There’s nothing more nerve wracking than waiting to hear back about a potential job. The applicant replays the interview in his or her head, trying to look for signs one way or the other.
There are some indications, however, that you just aren’t getting that job. If any of these sound like your situation, you may want to keep sending out your résumé.
1) You haven’t heard back in weeks.
Some companies will send you an update or let you know that you didn’t get the job. Many, however, will simply never call you back.
If you are really curious about the interview, you can certainly try to call them to get an update. But if they give you a noncommittal answer or don’t take your call, you can be sure that you didn’t get the job. Just move on.
2) You notice the job has been reposted.
If your interview went well but you suddenly see the job reposted, that’s never a good sign. Typically it means they’re looking for a cheaper version of you.
This is disappointing, but don’t let it get you down. You need to be paid what you think you’re worth. If that company was trying to lowball you or doesn’t value your experience, they don’t deserve you.
3) They never contacted your references.
Many companies ask for three references and then follow up if the interview went well. If your references have never heard from anyone about your interview, you almost certainly didn’t get the job.
Although it’s possible you may get hired even without a reference check, that’s a sign that a company is either sloppy or so rushed that they don’t have time to follow up. Think long and hard before jumping into a disorganized workplace.
4) The company calls you back, but the responsibilities have changed.
In this case, you may actually be offered the job, but you should seriously consider whether it’s worth accepting. In many cases, the hiring company will try to dump more work on by mixing you in with many different departments.
This is a recipe for being overworked and getting burned out. If the job doesn’t sound like the one you interviewed for, you probably don’t want to work for a company that’s going to bait-and-switch their employees like that.
5) They took extremely detailed notes when asking you about the company’s challenges.
If you have multiple follow-up interviews and the interviewers asked you for your thoughts on the company’s biggest challenges and how to fix them, it might seem like they’re really interested. They’re not.
If they were taking detailed notes as you gave them a well-thought-out plan on how to fix their company, they were just picking your brain for ideas. They don’t want to hire you, they just want to exploit your expertise without paying you for it.
6) You follow up, and new tragedies or delays seem to keep popping up.
If your interview went well, you may be told an offer is forthcoming. But then you wait and wait, and you hear nothing. Naturally, you follow up to hear what’s going on.
That’s when you’re told that the hiring manager has been out sick. And then when they came back, the department head took a vacation. The list goes on and on. They’re stringing you along. Just chalk it up to experience and move on.