I had an interview, and I'm not sure what went wrong. My application was rejected because they are looking for someone who has in-depth knowledge in the field.
I'm sure that I have all the required skills for that position, and I have several recommendation letters from my ex-companies.
Is it polite to reply the email and point out that I had the same role before and my employers were more than happy? Or won't it make a difference? I'm afraid that it might look rude.
Is it polite to reply the email and point out that i had the same role before and my employers were more than happy ? or it wont make a difference ? i'm afraid that it might look rude.
It's not rude, it's just usually a waste of time.
It sounds as if you are imagining that replying to a rejection letter and pointing out where the rejecting company was "wrong" might help you change their mind.
Unfortunately, it pretty much never works that way, in my experience. I've interviewed, and rejected, more candidates than I can remember over the years. I've had several folks who contacted me after being rejected, trying to plead their case. I've never - not once - changed my mind and accepted a candidate that I had already rejected.
Companies typically interview at least several candidates (and sometimes many) for a given position, then choose one above the others. They have far more complete knowledge about what they want in the role than you do, and they get to judge how well each candidate fits. Unfortunately, they have concluded that you aren't the best fit.
Sending rejection notices is basically a formality on their part. They are always sent using very general language and no specifics.
While the rejection you got might say "they are looking for someone that has in-depth knowledge in the field", the truth is that they found a candidate who was more qualified than you are (or at least believe they will find a candidate who is a better fit than you are). There are almost always a variety of factors making other candidates superior, and in-depth knowledge may be part of it, but there may be more to it. The rejecting company won't go over each and every detail about how they made their decision.
Pointing out that (at least in your opinion) you do indeed have in-depth knowledge in the field, won't change their mind. While you may have depth, another candidate might have more depth. Or other factors may have tipped the scales. Pointing out your depth now won't make a difference to the hiring company once their decision is made. The time when that would matter is during the interview, before the decision was made. It's over now, and it's time to move on.
I know it can be frustrating to learn that you have been rejected, and not have deep insight into why. But unfortunately, that's the way it works.
Keep up your spirits and your job search. I'm sure you'll find a position that meets your needs and for which you are the perfect fit.
Gad, I hate it feel a vague queasiness when I agree with @JoeStrazzere, but he's right with this one:
Companies typically interview at least several candidates (and sometimes many) for a given position, then choose one above the others. They have far more complete knowledge about what they want in the role than you do, and they get to judge how well each candidate fits. Unfortunately, they have concluded that you aren't the best fit.
They didn't say you weren't qualified, or weren't a good fit, they were just more comfortable with someone else than they were with you.
I do, however, disagree that a response is a waste of time, but not the response you are asking about sending. I worked on a project two years ago where a business analyst contractor took a role, then three days later left for a much better offer. Guess who replaced him? The second-"best" candidate.
Also, it is never a bad idea to be polite. For the 5 minutes it takes you to send a polite "Thank you for considering me." email, you may leave the door open for an opportunity weeks or months later. My rule of thumb is that if you got a phone interview and then rejected, a one-paragraph email of "Thanks for considering me ... I hope your project goes well." is appropriate. If you got one or two in-person interviews, then a polite 2 or 3 paragraph email would be appropriate. NEVER dispute their decision. Simply thank them for their time.
Right now we're in a tech boom cycle, and candidates can be a little "full of themselves." However, I've been through the boom-bust cycle twice, now, and I grew up around oilfield workers who'd been through it 4 or 5 times. A little humility and politeness when you have nothing to gain from it except good will can pay off big, sometimes.
My opinion only.
Politeness aside - consider the following:
1) You may consider that you are uniquely qualified for the role but the winning candidate may have had valuable skills in other areas that weren't explicitly stated.
2) It smacks of sour grapes and implies the interviewers made the wrong decision.
For either of these cases, you'd be hard pressed to make the situation any better.
Rejection is tough - especially when you feel the position was custom made for you, but your efforts would be far better spent on trying to secure the next role.
Is it polite?
It's not really polite or rude. Generally speaking as long as what you say is "you underestimate me" and not "your interview process is garbage and your wrong" this will either have no impact on my opinion of you what so ever or be a mildly positive note that you at least followed up.
What is there to gain?
Realistically you'll gain nothing note worthy. I've been on both sides of this before and on both ends I've never seen anything come of it. (I'm sure someone has an exception, but generally speaking you're chances of this making a difference is probably in the area of winning the lottery.)
It could reflect positively in my eyes that you followed up in a tasteful manner, but sadly until a few years has past I would defer to the original assessment that you weren't at the level we are looking for regardless of what you said. (after a some time has past I'd consider the previous information outdated and it would no longer hold any weight, how long that is depends on where I figure you were, and what you were applying for.)
What is there to lose?
Well not much... about the worst that could happen is the company takes offense to your questioning their judgment and puts you on a "Do not hire" list, but as long as you remain professional in your correspondence that is extremely unlikely.
Why is this so ineffective?
Generally speaking for any job I'm hiring I'm going to interview from 3 to 5 people out of the stack of resumes I receive. HR does screen these resumes before I get a look at them to try and remove people they feel simply aren't qualified, or have reasons that warrant pulling them from consideration. There is always a chance HR will mess up and disqualify someone perfectly capable, but when you get 30+ resumes per job you just have to trust that most of the time they get it right, because it would be detrimental to constantly second guess their work.
That said if HR pulls you from the pile on the first screening that means you were either determined to be incapable of adequately fulfilling the desired role or there were enough other candidates that had a leg up on you that you didn't make the short list. (don't take any of this personally. In business we often have to make choices on limited data, we're not judging you as a person, we're judging a list of data points we have on you against the lists of data points on the other candidates)
ALWAYS ASK BEFORE CONCLUDING AN INTERVIEW: Is there anything where I might not be meeting your expectations that might be a concern for your hiring me? You won't always get a honest answer, but frequently you'll get something like, "We were really hoping to find someone who has expertise in XXX". This gives you the opportunity to make your case that you really do have expertise in XXX. Assuming that you really do.
Sometimes it is hard to know what the interviewer thinks is important. Thus, you may have focused your answers in the wrong direction and given the wrong impression of your skill level in other areas. This question helped cover me a couple of times as I did get to alleviate their concerns.
If the OP had asked this question then they very well could have had a different outcome.
With that said, I see no problem in writing a letter where you emphasize your "in-depth knowledge in the field" WITH CONCRETE EXAMPLES. If you truly do have the background, they may very well reconsider, assuming they actually read the letter. Generally, it only takes 1 out of several interviewers to say no in order to get rejected. Maybe one of the people that liked you may take this letter and use it to get some reconsideration. Nothing to lose if you do it tactfully and respectfully. If there's any tone of sour grapes then you could forever get put on the do not hire list.
