Not Getting Interviews for Jobs I’m Qualified? Top 10 Reasons

Have you wondered why you never get any response or interview calls from recruiters on most of the job applications you send out, even though the job requirements seem to match your work experience?

You could send 10 to 15 job applications daily, but you might not get a response or have an interview scheduled for the job openings you applied for, even if your skillsets match the requirements.

So, what could be some of the reasons for not getting any interview calls from recruiters?

The job application process, interviews, and recruitment are based on supply and demand and each company’s specific internal requirements. It’s a usual practice for companies to post job openings, just as a formality, even when the candidates are already finalized for the opening via internal referrals.

It can be tough to keep focus and continue your job search efforts if you’re unaware of what to expect once you start applying for jobs.

A well-rounded understanding of how the job market works and why responses might not come in as expected is crucial so you can set realistic expectations and avoid getting depressed after just a few tries.

Let’s go through the top 10 reasons in a bit more detail in this article.

Most Job Openings Gets Filled Internally via Employee Referrals

Candidates who strategize to apply via both internal referrals, as well as job boards stand a greater chance of getting interviews and job offers.

A survey from Linkedin revealed that around 85% of all job openings are filled via networking and employee referrals.

There are many advantages to internal employee referral programs:

• Trust – Employees know the company culture and the team’s specific requirements. When they refer their contacts, there’s more authenticity and trust that the referral would fit the job right.

• Speed – Job openings filled via internal referrals usually take less time than those filled via the non-referral recruitment process. And referrals usually join quickly compared to non-referrals.

• Save Time and Effort – Candidates applying for jobs outside referrals usually attend multiple interviews. They might get multiple job offers, so they weigh the benefits, finalize one, and reject the rest of the job offers. The rejected companies end up wasting one to two months of valuable time and effort finding another candidate.

ATS (Applicant Tracking System) Is Auto-Rejecting Your Resume

Today, the majority of job sites deploy an automated resume-matching software called ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to do the initial scan and filter out resumes that do not find a good match with the job requirements.

Usually, applicants tend to create one resume version and send out the same copy to multiple job applications, even if the job requirements might be different from the skillsets/work experience in the Resume.

Doing this might help to achieve a target of applying to ‘x’ number of jobs daily, but you might completely miss out on the outcome you desire.

In today’s world, it’s not a numbers game anymore. ATS resume scanners automatically eliminate such resumes when shortlisting the best matches.

Your Resume might eventually get rejected by the ATS scanner and might not even reach the eyes of recruiters. Remember, your objective is to get your Resume past the ATS pre-screening and bring it in front of recruiters.

Follow the below tips to get your Resume shortlisted by ATS:

• Customized Resume – For every job opening, create a tailored resume for that job before applying.

• Customized Cover Letter – Create a customized Cover Letter for every job application.

• ATS Mock-Test Your Resume – Go to an ATS scanning website, run a mock test of your tailored Resume against the job description, and analyze the score. Make adjustments until you get a passing score.

• Job Application – Finally, start applying for jobs. Be consistent, and set aside time on a daily basis to send out job applications.

You are Applying to Jobs for which You’re Not Qualified

It’s quite obvious that if you apply for jobs that you’re not qualified for, the chances of getting an interview call are almost near zero. Unless it’s a job that recruiters are struggling to get job applications from suitable candidates, your Resume might not even get seen by recruiters.

Companies and recruiters do not want to spend time and money to train employees. They are looking for people who have all the required skillsets, and work experience and who have executed similar projects in their prior jobs, so they could be productive from day one.

There’s an exception to this rule. If you know someone in that company who can refer you to the position, you could go that route and ask for help to refer you to the job.

But be sure you satisfy the below conditions :

• Confident that You Can Do the Job – You’re absolutely sure you can do the job, even though your roles and responsibilities are different from your prior work experience.

• Help With Initial Training – You know someone in the company or team who could help you with some initial training or tips to bring you up to speed.

• Employer Willing to Recruit – The hiring manager is willing to recruit a candidate who may not have the exact experience but has the right attitude and willingness to learn and grow.

• Ok to Come Out of Your Comfort Zone – You might experience a steep learning curve that could take you out of your comfort zone. Initial experience might not be pleasant, but be ready to persevere, and it could be worth the effort once you’ve acquired the new skill sets.

Increase your Chances of Getting an Interview Call by Sending out More Job Applications

You might think – What’s the magic number of job applications you should send out daily to get shortlisted for an interview? It’s hard to give an exact number because it depends on many factors like your industry, experience, number of candidates applying vs. the number of job openings, economic climate, etc.

A realistic approach is to find out your benchmark figure first by trial and error.

