Ms Cyprah

Q. I’ve had reject letters many times over the years and often felt a bit annoyed that I wasn’t told why I wasn’t selected for interview or offered the job after having attended an interview. As a HR professional I always have the courtesy to give a reason when someone is not successful in their application, I feel it’s only common courtesy and it gives people a good impression of your company - that you actually bother to explain why they weren’t selected. But what do you think?

A. The trouble with getting ‘the truth’ is that such truth is very subjective. One company’s ‘truth’ might bear no relation to another company’s ‘truth’ about the same person! It all depends on what that organisation is looking for. You might be told that you were ‘not suitable’ for that post for a variety of reasons that could actually make you suitable for another post entirely. For example, if you are not the conforming type and do not like taking orders but interview for the military, you will be rejected because you might appear too rebellious or forthright. Yet those very qualities would be admirable for an entrepreneurial job where you have to exercise your own initiative and lead from the front.

Again, it could be a case of not being liked for your dress, appearance, personality, brashness, extroversion, introversion or anything to do with how you choose to behave. Trying to change that to suit specific employers is not really you. You will only end up feeling frustrated as time goes on when you cannot do the things you really like to do, the kind that makes you feel alive and energetic. The essence of job satisfaction is to be happy with who you are and match it to the right employer.

Unless the problem is to do with practical things like a badly written CV, personal appearance, or how I actually conducted the interview, I would not wish to hear someone else’s ‘truth’ about me. They would be judging me purely on the narrow suitability for that job, but not for anything else. I would rather take my chances elsewhere. Employers have all sorts of measurements they use to assess candidates. It is always best to shop around until you find an employer that makes you get all excited at the thought of working for them. That would be the best fit. Should you not make the grade there, then their ‘truth’ might be well worth hearing.

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