Written by: Mitch Rupert, Communications Manager, Bloom Golf Partners

What you’re about to read next is going to sound ridiculous. I can already hear you scoffing at your phone and covering it in spittle. But hear me out.

Whether or not you get a job you apply for has no bearing on whether or not your application and candidacy was successful.

I know that may seem counterintuitive. Afterall, the reason you apply for a job is to get a job. But the decisions in a job search are really out of your hands as an applicant. The only thing you can do is present yourself in the best light. Then hope that’s enough to entice someone to want you to work for them.

The question I hear so often from candidates who aren’t selected for a job, regardless of how deep into the process they advance, is what could they have done better to move forward? Sometimes it’s not about being better. Sometimes you just aren’t a fit for what the club is looking for. 

Let’s think of it this way. I’m a poker player — sometimes a good one, sometimes maybe not — but it is imperative to learn as a poker player that it cannot be a results-oriented game, or you’ll drive yourself nuts. Anybody who sits at a poker table will understand it is very possible that you do everything right in a poker hand, but the luck of the draw can still be against you. 

Consider this, a well-shuffled (at least seven riffle shuffles) deck of 52 cards has 52! (that’s 52 factorial) possible outcomes for the order in which those cards finish. To put that in terms of a number, that’s an 8 followed by 67 zeros. Anytime you shuffle a deck of cards well, it’s very likely that is the first time in human history the cards have been in that order. So there are any number of reasons you could win or lose a singular hand of poker that goes beyond just the way you played the hand.

A job interview is similar. There is so much more that goes into the decision-making of who to hire for a position than your experience, your application materials, and your performance in an interview.

Even we, as recruiters, don’t know the inherent biases that a member of a hiring committee, or a hiring manager carries with them. You, as the applicant, can’t account for the politicking of people outside the club who are stumping for one candidate over another. You, as the candidate, can’t account for the preferences of a hiring committee or manager.

So to beat yourself up over whether or not you got the job, is to not understand how little control you actually have over the process and the decision. What you can do is focus on the things only you can control, and regardless of the outcome of the search, you can ask yourself whether or not you put yourself in the best position to be hired. 

If your answer to that question is yes, then you can walk away satisfied — not necessarily happy — regardless of whether or not you’re hired. If your answer to that question is no, then it’s incumbent to re-evaluate your process.

Recently I’ve done a number of post-interview coaching sessions 

So what are the things you can control in a job search process?

1. The presentation of your documents — Is your spelling correct? Is your grammar proper? Do you have an aesthetically pleasing résumé which properly describes your experience and work history (with dates)? Do you have a cover letter addressed to the proper person(s)? 
2. The presentation of yourself — Did you come dressed appropriately to the interview? This doesn’t always mean suit and tie, but let’s default to dressing for the job you want, not the job you have. Did you speak clearly? If it was a Zoom interview, did you sit in a quiet place where there were no interruptions and your WiFi was strong?
3. Your preparation — Did you take time to understand the job, the club, the hiring manager, your interviewer? Did you show up with questions you needed answered?
4. Your answers — Did you keep yourself from rambling and going off on tangents? Did you stick to the topics at hand without getting too deep into the weeds with your answers?

It’s difficult to consider that maybe we, as candidates, just aren’t the right fit for a job that we would kill to have. But more times than not, that is why a candidate doesn’t move forward in the interview process. But if you have taken care of those four points previously listed, you have put yourself in the best possible position to move forward. From there, the decision comes down to the luck of the draw.

That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s also reality. And if you focus on the process as opposed to the result, you’re going to be able to put yourself in position to eventually find the position that is the right fit for you.

About the Author

Mitch Rupert

Mitch Rupert brings more than 20 years of high-stakes interviewing experience—from covering professional and youth sports as an award-winning Associated Press journalist—to his role with Bloom Golf Partners. Since joining the firm in 2021, he has supported candidate communication, interviews, and due diligence while applying his storytelling and research expertise to the executive search process.