Ask Vicki: Why do I keep getting rejected from jobs I interview for?

Each week, Monster’s career expert Vicki Salemi—a former recruiter who utilizes 15-plus years of experience in recruiting and human resources to empower job seekers—answers user questions on Quora. We’ll be republishing the answers here. If you have a question for Vicki, send it to socialmedia@monster.com.

Q. Why do I keep getting rejected from jobs I interview for?

A. Evaluate what’s going on. It's one thing to get rejected once or twice—maybe an internal candidate was also interviewing and the company needed to interview you for data purposes, for example. But if you’ve been on several interviews and you keep getting rejected, something is off.

Is your skill set a match? Does your education and experience add up to what’s called for in the job description? If so, since you probably succeeded past the initial phone screen, something may not be quite right about your communication skills, your executive presence, your passion and ability to convince the employer that you not only really want this job, but you’re a total asset to their organization.

If you have a good rapport with the employer, you can ask for feedback. Granted, they may not give it to you because it could open a legal can of worms (they should then technically give feedback to everyone they interview to avoid discrimination). Videotape yourself during a mock interview and hire a career coach, or pursue services at your alma mater’s career center (they’re often free). In short, find out what’s going sour during the interview and then tweak as necessary.

Read Vicki Salemi's answer to "Why do I keep getting rejected from jobs I interview for?" on Quora.

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Resource: monster.com