Applying for a new job posting at company that rejected me already

September 21, 2016 4:51 PM

Long story short, I applied for Project Manager position on Team A at a company. I got to the final rounds but ultimately got rejected. This was about a week ago. Today, I just found a new posting from this company for another Project Manager role, but on Team B (i.e., same role, but with a different hiring manager and set of people) and I want to apply for it. What are some things I should think about? More details below.

I first networked with a contact at the company. This contact was monumentally helpful and kind -- she sent my resume around as an internal referral. For what it's worth, she's on the same Team B that this posting is for.

Anyway, I thought I did fairly well on my interviews and felt pretty good about my chances. I was wrong and got a rejection email. It said that my qualifications were not an exact match with what they were looking for (a standard rejection email, if you will).

Regardless, I sent an email to the hiring manager and recruiter for that role, thanking for their time. I also asked them if they would feel comfortable providing any feedback. I did not hear back from them, unfortunately.

Would it be crazy to apply for a job at the same company so soon? Should I reach out to my contact again and ask her what her thoughts would be on my applying again? I would make it perfectly clear that I am not looking for her to refer me again as I'm not quite sure how my getting previously rejected reflects on her. I would just apply on the job board and see what happens.

Some other important pieces of information: I'm currently employed as a Junior Project Manager, so this role is for a step up, career-wise. But I've also applied for an internal role at my current company for a full-on Project Manager position and I feel pretty good about getting it (*knock on wood*). I'm thinking it may make sense to hold off until getting this internal promotion and applying to the company with the title bump.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation? What are some things I should be thinking about? How should I approach this?

Thank you in advance.

posted by 6spd to Work & Money (10 answers total)

If your contact on Team B thought you'd have been a good fit for the team, do you think she may have contacted you already? If they've already rejected you based on your qualifications for the same role, applying to a different team may not make a difference. How large is this company? The smaller it is, the more likely that your contact has heard about your interview and why you were not chosen.

I don't think there's an issue with applying to the job board, but I wouldn't reach out to your contact again. Your best bet is probably to wait for the internal promotion and then apply, as you will have added experience to your resume, and you will be able to negotiate a better salary/ benefits.

In general, asking for feedback from the hiring manager is unlikely to elicit a response, and is probably best avoided. Same with your contact - unless you know her in a personal capacity, reaching out may come across as a bit unprofessional. I am a hiring manager and while I have no personal disdain towards candidates I do not hire, emails beyond a thank you note post-interview tend to be ignored largely because I am busy, and also because engaging a candidate in this manner can lead to unwanted communication.

Good luck!
posted by Everydayville at 5:08 PM on September 21, 2016

I'd probably just email the recruiter, say that you saw the other position, and ask if they'd be open to considering you for it. There are many, many reasons you may have been rejected for the other position. Some would disqualify you from immediate consideration for another role, but lots wouldn't. I don't think it hurts to ask, especially if you got fairly far in the process (meaning they thought you had at least some potential).
posted by primethyme at 5:10 PM on September 21, 2016 [7 favorites]

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation? What are some things I should be thinking about? How should I approach this?

I was in a similar situation once. In the cover letter I pointed out that
- A similar team in the company had already concluded I was one of the strongest candidates for a very similar position at the company; I had made their final round in my previous application.
- My understanding was that their final-candidate was ultimately selected for [reason that doesn't really apply for this team].
- I was applying again because I was very interested in this company.

I was hired on that second attempt. (The time gap between applications was longer than in your case, but I don't think that factored; teams want to hire when they want to hire.)
posted by anonymisc at 5:38 PM on September 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

Don't worry about it. Applying multiple times just shows you're interested. And depending on the size/disfunctionality of the company, they might not even realize that you applied previously (or the HR department might know but the hiring manager might not).
posted by miyabo at 5:47 PM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If you got to the final round, there's nothing missing, they just chose someone else. If you want to work there, there's no reason not to apply.
posted by advicepig at 7:26 PM on September 21, 2016 [7 favorites]

How large is this company? The smaller it is, the more likely that your contact has heard about your interview and why you were not chosen.

Conversely, if it's a large company, and the two positions aren't in closely-related teams, your contact may not have been told that you were rejected, so I think a quick note mentioning your status & letting her know you're still available wouldn't be completely out of line. My own employer (several thousand employees) only recently put in place a candidate tracking system that lets the internal referrer know the status of their candidates - and even with this in place, status updates on rejected candidates are not always particularly timely. I should also mention that, if we were to consider a candidate in your situation, the first thing we'd do is get feedback from the team that rejected you - if you were a near miss, and/or we thought the reason for your rejection was situational, we'd move ahead, but if the feedback was that you were a weak candidate, we'd probably take their word for it.
posted by mr vino at 2:04 AM on September 22, 2016

I'm with anonymisc and advicepig - if you got to the final round, chances are you were hireable but there was someone else who was just a better fit. I'd apply again!

Even though the feedback you got first time round may not have seemed particularly personal, pay attention to it and try and address it in your cover letter, and be prepared to address it in your interview - even if it means addressing it in a end-of-interview followup question.

(Oh, and re: the internal promotion - apply for that too! Nothing wrong with having a couple of applications on the go at any one time.)

Good luck!
posted by finding.perdita at 3:14 AM on September 22, 2016

Anecdotal: I applied for my current job four times before I was hired. The first two times, I didn't even get an interview. There is no downside to applying again.
posted by FencingGal at 7:10 AM on September 22, 2016

I was just hired with a smallish organization that had previously rejected me. The first team I interviewed with, despite not offering me the position, recommended me for the second role. There could be a hundred reasons why you didn't get the first job. I say go for it!
posted by lunalaguna at 7:21 AM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Although I was in a slightly different situation in that the jobs I applied for were within 2 different areas of the same company (engineering and motor underwriting within the insurance industry in case it's relevant) I was rejected without an interview for the motor role before applying for the engineering one and getting chosen for a permanent contract. I don't think there is any harm in applying again but it depends on your relationship with the contact as to whether it would be appropriate to reach out to them again.
posted by Peetree at 9:18 AM on September 22, 2016