The application had asked for all sensitive equal opportunities information to be removed from the required CV.
I had removed this from my CV, as asked, but including a picture of myself on my CV meant that I had shown them I was white.
I was booted out at first sift as I had breached the ‘no sensitive equal opportunities information’ request. The head of department ‘cannot go against HR’.

I did not get another job 10 years ago as I was ‘too smartly dressed’ according the the head teacher who interviewed me.

So, what ‘brilliant’ reasons have you been turned down for?

Same evey time

“far too sexy for the other staff to concentrate” 🙁

“I know him”

Application for a teaching post (head of ICT with management points available)- I got whittled down to the last 2 but didn’t get the job.

Asked for feedback afterwards and got told that I taught a better lesson than the other guy but did not interview as well 😕

Posting in the bike section rather than chat?

Too business/results focussed for a role in public sector. Got turned down as they thought I would get frustrated by the slow pace and paper shuffling they have to deal with.

Didn’t get the job as they didn’t believe I did everything I did for such a low wage – they thought I’d go a bit mental with the hike in wages I’d get…

Curses. Wrong forum.

Mods!

Kept getting told in multiple interviews many years ago that I wouldn’t work for the businesses in question for very long as I’d want to go back to lecture at college.

I was really desperate to get out of education and still not gone back over 20 years later.

The last ‘proper’ interview I had, about 10 years ago, I was told by the regional manager that although she would love to offer me the job there and then I’d be better off stopping where I was as the benefits were better and they couldn’t pay me what I was worth. 😯

OS graduate scheme feedback from their Hr team many moons back was ‘wow, I don’t know why we didn’t offer you a place, you’ve scored really well on everything.’ Gee thanks guys.

Obvious stuff on my cv

Eh? Was the job a pay rise? Crazies be crazy.

I’ve been in the position of hiring once or twice before.. And I’ve had to get my own new job a few times.. It’s pretty weird.. You get some people making extraordinary demands from both sides.

The application had asked for all sensitive equal opportunities information to be removed from the required CV.
I had removed this from my CV, as asked, but including a picture of myself on my CV meant that I had shown them I was white.
I was booted out at first sift as I had breached the ‘no sensitive equal opportunities information’ request. The head of department ‘cannot go against HR’.

Poor attention to detail then.

Too business/results focussed for a role in public sector. Got turned down as they thought I would get frustrated by the slow pace and paper shuffling they have to deal with.

Had this a few years ago.

Most common one for me (once past 40 y/o) was “too experienced”…

Either my first or second teaching interview during my PGCE, I was told that I was considered ‘too safe a pair of hands’. They went with someone who had taught a worse lesson, but who was considered ‘more exciting’ – their exact words.
I found out later from a friend who got a job there, that they were so ‘exciting’, that they had copped off with a 6th former and left after 6 months.

I was turned down for a trainee position with yorkshire water because they thought i was too clever for that role so they put me forward for another position that might be better suited. I didnt get that job and ended up unemployed for another 12 months!

Just make sure to mention you’re a Mongolian transgender lesbian..

The public sector will fall all over themselves to give you a job.

Found out about an interview less than 24 hours before, in the middle of packing my family’s belongings into a van to move house. At the interview I explained the situation, admitting to being unprepared due to my life being in boxes and the short notice. Didn’t get the job due to not being prepared enough for the interview! Words escape me…….

I was psychologically assessed and was incomparable with the organisations mission statement….I was classed as a social anarchist.

Found out about an interview less than 24 hours before, in the middle of packing my family’s belongings into a van to move house. At the interview I elained the situation, admitting to being unprepared due to my life being in boxes and the short notice. Didn’t get the job due to not being prepared for the interview! Words escape me…….

So presumably someone had applied for the job on your behalf?

Through an agency, so yes, in a manner of speaking.

I think we’ve all buggered up applications / interviews over the years – I certainly have. I just don’t think it’s useful to convince yourself that you’ve somehow been treated unfairly.
BUT if interviewers are so naive as to try to fob candidates off with numpty excuses for why you were unsuccessful, then you probably don’t want to work for them anyway.
A stock answer of their being stronger candidates is the only feedback that should ever be given IMHO.

