You found an opening at a company you really want to work for, a position in which you believe you could be a great asset, and better yet your application has been successful, you’ve already been for an interview, or maybe even two. Everything seems to be going your way, and just when you begin to feel like you’re about to receive an offer, the recruiter goes quiet. You stop receiving answers to your follow up emails, and even phone calls, and then, suddenly, the position is pulled from the company website and the role has been filled by someone else. You’re devastated. What happened!? You will likely never know, but here is how to deal with the fallout from being shut out by a recruiter for a role you thought was yours for the taking.
Allow yourself to be disappointed
It was the perfect role for you, the opportunity that you had been searching for, and you were so close! It’s ok to let yourself feel disappointed and upset, take the time you need to come to terms with what happened, so that you can move on. Affording yourself time to reflect may give you some answers as to why this happened, and what you could do differently next time. Don’t just bottle up your feelings and move swiftly on to new applications, this is baggage you don’t want to carry moving forward as it could negatively affect your future efforts.
Don’t vent about it on social media or in an email to the company
As mentioned above, being upset about the situation is fine, expected even, but these emotions are something you need to deal with in private. Sure, you can confide in your friends and family, those close to you who can give you the emotional support you need. But don’t go posting negative comments about the company in question across your social media accounts, and whatever you do, don’t send a spiteful follow up email to the recruiter bemoaning their handling of the situation. Being angry is understandable, but remember, you don’t want to burn any bridges as you may want to apply for another opportunity at the company, or one of their affiliates, in future, and that will be difficult to do if you have been blacklisted.
Don’t allow the experience to affect future applications
If you are able to learn from the experience, identify a few things that may have been the reason you lost out, and fix them moving forward, that’s great! Otherwise, put the situation to bed, and don’t let it negatively impact any of your applications moving forward. Remember that all companies have a slightly different recruitment process, and policies as to how this process should be conducted. Just because you had a negative experience where one recruiter unexpectedly stopped communicating with you, this doesn’t mean that you should become obsessive when dealing with others. Sending constant follow up emails, or checking on the status of your application with regular phone calls, isn’t going to endear you to recruiters, and instead, is likely to lead to the loss of further opportunities.
Being met with sudden silence from a recruiter, only later to discover you missed out on something you thought was pretty much a sure thing, can be disheartening at best, and agonising at worst. Yet this is one of the challenges of the modern job search, and dealing with rejection appropriately, staying positive, and remaining motivated, are just as important as a well-crafted CV or well-thought out Cover Letter.
