Interview Disappointment and Rejection (and Why It’s Actually Progress)

This week I had one of those moments where I stopped and thought:

How on earth did I end up here?

I spent part of the week training employability professionals at one of the biggest universities in the country.

These are brilliant people. The sort of people who spend their careers helping graduates and mature students build confidence, write better applications, and think about their future.

They care deeply about their students, and they’re very good at what they do.

But like almost everyone in the job search world right now, they’re facing the same problem.

The job market has changed faster than the advice systems around it.

The thing that’s missing isn’t care. It isn’t effort.

It’s the technology.

We talked about things that rarely appear in traditional employability training:

• how Applicant Tracking Systems actually filter candidates

• how AI is now influencing hiring decisions

• how visibility works in the modern job market

• how to get into human hands instead of disappearing into application portals

• how to use AI without losing the human part of your story

And honestly, it was a real privilege.

These were thoughtful, experienced people who simply wanted to understand how the hiring landscape is changing so they can support the next generation entering the workforce.

Later in the week I was telling my dad about it. He asked what I’d been doing.

And I had one of those slightly surreal moments where I thought:

Who am I, exactly?

Just a sole trader. A small business owner.

Yet somehow I’m training one of the biggest household names in UK education.

But I suppose the reason is simple. The things I teach are different. I’m not a CV writer.

I teach people how hiring actually works.

Then came the other theme of the week.

Disappointment.

Someone in my own family had applied for a role they were genuinely ideal for.

Perfect experience. Strong background. Great fit.

They didn’t get it.

No feedback.

Just a polite rejection and an invitation to apply again in six months.

Which left me wondering something.

If someone isn’t the right fit, that’s fine.

But if you’re encouraging them to reapply, surely you should explain why they weren’t selected?

If they reapply in six months but nobody tells them what they were missing…

what exactly are they supposed to change?

It’s one of the strange contradictions in hiring. And I have to tell you, I really want to message the hiring manager and find out why, but I have to hold myself back.

I saw something similar with several of my Sprint clients this week.

A few of them reached the second interview stage but didn’t quite cross the line.

And of course, that hurts. It doesn't just hurt them; it hurts me and our community.

Interview rejection is emotional in a way application rejection isn’t.

But there’s something important happening here.

Before joining the Sprint, many of these people weren’t getting interviews at all.

They were applying.

Waiting.

And hearing absolutely nothing.

That’s the kind of rejection that doesn’t even feel like rejection.

It just feels like silence.

Ghosting.

You don’t feel disappointment because you were never really seen.

But interview rejection is different.

Interview rejection means someone actually looked at you.

You were visible.

You were considered.

And sometimes that’s the emotional shift people struggle with.

When you move from being ignored to being evaluated, rejection suddenly feels personal.

But in reality, it’s progress.

Every time.

I will take rejection over ghosting every day of the week.

Because rejection means you were in the room.

One interesting pattern came up in a couple of these interviews.

They weren’t structured.

At senior levels, interviews often turn into what feels like a conversation rather than a formal competency interview.

And while that can feel relaxed and pleasant, it creates a hidden risk.

If the interviewer doesn’t ask you directly about something important — leadership, problem solving, decision making — you might never get the chance to show it.

And afterwards the hiring team might think:

"They didn't demonstrate that skill."

When actually…

you simply weren’t asked.

So here’s one of the biggest pieces of advice I give people preparing for interviews.

Don’t assume the interviewer will prompt you to share your strongest examples.

Sometimes you need to bring those stories into the conversation yourself.

Not aggressively.

Not awkwardly.

But deliberately.

Because if you leave the room without demonstrating your strengths, the hiring panel can only evaluate what they heard.

So if you were rejected this week, here’s something I want you to remember.

If you got an interview…

you were seen.

Someone read your CV.

Someone believed you were worth speaking to.

Someone spent time evaluating you.

That’s progress.

Real progress.

Because the worst place to be in a job search isn’t rejection.

It’s invisibility.

And if you’re being rejected after interviews, it means you’re already out of that stage.

And that’s something to be genuinely proud of.

Even if it hurts a bit this week.

If you want to move from 95% ghosting and 5% rejection to getting 35% of your applications to interview, get in touch.