Not right for them

A few reasons why you might get passed up for a job:

• you don’t have a formal degree

• you don’t have the ‘right’ background or experience

• they’re looking for someone with more education

• they’re looking for someone with more experience

• you stand out too much

• you fit in too much

• your resume/portfolio/website feels too pretensious

• you’re overqualified (they can’t afford you)

• they fear that if they hire you, you might take their job

• they don't feel you're confident enough

• they don’t like your profile picture

• they don’t agree with something you wrote

• you asked the ‘wrong’ questions in the interview

• you didn’t ask the ‘right’ questions on your interview

• you 'failed' the assessment

• you make them feel anxious

• you remind them of what they could have been

• you didn’t go to a fancy college

• your not affiliated with the company

• you don't have the right connections

• they misunderstood something you said

• they lost your contact information

• they hired someone internally

• they decided to scrap the position

• upon an extensive 20-second review of your qualifications, they’ve decided (perhaps for all the wrong reasons) that you are ‘not the correct match’ for the opening

• the found a more qualified candidate

• they offered a less qualified candidate the job before they discovered you
  

It’s quite likely that, in your job search, you will be passed up for reasons outside your control. Or, more often, be passed up for all the wrong reasons (like where you went to school or how you made them feel)--metrics that have absolutely no connection to the skills and experience needed for the job.

People do this all the time. There’s less ambiguity, that way. They can feel confident in their decision, because, even if the person they choose isn’t a good fit, they can at least tell themselves they made the right choice. Moreover, by relying on whoever has the most appropriate pedagogy (even if that pedagogy is a rough approximation of their skills), they can at least avoid the risk of betting on an outsider, and being wrong.

So if...

• you’ve completed relevant coursework or certifications

• you have the experience their looking for in the job description

• you have the skills their looking for, and a portfolio of work that more than proves it
  

and you are…

• changing jobs

• pivoting from one industry to another,

• or, are applying to jobs you lack a formal degree in.
  

…don’t feel bad if they pass you up for a job you know you can do well.

Instead, assume that in many cases you will be passed up for people who have less experience, but more formal qualifications, or for arbitrary reasons outside your control.

That when you get turned down for a job, perhaps it means you need to sell yourself better, perhaps it means you need more experience, and maybe just possibly—perhaps, more often than most—the verdict has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them.

Their beliefs, their biases, their worldview—their relationship to risk and fear.