There Are No Second Chances in Job Hunting

Searching for a job after a layoff can be frustrating, demeaning, depressing and downright frightening. It can also be outright wacky.

This bizarreness was in full bloom when I received a call from a recruiter this week. He left a message on my phone saying he had seen my resume on Monster (yeah, I know, too desperate, right?) and thought I would be a good fit for a job for which he was recruiting candidates.

Of course, I returned his call and left a message for him to call me back. What did I have to lose? However, that same day, while scanning a job board, I noticed a job ad placed by that same recruiter. I looked at the job description. Hmmm…it looked very similar to a job I had applied for back in April through another recruiter. It was the same job I had interviewed for but then was told the company was going with two other stronger candidates.

The recruiter called me back. He started to explain the job to me and I quickly interrupted. “Is this_______________?” I asked. Yes, he answered.

I then told him of my experience back in April. How I had gone through another recruiter; was told the hiring manager was “excited” about my background; and even met with my prospective boss for an interview. It ended when I was told I wasn’t even a finalist for the job. Hey, companies have the right to select their employees.

I admit, I was upset for about a week, but got over it. So why is the company still looking to fill the position?

According to the second recruiter, he actually presented the two finalists. One of them was offered the job, but declined it when he took a higher paying offer. Hey, that’s his right. (I love it when companies get all hissy when a candidate rejects their offer or employees leave the fold. How often do companies hurl employees out of work en masse? Workers have rights, too, but companies want complete control over their employees.)

The company then declined to offer the job to the second finalist, which left the recruiter scratching his head.

Since I have nothing to lose at this point, I told the recruiter to put my name in the ring, though it’s extremely unlikely I would be considered as a candidate a second time. It's a Hail Mary Pass. Yet I figured, at the very least, I might find out why I was rejected for the job. The recruiter was sympathetic and told me not to doubt myself. Even he was mystified as to why the company spurned the second finalist.

I haven’t heard back from the second recruiter; doubtful I will. It’s time, as the song says to let it go, and move on.

From what the recruiter told me, the candidate the company decided to offer the job to did have more “analogous” experience, but it wasn’t that much greater than mine. If there were an advantage, it was razor thin.

After all, I was recruited the first time and went in for an interview. So I obviously had the background they sought for this job. The second recruiter wouldn’t have called me about the job unless he thought I was a suitable candidate. Remember, he gets paid when he successfully places a candidate. Frankly, I’m sick of being jerked around by this company. Told one minute I’m an attractive candidate, and then tossed aside with no explanation the next.

This happens more often than you’d think. A company offers a job to a candidate, who declines. Recently, I noticed an ad for a job I had applied for back in February. I even went in for a prized second interview, only to get the dreaded “we’ve decided to go with another candidate” email. Now they are looking to fill the same position once again. I can only surmise the candidate they originally offered the job to took a higher paying offer. That doesn’t surprise me; this particular company is notorious for only hiring recent college grads who think being paid $25,000 a year and living with five roommates is awesome. Oh, they would literally die…if Mom and Dad weren’t footing half their bills.

As I said in the beginning, hiring decisions can be wacky. Why was the company so hot to hire someone who was obviously using them to leverage a better payday while ignoring other just-as-qualified candidates who wanted to work for them? I guess it’s human nature, even in HR, to always want what we can’t have. Apparently, the blithering idiots who run this company only want to hire people who don't want to work for them.

I’m also left to wonder if my laid-off status had anything to do with the company discounting my candidacy. At the depth of the employment recession of 2010, numerous articles were written detailing how companies were rejecting laid-off workers outright even if they had the right qualifications. Is this despicable policy still in vogue?

Which is really hurtful, not only to the prospective employee but also to the company. Somebody who has been laid off is unlikely to use one job offer as maneuver to get another, better paying position. Indeed, we’re likely to take a cut in pay from our previous job. (I did.) I can only speak for myself, but I would take the first job offered to me at this point. Plus, laid-off workers can start work immediately. So there are advantages to hiring the long-term unemployed; not that companies think that way.

But should you reapply to a company that rejected you?

Perhaps it’s my rejection fatigue talking, but I wouldn’t reapply to a company that spurned me. It makes no sense. Whatever the reasons that propelled them to reject you in the first place — too high salary demands, too old, not the right qualifications, poor interview — are not going to magically revert in mere weeks and make the HR person change his or her mind.

There are no second chances in job hunting.