• Send out 2 applications daily for a month (that’s 60 job applications a month)
• Take note of how many interview calls you received for the 60 applications sent out.
• Compute your personalized application-to-interview (ATI) conversion percentage, which tells you what percentage of your applications converted to an interview call.
• If you got 3 interview calls for the 60 job applications sent out, your ATI % = (3 / 60) * 100 = 5%

Once you find your ATI %, there are two approaches you could go with:

Approach-1: Increase your ATI %, via Optimization

• In this approach, you’ll continue to send out the same number of applications daily (no need to increase the number of applications)
• Analyze the job requirements vs. the Resume you sent out to figure out why it worked and why you got the interview call.
• Apply the learnings and make tweaks to your resumes for future applications, thus optimizing them for more conversions to Interviews.

Approach-2: Increase the number of job applications you send

• If you currently have an ATI% of 5%, this means every 60 applications you send out get you 3 interview calls.
• Increase the number of job applications you send out daily to increase your ATI%
• For instance, if you send out four applications daily instead of 2, you just doubled your chances of getting interview calls. With an ATI% of 5%, you have a probability of getting six interview calls.

Your Resume does not Have the Right Format.

Check if your Resume is optimized with the right format for ATS scanning. A resume with poor formatting would get rejected by the ATS system, and that means you would fail in the pre-screening process itself.

Follow the below tips to ensure that your Resume is formatted properly:

• Work History, Company Name, Years Worked – Use a chronological format for your Resume; stay away from the functional format. ATS prefers the traditional chronological format where your work history is indicated with your company name and years worked.

• Resume in Chronological Format – Functional resumes showcase your skills over experience. If you’re currently using this format and not getting results, try the chronological format.

• No Tables, Plan Text Format – Don’t use tables or columns; make it plain text. Make it easier for ATS to parse and understand your Resume.

• Traditional Fonts – Stick to traditional fonts – Serif or Sans Serif.

Your Resume does not have Career Summary

Have a good career summary in your Resume that clearly summarizes your skillsets and work experience and makes it easier for the hiring manager to get a quick overview within the first 10 seconds of skimming through your Resume.

In the later sections of your Resume, you could elaborate more on your accomplishments in each role, work experience, and skillsets.

Don’t make recruiters read through your entire resume and summarize your work experience all by themselves, because they might not have the time for that, and would prefer to just skip your resume and move on to the next one.

Recruiters usually spend only a few seconds scanning a resume to see if it matches their requirements. The better you are able to summarize your experience, the better chances you have of getting shortlisted for an interview.

You do not Have a Cover Letter

The goal of a cover letter is to sell yourself to the hiring manager by highlighting the accomplishments in your previous work experience and how you could help your hiring manager’s company to deliver on its goals and targets.

If you’re not getting interviews, it might be because you are not sending out a cover letter for every job application. Consider doing this for every application you send out; it’s quite critical and can enhance your chances of selling yourself and getting an interview call.

You are Not “Tailoring” your Resume for the Specific Job Application

It’s a common practice to have just one resume version and send it out to multiple job applications. Candidates usually do this because it’s easy to apply for multiple jobs and hit your daily target of sending ‘x’ number of job applications.

Sending one resume version to apply for multiple job openings could be the single biggest mistake you’re making because every job requirement might be different, with different skillsets and experience. You have to carefully vet through individual job postings, and tailor your resume to match the requirements.

Majority of companies today use ATS to pre-screen the applications and match the resumes against the job requirements. If your Resume does not pass the pre-screening, you lose the battle even before you start the fight.

Company Hired An Internal Candidate

Depending on the company policies, the recruiting manager may be required to post job openings for internal hires. The recruiting manager might need to promote an employee in the team, to a senior position, and might need to post a job requirement both internally and externally.

In such cases, technically, the candidate is already decided, and the job posting is just a formality.

For external job postings, if there are applications coming in, one or two candidates might be called for a formal interview for documentation purposes.

And for job postings on the company’s internal websites, such positions may not be open to internal referrals as well. These are instances where even internal referrals by employees might not get a response.

There’s nothing much to do in such cases, and it’s in your best interests to be informed that such postings do exist in the market, and it’s difficult to guess the reasons for not getting interview calls.

Hiring Freeze – Jobs Put On Hold

A hiring freeze is a process where the company puts a temporary stop on hiring new employees or creating new job openings.

This allows companies to reduce costs and put a brake on expenditures until the revenue issues are sorted out.

Some of the common reasons for hiring freeze are:

• Market Conditions – When market conditions change, and the company is unable to hit its revenue targets consistently across quarters, it looks into ways to stabilize costs.

• Global Crisis – Triggered by an economic downturn, as the one triggered in 2020-21 because of the Covid-19 pandemic causing supply-chain issues – it impacts most companies.

• Budget Deficit – If a certain company faces a budget deficit for a quarter, it could put a temporary hold on new hiring.