5 reasons why you haven't heard back from a recruiter

You’ve developed a great rapport with your interviewer, answering each question with perfect examples of your experience. You’ve asked insightful questions showing off your keen analytical skills and didn’t even let that gotcha question stump you. By all accounts, you nailed the interview. At least, you think you did. “We’ll get back to you quickly,” they said, so you start counting down the hours until that inevitable offer comes. But the only thing that follows is silence. “How could I have read everything so wrong?” you wonder, as the days pass and still no word. “It’s not you, it’s me,” is a common cliché in dating, but the same can be said for the world of hiring. Here are five reasons you may not have heard back from a job that are not a reflection of you. 1. The decision-makers are away. Vacations, sick leave or very commonly, lengthy overseas travel, can keep key decisions-makers away and not as available to give the green light on a new hire. If you get a group of recruiters together, they will all commiserate over the challenge when a hiring manager’s busy schedule keeps a candidate they are excited about waiting in the wings. Your offer may already be written but just waiting for the boss’s cold to heal or trip to a field site to conclude before it can be signed. 2. A sudden staffing change. An employer could be all set to offer you the job, convinced you are the perfect candidate for the role. But then some people on the team put in their notice that makes them reconsider, well, everything. The skills and qualifications of any role are often based on the experience, or lack thereof, of other team members. Putting together a successful team can be like a puzzle. If you change the shape of a puzzle piece, then the other pieces may need to change as well. A sudden staffing change could take the employer back to the drawing board where they may restructure the roles and rethink how they need to fill the new gaps. 3. A bigger priority takes over. In the global development sector, priorities can quickly change. A natural disaster strikes, and it’s all hands on deck to respond to the recovery. A big request for proposal comes out and everyone shifts the focus to writing a winning response under a tight deadline. A new project is won and all energy is turned to a fast startup. Scenarios like these happen all the time in global development and can disrupt the current hiring priorities when other needs become more urgent. 4. Everyone is on board, except … Another not uncommon scenario is to win over almost everyone who has a say in the hiring decision, except for one key person. That person doesn’t even necessarily have to be someone who has interviewed you. In fact, I’ve seen people hold up a hiring decision precisely because they were not included in the interview process. So while you may have received positive signals from the people you’ve met with, there could be other stakeholders you haven’t even met holding up the decision for a variety of reasons having more to do with internal politics than your suitability as a candidate. 5. Lack of budget. While you would assume budgeting for a new position would come before starting the interview process, you may be surprised to know how many positions get advertised before the internal budget approvals are in place. Many candidates have had the experience of being all but offered a job only to find out that there wasn’t the money to bring them onboard. I’ve known hiring managers who find out only after they have selected a candidate that the funds aren’t there or have been diverted to other efforts. This can be particularly true for smaller, leaner nonprofits. If you’ve interviewed for a position that is on a proposal, not hearing back could simply mean the recruiting organization has not yet heard back from the donor on whether it has won the project. Have you not heard back about a job, only to be offered it later? Are you a recruiter who interviewed a great candidate but, for reasons that had nothing to do with them, had to delay the hiring decision? Please leave your comments below. Looking to make a career move? Visit our career center for expert advice on how to navigate your job search - all you need is a Devex Career Account to get started.