What Does ‘You Are Not a Good Fit’ Really Mean?

If you are searching for a job then you probably have heard this before. It is one of the things that you definitely do not want employers to tell you. ‘You are not a good fit’ is something that employers often choose to include in their rejection email as a very generalized explanation of what went wrong and why you did not get the job. While hearing from an employer that you are not good fit for the job, can hurt and leave you feeling disappointed, it is important to understand that most of the time, it has nothing to do with you. If employers are not able to come up with a definite answer as to why you did not qualify for the job – and as such not give you enough feedback about the interview, then it means they are simply trying to say "no" without going down into too many details.

In fact, “you are not a good fit” is a vague, all-purpose statement that employers use in any rejection email they send out and it says ‘thanks, but no thanks’. Even after several interviews, business case submissions, weeks of planning, etc. Still, you are left there looking at an email and trying to decode the meaning of the text, trying to explain their every word. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this is that you think you must have done something terribly wrong if nobody wants to tell you what it is. However, that is not ever the case.

To help one understand what employers mean by this, I am encouraged to think about it the other way around. Have you ever thought a job wasn’t right for you? Did you ever admit to yourself that this job is not what you need after all? Perhaps you thought you were not a good fit for the position because you didn’t think you would fit into the work environment or wouldn’t get along with the people working there or even the company culture.

Well, employers are also thinking about the same thing and this doesn’t make you any less of a desirable candidate. Just like any form of rejection, not getting picked for a job, has more to do with the circumstances and the other individual’s needs and wants. It might mean that the person who made the call didn’t think that getting you on board was in any way beneficial for you or them.

So what does being a poor fit really mean? When employers tell you that you are not a good fit for the job, it has nothing to do with your qualifications and skills or how good you are for the job after all you did get the interviews. It is simply used to explain how employers perceive you and what they think about your personality and cultural fit. Right or wrong, it just is!

Other possible reasons include:

• You are not a Purple Squirrel - a term used by employment recruiters to describe a candidate with precisely the right education, set of experience and range of qualifications that perfectly fits a job's requirements.
• Internal Hire - The company advertises a position even when they have an internal hire in mind. However, the company wants to make certain they hire the best possible person or claim to have searched externally with no suitable candidate.
• You are too good - Hard to believe, however many hiring managers can have insecurities believing you can do their job.

Your career is not over before it even started, even if it feels like the engine stalled and you are going nowhere fast. I'd tell you for now, keep yourself in the game any way you can! Hustle, self-promote, and keep going as if you are a part of your chosen industry or profession – because you are. Unemployed or not, you have the skills, experience and dedication to make it.