How to Help Your Candidates Handle Interview Rejection

As a recruiter, we’re so accustomed to the process of rejection that we can sometimes lose sight of the emotional punch that rejection often delivers to our candidates.  

While we understand that (more often than not) the candidate probably didn’t do anything particularly wrong in the interview and it just came down to someone who fits the role or company culture better, the candidate can often take a knockback immensely personally, seeing it as ‘proof’ of their failure and lack of ability.  

And on occasions where the candidate did have a problematic interview that exposed some deficiencies in their skill level or interview performance, your input is what can develop the candidate towards success in their next attempt. 

As a recruiter, your job is to make sure the candidate is in a positive mindset and ready for the next opportunity, rather than feeling dejected and unenthusiastic about risking rejection again.  

Which is why the best recruiters are adept at helping candidates handle interview rejection.  

Here’s a 5 step plan to debrief the candidate, support and develop them, and encourage them to apply for new roles.  

1. Get all available feedback from the hiring manager.  

When a candidate is unsuccessful, busy hiring managers might try and skip over the step of filling you in on why your candidate was not successful. Don’t allow them to brush you off: your primary focus must be getting all possible feedback about the candidate’s interview performance- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Make sure they give it to you straight.

If the hiring manager doesn’t really remember the candidate too well, that’s something to think about as well- why is your candidate failing to make an impression either way?  

2. Debrief the candidate. 

If the feedback you’ve received is not favourable, go gently. Package the input in a way that is constructive and supportive, particularly if your candidate is not taking the rejection well.  

However, there is little point in avoiding issues that have come up: if your candidate wasn’t appropriately dressed, or mumbled and didn’t make eye contact, they need to know. Otherwise, they’ll just make the same mistakes in their next interview; they’ll never get the job… and you’ll never get your placement fee.  

3. Make a plan for their development. 

Typical reasons why the candidate doesn’t secure the role is because their skill level isn’t quite up to scratch, their nerves got in the way, or they didn’t provide clear examples of their past successes in a way that the employer could see as relevant to the role on offer. 

If the feedback you receive is that the candidate missed out because they weren’t as qualified as another candidate, that’s a clear path to discussing what steps the candidate can take to fill that skill gap, or perhaps to revise their job search to reflect their current capabilities better.  

You can also coach them to better combat nerves, as well as help them scour their job history for relevant strengths they may have missed.  

4. Explain that rejection is not personal.  

As a recruiter, you can take a guess at what’s going on in the hiring manager’s head. You see it all the time. 

Perhaps they took a particularly liking to another candidate; there was a skill someone else had that the company really needed, they just didn’t bond with your candidate in a significant way, or didn’t feel they’d fit with the culture.  

NONE of these is the candidate’s fault, and it’s your job to the point that out, loud and clear. A handy way of snapping a candidate out of the doldrums is to tell them about other incredible candidates who have been rejected in the past to go on to secure a killer role.  

5. Ask them what they learned.  

Sometimes a candidate can feel like an unsuccessful interview was a waste of their time. But there’s always something that was learned, even if it’s just a matter of having more interview experience under their belt or the opportunity to know a bit more about the company or industry.  

When a candidate starts to see the interview as learning opportunities, they begin to lose that unhelpful focus of ‘win or lose’ that makes them feel like job-hunting is an emotional rollercoaster. Each interview they go to with this learning mindset, the better they become at interviewing.  

Also, don’t forget to impress upon a candidate that sometimes, if you don’t get the job it’s because the hiring manager doesn’t feel you’re a good fit for the company culture or the team. Ask them, do they really want to work somewhere that an insider suspects they won’t fit into? 

Your role as a recruiter is to source information, debrief the candidate, and make a decisive plan for any improvements in their CV or interview performance. Above all, it is to reframe what the candidate interprets as a failure as a learning opportunity and to help them move on and tackle the next interview with positivity.  

Until next time,  

Cheryl