If you are not getting selected for interviews, you can take various steps to improve your chances:
If you are getting interviews but are not getting any further, you should do the following:
If you have done all of the above, having asked for feedback to make sure that you have interviewed well, the next thing to remember, if you are rejected, is to try not to take it personally. It is not a criticism of you; it is simply that in this instance you have been unsuccessful. It doesn’t mean that they thought you couldn’t do the job.
That may mean that someone with more relevant experience has got the job, or that there was a strongly favoured internal candidate. If you were invited to interview it means that, on paper, the recruiters believed you could do the job. Interviewing is expensive, so employers won’t waste time interviewing someone they feel is not qualified for the role in question.
It can help to make notes as soon as you come out of an interview. You could make a list of what did and didn’t go well, and suggestions of how you might improve. Once you relax after an interview, you may not remember as much detail. You can also compare your notes to any feedback you get by asking, ‘How could I strengthen any future application?’ Try to treat the whole experience as something you can learn from.
Remember, it took J.K. Rowling a year to find a publisher for her first Harry Potter book and some of the publishing houses made what was, with hindsight, an enormous mistake. It is important to try to stay positive and focused, and persevere with your job search.
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