Thoughts on Interviewing

“We could not hire you based on signals we have and we could only take decision with data points we have” is the insight I had this week.

With the experience of sitting on all parts of the interview table, want to give a perspective on landing a job. Failing to land a job could mean any of the following things.

• The job you applied for is already filled before it could come to your resume.
• In the draw of interviewers, you just landed a tough one. May be another day a different interviewer could have struck a better chord with you.
• You ended up interviewing in a week where a lot of other good candidates interviewed. A week where you were just a star among super stars.
• You are second guessing your performance in one round there by not performing well in others. A butterfly effect of a single mistake.
• Your interviewer is having a bad day. Not something you can control.
• You are being gouged against a different bar than what you were expecting. Its a moving goal post always regarding talent sizing for a role.
• The hiring committee did not get the full data points they needed.
• In the ever-increasing virtual interviews, just your or your interviewers internet connection is not good.

TLDR is there could be any number of reasons you did not make a cut for a job and you, not being up to par, is only one of them. There are more factors you cannot control, than you can control. For companies it is a game of avoiding false positives. Hiring the wrong individual is costlier than not hiring 10 good people - reminds me of Indian law epithet “It is better that ten guilty go free than punish one innocent” in reverse.