Top 6 Reasons You Didn’t Get The Job Though You Were Qualified

“This jobless situation is like a death sentence. I graduated in September 2015 but close to two years down the line, I have not been able to land a job in my area of expertise. I have applied for so many jobs most of which I am qualified for but never hear from the recruiter. What could be wrong?” reads an email from a job seeker.

You may be having a good CV, an awesome cover letter and have taken my advice about applying for jobs you are qualified for, but you are still jobless. Are the hiring managers such ingenerate human beings who don’t give a crap about the troubles of Kenyan job seekers? Or could you be making these mistakes in your application?

Related: 7 Lessons I’ve Learnt About The Kenyan Job Market 

Reasons Why You Are Still Jobless

1. You make late applications

Ms. Carolyne Kariuki is a recruitment manager who has been on the job for a while now. She says that shortlisting begins as soon as the job is advertised and applications starts coming in.

“If we end up getting the right candidates within the first bunch of applications, we go with these candidates even through others keep applying. It’s the norm, there is no use going through all applications when you already got the right people.”

What do you do? Keep track of the companies you want to work for and keep visiting their sites for job vacancies. Make your application as soon as you see the advert. You may be qualified but nobody will go through more than a hundred CVs just to get to yours.

2. You didn’t follow instructions during the job application

Failing to follow simple instructions is one of the reasons your application will never make it to the interview stage.

I am sure in the course of your job search; you have come across instructions such as no phone calls please, send your CV only or do not attach certificates and so on. These are simple instructions and failure to follow them speaks volumes about the kind of candidate you are.

No matter what your sixth sense is telling you, always follow the instructions given by the employer because if you don’t it won’t matter whether you have the best qualifications.

3. You have unexplained gaps on your CV

One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make that puts off the employer is failing to explain gaps on their CV.

Whether you have been unemployed for a whole year for whatever reason ensure you explain that. The secret here is to show that you were busy during that period you were unemployed. For instance, you could say you ventured into entrepreneurship.

Related: 3 Ways to Explain Long-Term Unemployment Gaps

4. You copy the job description on your CV

You have heard that the CVs that get shortlisted are those tailored to the job in question. So what do you do? You copy and paste the job description on your CV hoping to impress the hiring manager and finally move out of your parent’s house.

But alas! You don’t hear from the employer and you are left wondering where you went wrong.

Ms. Kariuki confesses that this happens a lot in the applications she comes across and that portrays the job seeker as lazy and one who cannot get his application in order.

Tailor your CV to fit the role but don’t copy the job description word for word, because chances are the person reading your CV is the one who came up with that specific job description.

5. You have changed jobs so much

Job hopping is the biggest killer of dreams for most job seekers. We live in a society where millennials wants everything to work according to their plans and if it doesn’t, they quit and move on to the next job.

If you have had five jobs or even three in a year which happen not to be internships, don’t be surprised why you are not getting invited for interviews.

No employer wants to employ somebody who cannot hold down a job and will probably run off when they fell bored with the position.

6. Your attitude betrays you

You may be the smartest well-dressed interviewee. You may even have been top of your class but if you have a rotten attitude, your mates will launch careers before you can add one to two.

How do you approach interviews? Do you feel so entitled that instead of impressing the interviewer, you end up pissing them off?

Arrogance has never worked for anyone in a job interview unless you interviewing to be the world’s heavy weight champion.

Job search is tricky and most of the time you will question why your friends are getting jobs and you are not. If you are a victim of any of the above scenarios, it may finally explain why you are still jobless and help you change for the better.

Related: Top 5 Reasons You Never Hear From Employers