Not me, and not an actual job, but a couple years ago the Loon was on JSA and was being chivvied to take that unpaid however many months long ‘work experience’. So he dutifully went to see the shipping company he was being steered to. But failed to get taken on. The reason? Not enough experience…..

I was psychologically assessed and was incomparable with the organisations mission statement….I was classed as a social anarchist.

I’d take that as compliment 🙂

The application had asked for all sensitive equal opportunities information to be removed from the required CV.

That’s the way it should be IMO, I’m happy to fill a form after I’ve been rejected or hired but not before so never do.

Never had a ridiculous interview rejection but have had BS reasons at the application stage. Being less experienced than the younger guy with less qualifications, less time in the company and less competencies. Or more likely not moving in the right social circles.

#nepotismohnonothingtoseeherenevermettheguyhonest

A while back when I was applying for a graduate scheme I went through various stages (Tests) made it through to an online maths test and promptly scored 100%, was told I was not a suitable candidate and not given the chance to go on to the next stage.

Wasn’t given a reason for being turned down but…one morning two letters came through my letter box -one offering me the role of chief executive of a contemporary art gallery and the other turning me down for the role of part-time temporary gas meter reader.

There’s a few jobs I would have turned down if the employer had been in the slightest bit honest about the job…

I’ve only ever been for one interview. It was at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. I wore a red tie. They asked if I was a communist? I said it was the only tie I had. I won the scholarship.

You actually did the annual appraisals for all your team? Madness…..

😯

I was told in an interview that I would ‘do a great job’… of what was advertised.

The problem was that they hadn’t included a particular qualification in the advert but did need it. Obviously I didn’t have it so wasn’t hired.

Then the interviewer took a call on his mobile and flirted with HR. We politely declined to work together and they readvertised the role with what they really wanted. I see it as a very lucky escape.

Lost a really bad job the day before handing my notice in for being dishonest on my CV, it turns out if you DO NOT put you have a masters in aeronautical engineering and a foundation in marine engineering. The job was a stop gap for me at a very poorly run and in my opinion very hazardous theme park in Norfolk.

Got turned down for not having enough photocopying experience!!

Not a job but I failed a test on god when being interviewed for a six form place by the head teacher of a catholic school.

I was rejected following an application to work at Tesco as a general dogsbody, having just finished A levels. The exact phrase was ‘not of sufficient calibre’.

The amusing thing was that I had just passed the Regular Commissions Board and was due to start at Sandhurst the following spring…

Passed the psychometric testing for a uni sandwich placement with a large blue chip company – went for interview, sat there thinking, I don’t want to work here, why did I apply for this job.

Guy comes in part way through the interview and asks me how it is going, tell him the truth, that I’m just not interested in the role, and maybe I had misread it.

He then shows me my application, that I had put my first and second choice the wrong way around, and would I like to interview for the correct position. Got it as well I did.

Turns out I hated it as well after two days.

Had loads of rubbish reasons for not getting a job, three of which are:
We don’t think you will stay in the role for long, the job was advertised at least 3 more times over the following six months.

The annual salary is less than your last job, well no shit sherlock that was a full time job and this was a part time role, break it down to an hourly rate and it was actually more.

And the one that annoyed me the most, you do too much voluntary work, well yes being unemployed in find time on my hands working would replace most of the voluntary work.

Took a psychometric test as part of one recent application. It said that I am a quick learner and give accurate results. The job description demanded somebody who is able to learn new test procedures quickly. Didn’t get the job after an interview, because I haven’t worked with the procedures before. Mind boggles.

Businesses (and staff) who are recruiting tend to be stressed and extremely busy. Time and money would be saved if they were more honest about what they want.

Went for a programming job. Everything they wanted me to do was very straightforward so I was confident I could do the job and then some.

‘Too confident’ was the reason for the rejection.

I got turned down because the organisation had another job coming up that they thought I’d be more suited to. They then delayed advertising the new job for another 6 months (random admin cock-up). Ultimately they were right and it all ended well but it was a stressful time!

Also got rejected for too little/narrow experience by someone who, rather than reading the application and CV, had obviously assumed that the little he had heard about me was all that there was. Annoying to get that as feedback as it would have been easy to handle at interview (I was surprised he had focussed on just one thing I’d done…). Of course, there may have been other reasons I didn’t get the job.