At least I can claim I have good intuition and can read a situation and people.
They called me this morning to say they were very sorry, the guy I met yesterday did not think I was the right person for the role. He had concerns about how much I had moved around and had a sense that I lacked direction…
My sponsor/contact seemed genuinely put out. We had got on really well and gotten to know each other as this THREE MONTH application process went on.
The irony? I had never applied to this place – they had headhunted me two years ago, still had my details on file and called me again 3-4 months ago, which is how the situation arose. In some ways that makes it worse, of course!!!
I don’t feel all that bad about it. A career is not simply down to fate – but I do feel that it wasn’t meant to be if this guy and I had no chemistry (which we didn’t) and he would have been a major reporting line for the role. My biggest regret is that I was not pursuing other things more strongly over the last three months. The main reason for this is that I had never, ever thought it would take this long.
Onward and upward.
Sorry to hear this, lovely. The right one WILL come along. Or we can go into business together! 🙂
Yes it’s never easy to take any rejection so I’m glad you’re at least putting a brave and positive face on things. In my day (don’t go there) moving jobs after a few years would definitely count against you in most professions but I think that changed a decade or more ago . However the higher the position, the more it must still be the case as no company wants to invest time and effort on both interviewing applicants or training them if it looks like they are ‘movers’ after a few years.
Maybe showing you CAN commit if the job is right would be something to stress during interviews. Make a perceived weakness into a strength by giving them the ‘warm feeling’ that THIS is the job you’ve been waiting for !
Of course, as you astutely said, YOU need to be sure of your direction too.