4 Reasons You Haven’t Gotten a Job Interview

In this blog post, I’m sharing 4 reasons you haven’t gotten a job interview yet. Most job searches have the same general flow pattern or order. You know you apply for a job, whether through a network or a job board, then you get an interview, you get a job offer, negotiate the offer, and then you secure the job.

That process rarely changes from one role to the other. Each part might just look different depending on the organization or the role that you’re applying for – but the interview is a crucial part of this process and a lot of people rarely make it this far in the process.

4 Reasons You Haven’t Gotten a Job Interview

The interview is the moment where you get to become more than just another name on a piece of paper or another faceless applicant.

An interview is where you get to really shine.

You get to show up in person and show your personality, show how you might be a fit for the organization or role, and really market yourself live and direct.

An interview is also when you get to evaluate an organization. There’s only so much that you can learn from talking to people or reading about a company online. But when you are in front of them and you get to talk to someone and you get to maybe walk around, depending on where you are, you get a chance to see the dynamics between employees and to really learn what the culture is like.

As I said earlier, unfortunately, a lot of job seekers never get to the interview process, or at least they rarely do. So, they might apply to ten jobs and get only one interview. This means that there is something happening in the process that is preventing them from getting to that point where they really get to market themselves and show up as their full, authentic self.

My goal with this article is to share what some of those barriers might be so you can evaluate and see if one or more of these applies to you. Now let’s jump into these 4 reasons why you might not be getting a job interview.

Reason #1: Your Resume Sucks

I’m going to put this one very bluntly, the first one is that… your resume sucks. That’s just it.

I always talk about how a resume isn’t really the most important part of your job search. And it’s not, because there are a lot of other things that go into your job search, where you can’t be overreliant on a resume alone BUT at the same time, the resume is a very important piece of document because it is the first thing that tells your career story.

It’s the first thing that tells your accomplishments, that shows the kind of employee, worker, or expert that you are in your industry.

No matter how you’re applying: whether you are sending emails directly to someone, getting referred to someone, applying online, somebody at some point is going to say, “Hey, send me a resume,” that’s why a resume isn’t something that should be undervalued.

If you have not created a document that very quickly tells someone that you are a fit for the role, you’re not going to get an interview.

Reason #2: You Did Not Market Yourself Well

The second one is sort of in line with the first one but goes one step further. If you don’t know how to position yourself as an expert, a leader, an authority, as the best candidate for a role, you’re not going to get an interview.

The whole point of the interview is for employers to narrow down their list, and they’re trying to pick one of the best candidates.

At the point in which we get to the interview, they’re likely to hire anyone. It could go any number of ways, depending on how you perform at the interview.

However, before that point, you have to show that you are able to successfully do the job that you’re applying for, which means you have to be able to market yourself well.

Marketing yourself can be:

• On your resume
• In conversations
• In your emails to people
• During Zoom, phone, or video calls

Whatever it may be, you have to be able to position yourself and market yourself as a top expert and best candidate for the role you’re applying for.

Reason #3: You’re Not a Fit for the Job

The third reason that you might not be getting an interview is that you’re not a fit for the job.

It’s important to really read a job posting and determine if you’re actually a fit before you apply. Otherwise, you’re just going to be frustrated if you keep applying to jobs that you’re not a fit for it.

To the person who is reading this: I want you to read this very CAREFULLY (because I’ve worked with too many women who are making this mistake!): when I say match, I don’t mean a hundred percent match. Okay?

If you match a job 100%, you are OVERqualified. When I say match, you need to be a 70% to 80% match with the job responsibilities before you apply.

Match just means you have the experiences and skills, and accomplishments that show that you will be able to successfully do the job that you were applying for.

So again, don’t read a job posting, see that you’re only 80% qualified, and think, “oh man, I don’t have this 20%. And so I’m not going to apply!” Again, if you match a job 100%, that means you’re overqualified and honestly, you’re not likely to get the job.

People who are overqualified often come across as being too expensive for a company, a hiring manager might worry that you’ll get bored and leave the role, and more.

Reason 4#: The Company Was Looking for Something Else

This is sort of out of your hands, but it’s just that the company was looking for something else.

There are parts of the job search that are really, truly beyond your control, and some of it is what the organization is looking for.

Quick story time: I remember being in a department and we did a job search a few years ago, and we already had an idea of some of the expertise that we were looking for. We got far and interviewed three candidates for the role. Only one of those three had the specific thing that we were looking for.

They could all have successfully done the job, but there was a specific niche; a specific area of expertise that we wanted, and only one of them had it! And that person got the offer. It doesn’t mean the other two weren’t qualified. They just didn’t have whatever it is that we were looking for. And the same goes for you.

You never know what an organization is looking for. Maybe they’re looking to hire someone with specific expertise, someone who has a specific cultural background, who has had a certain experience with specific software.

I could keep going on and on, but sometimes it really is out of your hands, and you just might be a case of you didn’t have what they were looking for specifically.

There you have it! The four reasons why you might not be getting a job interview in your job search.

Do you find yourself resonating with one of the reasons? Comment below 👇🏾 and let’s talk about it!