Don't understand this feedback from interviews

Esho

Hi,

I've done one successful interview in the last 15 years (for my current job, in it 5 years), so I'm out of touch with current recruitment practices.

I'm looking to move now and have got to interview stage for a few (very encouraging!).

On two of them, the feedback (via recruiter) was "You are a fit, we were impressed by your experience and interview and want to hire you. And we will as soon as something comes up".

In both these cases, the companies are still advertising for the same role.

I haven't encountered this before. Is this a PFO?
And if so why not just tell me to PFO!!

duffman13

Esho wrote: »

Hi,

I've done one successful interview in the last 15 years (for my current job, in it 5 years), so I'm out of touch with current recruitment practices.

I'm looking to move now and have got to interview stage for a few (very encouraging!).

On two of them, the feedback (via recruiter) was "You are a fit, we were impressed by your experience and interview and want to hire you. And we will as soon as something comes up".

In both these cases, the companies are still advertising for the same role.

I haven't encountered this before. Is this a PFO?
And if so why not just tell me to PFO!!

Apply directly with the company if there is a job up. A lot of recruiters advertise roles that don't exist yet in order to have people on the books ready.

Corb_lund

Esho wrote: »

Hi,

I've done one successful interview in the last 15 years (for my current job, in it 5 years), so I'm out of touch with current recruitment practices.

I'm looking to move now and have got to interview stage for a few (very encouraging!).

On two of them, the feedback (via recruiter) was "You are a fit, we were impressed by your experience and interview and want to hire you. And we will as soon as something comes up".

In both these cases, the companies are still advertising for the same role.

I haven't encountered this before. Is this a PFO?
And if so why not just tell me to PFO!!

What time scales are we talking about here? Some companies take longer to hire than you would expect.

If you applied through a recruiter then they are your point of contact and you should be following up with them shamelessly. They only get paid for placing you so its in their interest. The advantage of them is they usually know HR and can probe more on your behalf.

As an aside I would recommend carrying on interviewing and be pushing hard for feedback. Its surprising how much you can improve your self and the way you portray yourself, through both feedback and practice.

Good luck!

beauf

Seems very common. I've no idea what they are doing, lots of people report the same.

Unless you've heard this 5+ times I would forget about every interview you do. If you get the job you will be told. Other than that assume you didn't and move on.

skallywag

It could be the case that they don't see you as a fit to the role which was advertised, but that you made a good impression in general and would be considered for some other role in the future.

This can be happen quite often in reality, and actually happened to myself when I first applied to the company where I work now. I did not get selected for the role that I applied for, but they contacted me a few months later about a different role and asked would I be interested. It's what I'm doing right now and it's working out great.

Did they make it clear to you that you were not successful going for the role which you applied for?

Esho

skallywag wrote: »

Did they make it clear to you that you were not successful going for the role which you applied for?

Thanks for all the replies, folks.

That is the weird thing - there was no direct feedback as to the role I interviewed for.

Maybe the warm jet of pleasant but non-committal feedback is an anti- GDPR measure: apparently, you can request all of the data related to your application, which would be a headache and perhaps a potential threat.
Maybe if the carrot of a future role is hanging, it will prevent this?

Esho

duffman13 wrote: »

Apply directly with the company if there is a job up. A lot of recruiters advertise roles that don't exist yet in order to have people on the books ready.

Thanks duffman13,
I applied to these jobs via LinkedIn, and when I tried to apply directly to the companies on LinkedIn when they re-advertised the roles, I got redirected to a 403 Forbidden or "The closing date for this job has passed" (even though it is still open on the company website)

I did apply directly to the companies to see if I'd get a response but nada.

Esho

Corb_lund wrote: »

What time scales are we talking about here? Some companies take longer to hire than you would expect.

If you applied through a recruiter then they are your point of contact and you should be following up with them shamelessly. They only get paid for placing you so its in their interest. The advantage of them is they usually know HR and can probe more on your behalf.

As an aside I would recommend carrying on interviewing and be pushing hard for feedback. Its surprising how much you can improve your self and the way you portray yourself, through both feedback and practice.

Good luck!

Great advice! Thanks very much! Onwards and upwards!

Esho

beauf wrote: »

Seems very common. I've no idea what they are doing, lots of people report the same.

Unless you've heard this 5+ times I would forget about every interview you do. If you get the job you will be told. Other than that assume you didn't and move on.

Thanks for that, good to hear its not only me.

skallywag

Esho wrote: »

That is the weird thing - there was no direct feedback as to the role I interviewed for.

I would push the recruiter for that.

OMM 0000

Couple of things off the top of my head:

1. The job advert automatically stays online for 60 days or something, and they just haven't bothered to take it down yet.

2. The recruiter is full of ****.

3. You are too expensive. They want to hire you but you're making it impossible.

4. They want you, but not for this role.

starlit

I wouldn't think its a PFO they would have been frank about it or not got back to you. I think they are keeping you in mind until something comes up but maybe the case they keeping you hanging until they have done other interviews. If you haven't heard from them after a period of time I would follow up or move on.

Getting interviews and doing well in them is half the battle if they are impressed you are in with a chance but still no guarantee unless they give you the job and in writing.

Ya I find sometimes hr and companies aren't always great to give back feedback depends on their policy on that. Some will do it as part of recruitment process others won't even if you ask some might. Maybe ask for feedback if they are willing to do so?

Couple of jobs can be a fools errand, I could apply for jobs thinking they are full time/paid and turns out to be internships or bogus jobs. They take CV and then nothing.

I have given up on recruitment process at this stage. I loose hope after every rejection and then the job was either non existent or someone better gets it.

Hopefully it all work out. The very best of luck OP!

Esho

Thanks starlit!

Keep calm and keep sending out the CVs!

Diziet

Keep at it. When you have a good CV and have done a good interview, it is basically down to how you fit in with the team and company. There are many variables there, so don't over-think it. 

In most cases, companies don't even give feedback, and even if they do it is so generic that it's not much good. So it is up to you to analyse the job spec and interview, see what you can improve, maybe do a couple of mock interviews with willing friends, and drive on.  The feedback you got is actually quite positive!

Esho

Thanks for that.

I did go back to the recruiter, who repeated the feedback.

"Keep calm and keep sending out the CVs""

Thanks folks

Esho

Update.

I did two more interviews today - good feedback and an offer looks close, I'll know this week.
Had a great chat with one of the interviewers, and got some good information about the area I'm applying in, and my skills / experience in it.

Phew, I was getting paro there!
Thanks for all the replies folks.