Pinstripe | There’s a skills shortage, so why didn’t I get the role?

That does not mean an employer will shortcut assessment processes or hire willy-nilly. Simply put, the cost of a ‘wrong hire’ is measurably bad. The United States Department of Labour puts the cost of a bad hire at up to 30% of the employee’s wages for the first year.

We know statistically that preparation increases your chances and drives a candidate’s confidence levels. Knowing what to expect negates the fear of the unknown. You are more likely to perform your best and show authenticity when solid preparation is behind you — all great stuff.

For candidates who receive an unsuccessful notification, it is often confounding and frustrating. For some, after investing thousands of hours and dollars to become qualified is quite soul destroying.

There are factors that come in to play beyond meeting the selection criteria of a role and your personal performance on the day. Those range from:

• Continually changing economic impacts
• A lack of resources such as training availability
• The industry is yet to develop a perfectly fair and equitable candidate assessment process
• The group of candidates you happened to be placed with on any given assessment day is a huge variable

All of these factors impact the outcome of an airline or industry job interview.

For jobseekers, an unsuccessful outcome triggers an emotional response. It is important to know that this response can be managed. At Pinstripe Solutions, we implement a ‘next steps’ scaffold that focuses on regaining a sense of control and reframing what happens next with our clients.

While you cannot change the outcome, you are in control of what you do next.

‘I was unsuccessful’ management scaffold

• Debrief on the interview and other assessment areas
• Acknowledge the very real emotion related to not obtaining something you really wanted and have worked for
• Decide on those areas that can be improved
• Take responsibility for improving those areas
• Formulate Plan B, C and D options

Before firing off a ‘May I have feedback please’ email because you want or need answers, consider the reality of getting said feedback, your motivation and email content very carefully.

• Often employers will not/are not permitted to provide feedback
• You may not get a response
• The tone of your email needs to be carefully curated — the objective being to ‘leave the door open’ (thank you, Bruno Mars).

Regaining perspective

My colleague Tanja Perl was listening to a conversation between Brene Brown and Simon Sinek of the Dare To Lead podcast in her car. She emailed me an old Chinese parable or proverb they discussed as it resonated with her.

Here is the abridged version of the parable.

A young man is born with an amazing talent for horse-riding
Everyone in the village says wow, you are so lucky
The village Monk says – we’ll see

The young man falls of his horse and badly injures his leg
It appears that is career is destroyed
Everyone in the village says, you are so unlucky
The village Monk says – we’ll see

A war breaks out and the young man doesn’t have to join the army because of his injury
Many of the villages young men are killed in the war
Everyone in the village says, you are so lucky
The village Monk says – we’ll see

My version of this parable is a quote many of you have heard me use: “Wish for everything to happen, not for everything to happen as you wish”.

Both positive and negative career outcomes create change, and with change comes opportunity.

If you only focus on the past, seeking to blame, justify or find excuses, you will miss seeing the opportunities.

It’s natural to feel that way so allow some time to let your emotion pass. Take the lesson this outcome offers and use the scaffold above to ensure you are ready to respond to the change. There are always options.

You will see a post on this in the Pinstripe Solutions and Australian Aviation Magazine social media. We would love to hear about a setback you have experienced and how it become an opportunity for you.

Your story is sure to inspire someone who dealing with a setback.