Why Your Interviews Keep Getting Rejected (and What It’s Really Telling You)

How to decode your interview rejections... and what they reveal about your strategy. 👀

I like to think I save my best advice for you, my Substack readers.

This is where I share the things I don’t post on Instagram… the things I usually save for my paying clients.

So, along that line:

I was having a conversation with a new client last week.

She was asking me about her job interview situation - she’s been rejected and wanted to know what she was doing wrong.

She was asking if it was her elevator pitch, her storytelling strategy, her vision for the role, or something else entirely??

And I had to explain to her that honestly - it could be every single one of them - because the rejections weren’t happening for the same reason.

They were coming at every different stage of the interview.

Meaning:

• She wasn’t “a bad interviewer”

• She wasn’t making one consistent mistake

• And she wasn’t lacking talent

The real issue?

She was using one interview strategy… for four completely different interviews.

Because each stage of the interview requires a slightly different focus and strategy. And the real mistake was not her tactical skills - it was her strategy for the interviews in general.

We had such a good and actionable conversation around this topic that I decided I just had to break it down for you!

So today, I’m offering you a job interview rejection breakdown no one ever gives you… but everyone needs.

Because each stage of the interview process is designed to evaluate something different, and if you don’t know what that “something” actually is, you can’t adapt your strategy accordingly.

So when you get rejected after the HR screen… or the manager round… or the panel… or final executive interview…

you walk away confused, spiraling, and thinking:

“What did I do wrong?”
“Why did they pick someone else?”
“What am I missing?”

And a lot of times when you ask the company for feedback, you get a standard, boilerplate answer:

“There was someone more qualified”

“We’re going in a different direction.”

So, because I like to tell you the truth (and I’m not afraid of a little tough love…)

Here’s the real answer:

You’re not being rejected from the same interview four times.

You’re being rejected from four different interviews for four different reasons.

In the rest of this post, I’m going to break down exactly what each stage is testing for… and how to finally get through all of them.

Stick with me.

This is the interview advice no one else is giving you.