5 Underhanded Ways Hiring Managers Say They're Not Interested

by Liz Ryan

Managing a job search today is an adventure that requires the interpersonal skills of a White House chief of protocol. Behind every hint and signal from an employer, deeper messages lurk. Much of my time as a job-search advisor is spent answering people who write me to say, "The interviewer said this or that, and then she looked at her shoes. What does it mean?"

Here are five dodges that employers use to tell job candidates "no thanks" without having to actually utter the words. The good news is that once you've received one of these weaselly brush-offs, you can turn your attention to more-promising job-search avenues.

"We're going to look at some other candidates."
Sometimes they tell you that you're one of three or five or some other number of candidates in the pipeline. That's fine. It's reasonable for a hiring manager to consider a number of people before making a hiring decision. The big red flag is when the hiring manager or the HR person says, "We're going to look at some other candidates."

Wait--you're going to go find some new candidates, after you've interviewed me? That's a sign to get out of Dodge. For whatever reason, you're not their cup of tea.

"We also have some qualified internal candidates."
If you were a hiring manager, who would you look at first: the people who already work around you every day or strangers who responded to a job ad? You'd look at your internal candidates, of course. You'd talk to those people, and if you wanted to hire one of them, you'd never place a job ad. When you post a job publicly, you're proclaiming to the world that you've already ruled out whichever internal candidates applied.

That's why, when you're into a recruiting process and you hear, for the first time, "You know, we also have some qualified internal candidates," it's time to cut and run. If there really are internal candidates, it's a huge disservice to those folks to not make decisions about them before bringing in outside people like you.

And an ethical employer owes it to you and other external candidates to make up their dang mind about internal applicants before wasting your time. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

"You're still in the running."
If anyone from the hiring organization says this to you, that's your cue to bail. This is the professional equivalent of your sweetheart saying, "You're awesome, but I think we should both see other people, too."

"We need to decide what kind of person we're looking for."
This is the mealy-mouthed manager's way of saying, "Whatever kind of person we're looking for, it ain't you."

"We're going to sit down and discuss all of the candidates next week."
Imagine that you're a hiring manager with a big, expensive problem to solve. (If you didn't have an expensive problem, you'd never have gotten approval to fill the position.) Imagine that the perfect person shows up, someone you know could solve your problem and let you sleep at night instead of tossing and turning. Can you imagine saying to that person, the one you desperately want on your team, "We're going to sit down and discuss all of the candidates?"

It would never happen. "We're going to sit down next week" not only means "We're in no rush to hire you" but also means "We don't mind telling you that none of us would burst out crying if you decided to move on to other opportunities."

Read the tea leaves, and save your energy for hiring managers who need what you bring to the table!