Career Cube Blog

You checked your ego at the door, were quite sure you WOWED each person with whom you met, then a letter, or a phone call or…..nothing. Rarely are candidates told why they didn’t get the job. Was it something you did? Maybe. But maybe not!

Even a courtesy letter can be a crushing blow - especially if you’ve been interviewing for ages and you feel an offer with one particular company is imminent. It’s difficult not to take the rejection personally.

Relax. While you are busy wondering what went wrong or trying to convince yourself it had nothing to do with you…sometimes that’s the truth! You and that company just weren’t meant to be - and nothing you might have done - or not done - would have made any difference.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

1. What are the priorities that will need to be addressed immediately in this position?
A title alone tells you nothing. The job description won’t reveal much either, except whether or not you’re capable of doing what’s required functionally on a daily basis. For the same reason that you put your accomplishments on your resume - and not just the job description - here, too, you want to get a sense of the individuality of this job in this company.

Was everything left running smoothly? Is it pretty much picking up and continuing daily functions as normal? Or is there damage control that needs to be done? If so, is there a time line for the repair, and is it an achievable one considering your capabilities? Is it realistic regardless of who holds the position?

If you don’t have any information already, this will begin to clue you in about both the supervisor and the previous employee. If you have been provided with some detail already, then the answer should track with what you’ve already learned.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Punctuality is defined as being where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be. Over the years, our society seems to have lost its sense of urgency when it comes to being on time for anything. To make matters worse, we justify it by saying things like “Everyone else gets to meetings or class a few minutes late so it’s OK for me too.” You may not realize it but when you are not punctual, people make one or more of the following judgments about you.

You Are Unorganized

Being late is not good and racing into a meeting or class out of breath is almost as bad. Figure out ahead of time how long it takes to get somewhere and leave early enough to get there. If you are going from one meeting to another, build in the appropriate amount of travel time. How hard is that?

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Popularity: 14% [?]