on to other opportunities where your application (and you) will be treated with utmost professionalism. Chances are, a company with arbitrary and unprofessional hiring practices will be an unpleasant place to work in.
That’s it for this series on the reasons that employers reject job applications, and the ways that you can cope with them. Keep that determination burning!