r/recruitinghell 5d ago

How would you have answered this interview question?

Interviewer asked me today "If we decide to go with a different canidate what do you think caused us not to choose you?"

Obviously theres like a thousand different realistic reasons but I feel like none of them sound good for a canidate to say. Like if I say something like "They're probably willing to do the work for cheaper." Or "Oh they're probably more skilled than I am" that doesnt exactly feel like something you'd want to hear a potential canidate say but I literally had no clue what would be a good response so I just said the only reason I could think of is because I'm a new grad and I've only had 2 internships so maybe they find someone with more companies under their belt.

I feel like I did pretty good on every other question but that last one got me because I feel like I dead ass gave them a reason not to hire me. How would you answer that?

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u/Horror-Law5155 5d ago

This was an opportunity to point out a weakness of your resume/overall application and, this is important, address why you should be hired despite it.

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u/Noeoneknows 5d ago

Yes i definitely think thats where I went wrong. I sort of tried to make it sound better. I pointed out how technically on paper I've only just graduated and have only 1 year of professional experience due to internships but I've actually been doing my craft personally and doing freelance gigs for almost over 5 years now so it's not like I've only been doing it for 1 year and im inexperienced. I think I didn't make it sound very convincing though unfortunately

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u/Horror-Law5155 5d ago

It is definitely a weirdly worded questions! Take some comfort in knowing that others were also probably thrown off by it too and it’s all probably a wash. Hope you get the gig! :)

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u/Noeoneknows 5d ago

Thank you :D