I had recently landed a job interview with a very prestigious technology company. Although I ended up getting rejected, this is not going to be a bad rant because I am quite happy. I am glad to have even been given an interview as this company is known to receive thousands of CVs each day. I’d also learnt quite a few things from the process itself, that I could possibly apply to my future endeavours. So, it is not a totally wasted experience.
With this particular interview, when I asked for feedback, the interviewer mentioned that he was quite impressed with me. He even thought that I was particularly suitable for a secret project that they had going and spent a few minutes describing it to me. I was really enthusiastic about it and I thought that it was a great idea. So, I was quite happy at the end of the interview and was waiting for the good news from my recruiter.
After several days of not hearing anything, I took it as a good sign because it is in my experience that when I do badly at an interview, I get told about it very quickly, usually within a day or two. But after a week, my recruiter got back to me and told me that while they recognise that I have great skills and experience, after careful consideration they have determined that I am not a direct fit for the job.
When I asked my recruiter for feedback from the engineering team, especially areas for improvement, I was told that they couldn’t provide me with any specific feedback, which kind of sucks. I was really looking forward to my next interview where I could impress them further with my abilities. Even if I didn’t get the job in the end, I was going to learn as much as possible from the process. I was particularly looking forward to the final stage of 4 straight interviews.
However, this is kind of symptomatic of my relationship with job interviews. This is not the first time that it has happened to me and I doubt that it is going to be the last time either. Generally, I would attend a job interview for an engineering position and impress the interviewers. I know where I stand among my cohort. They would let me know that I did well for the interview, but they wouldn’t be able to offer me a job.
But the problem doesn’t stop there. Even my sponsor is not getting back to me on my future job. I went home last summer to have a job interview and speak to them about my future job. Because they paid for my PhD here, I am bonded to serve them for several years. I am rather interested to work with them, seeing that I have heard good things from someone, who used to work for IBM and Motorola but, who now prefers working for them.
Since then, I’ve been patiently pressing them for a reply. I’m not familiar with how the organisation works internally. So, I will not comment on their procedures. But at first, I asked my future boss, if he had come to a decision but was told that I should refer the matter to HR, which I duly did, only to be told by them that they are waiting for my boss to get back to them on the issue. So, I’m still waiting patiently for them to get back to me on the matter. As long as I get a reply from them before I finish, I will be quite happy.
But this rather long wait has gotten me to think that they may not have a suitable position for me. I can understand it if they don’t, because from what I’ve been told by my future boss, I’m not actually working on the kinds of things that they are working on specifically, even though I am in the same field. So, I might just one day receive a reply from them, saying that they don’t have a suitable role for me.
The trouble may be that I do not have a conventional background, skills nor experience. So, not all my parts will fit into any specific mould, and the parts the do fit, will have gaps in them. The solution may just be to wipe out parts of my CV, but I do not wish to hide anything from my future employers. I feel that it’s never a good idea to begin a relationship based on half truths. Or, maybe I am just dancing the wrong dance and fated to never land a job in my life.
Any ideas on how to suck a little less?
Sybreon Ones Nought 
Perhaps, if you do wipe out parts of your CV, you can perceive it as only presenting a partial truth, as in a lie by omission. But another way to look at it is that you are simply showing them the parts of you you feel is most important for the role you wish to be involved in and letting the other parts of you take backstage for now.
When you talk to someone, you show different facets of your personality, not necessarily because you want to project a certain ‘image’, but purely because you are responding to cues and complementary facets of the other person’s character and conversation. Why should this be different in an interview or in your CV?
When you personalise your CV to target it for a particular company, you aren’t trying to hide anything, but rather you are showing them that you have thought about what it is the job requires, and therefore also that you have thought about whether this company is right for YOU. After all, it is not only them interviewing you, but as you say, whether they have a position right for you, and you interviewing them. Unless you highlight the areas of your CV that you feel is relevant for the job/company, how can you demonstrate that you have thought about what skills are required for this job, what the job really means, and show them that you do have the appropriate skill set?
Your CV and cover letter is like a reply to their question ‘are you right for us?’. In a dialogue, you respond to their cue. Why shouldn’t you tailor your CV to make it an appropriate response? There are so many facets to your personality, why feel obliged to show them everything right at the start? You would not do so if you were being introduced to a stranger. There will be time later in your working relationship to uncover the rest of your skills and experience.
After all, how many of us fit into a mould either?
I personalise my CV for each company already. Unfortunately, when I say wipe out parts of my CV, it isn’t about removing irrelevant parts. It’s about removing relevant experience and past work, in order to dumb it down. Make myself seem more employable. Because, if I were to look at my own CV, I would think that it would be extremely difficult to retain me.