Avoid These Common UK Student Job Rejection Reasons
UK Student Job Rejection Reasons: Unfortunately, you are not selected if you have ever applied for a job in the UK. I’m sure you have received this type of email in your inbox, but how many of you get such emails? Many of you write well. The number of rejections emails have gone up after recent changes, which were made in April 2024 due to increase in salary threshold. I know such kind of emails are not encouraging, and you start doubting yourself and you get into your negative zone and even feel depressed. But do not worry much as each rejection is bringing you closer to your success because you’re learning something from it, right? Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to cover in today’s post How to Learn from Your Mistakes. Also, remember, it’s not always your mistake when you get rejected. Hence, I will analyse the situation from both the side. One is from your side which is a jobseeker versus from the employer side.
Let’s get started with today’s topic, where we will be discussing the top 12 reasons why you are getting rejected by UK employers. So first I’ll discuss the top six reasons from the employer side why they reject a candidate, which means it’s actually not your fault in most of the time.
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The reason one: is recruiters select more experience profiles.
Unless you’re applying for a graduate role. So what does that mean? As I’ve told you in my previous post, UK is experience based market and not a degree based market. It means the more experience you have better your chances to get selected in the UK. So say if you’re applying for a job of a Java developer and if recruiters receive your CV with one year experience versus other profile with five years of experience, it’s obvious they will pick candidates with five years of experience.
Reason two: preference is given to internal candidates.
If there’s a job which is advertised internally within a company and also externally, preference will always be given to internal employers to motivate them and keep the employees in the company for long. Remember you’re not their first preference unless you are internal candidate. So start applying internal jobs.
Reason number three: Next preference is given to referral candidates.
A recent article claim that 73% of people get job via referral. So what does this mean? It simply means that, say, if I refer to you for a job in my company, they will bypass all the CV’s which they have received, either through LinkedIn or their career portal, and they will review your profile first and will call you for interview because they think if you are being referred by an employee, it means you are really good at your job and you will be trusted more as compared to other candidates who are not being referred.So start asking for a referral from your friends, families and colleagues and it’s okay to ask for reference.
Reason number four: found better candidates locally in the UK market.
It’s very obvious when a job is being advertised in the UK, local people will apply and will also be given preference as compared to other candidates who are applying from abroad or who requires visa sponsorship. If your profile will not stand out, they will pick the local candidate rather than giving you sponsorship or bringing a foreign candidate from abroad and go through the long process of issuing certificate of sponsorship, which is the COS, and then applying for this skill visa, which takes some time and will definitely cost some money for the employer.
Reason number five: employers unwilling to pay the minimum salary as per new rule.
Many employers prefer to hire individuals at a lower salaries to save costs. However, recent changes in salary regulations require employers to pay a minimum of 30,800 to hire students. This can be challenging in most cases, as students often lack experience, and fresh graduates typically do not command high salaries unless they possess the right skills for the job.
Reason number six: urgent job filling.
Due to the priority of the project, I have seen there are a lot of jobs which they want to fulfil very quickly on an urgent basis, which can be because the staff is off sick for a longer period than expected, or some other business reasons. In such scenarios, they would prefer candidates who are available. Even though they may not have the perfect profile for that role. The best example can be Covid time, where the NHS had hired so many staff who were available immediately and also trained them to deal with the Covid pressure.
Now let’s discuss the top six reasons, which I see you are being rejected and the mistakes that you make. Let’s understand those points and make sure you do not ever repeat it.
Reason one: is applying jobs with the same CV everywhere.
The most common mistake by you all is that you are using your same master CV and cover letter to apply for all the jobs, which is not right. You should always have a tailored version of your CV for the job you’re applying for. Based on the job description. Make sure your focus of CV should be 80% of the skills you’re asked in the job description, and only 20% of the remaining skills which you possess. As the employers are less interested to know about your remaining skills. Here’s an example of a student currently who is using my service. He was applying for a business analyst position, but mentioned that he’s working as a bartender in a local pub. From a hiring managers perspective, why would they hire someone as a business analyst if they’re currently working in a pub? Well, if you don’t have the relevant job experience for the position you’re applying for, do not mention it. Instead, focus on highlighting the skills needed for the role of a business analyst.
Reason two: not applying within 48 hours .
I always recommend my readers apply for jobs within 48 hours of the job being advertised. This significantly increases their chances of getting an interview call. If you delay and wait for a month, the employer may have already found their perfect candidate, as they are often more than 100 applications for a single job opening. Therefore, follow your top companies in your industry and set up alerts on LinkedIn so that you get notified as soon as they are hiring.
Reason number three: applying jobs by just reading the title and not the whole job description.
I have made this mistake in the past, and I know most of the job seekers like you apply blindly just by reading the job title and not reading the whole job description. Read that skill section. So the first step is to read the job description in detail and don’t apply to all the jobs which are not relevant to you, but only apply to those jobs that match your profile. You need to give priority to quality of job applications that you are submitting and not quantity. Apply less jobs but applied correctly and make sure you do it daily. Don’t run after those numbers please.
Reason four: CV and LinkedIn profile not matching.
When an employer receive a job application from an external candidate, the first thing they do is compare the CV with the LinkedIn profile. If there’s a major mismatch between the two, I ignore the application and move to the next one. And this is the process which is majorly being followed by UK employers and recruiters as well. So make sure your CV and LinkedIn matches with the correct information.
Reason five: applying non sponsored jobs.
If you’re applying from abroad and not all jobs can get you visa sponsorship. So this is another reason for rejection as you all are applying for jobs blindly in all the companies without reading the details about sponsorship. Only apply in those companies who are registered with the UK Home Office and are known as licensed sponsors.
As of today, they are more than 140,000 registered companies who can sponsor your visa in the UK, but not all kinds of jobs can get you visa sponsorship. Demanding jobs have a higher chance of getting sponsorship. let’s take an example to understand this. Say Amazon is a licensed sponsor and is currently have advertised two jobs, one data scientist and the second one is sales representative. So if you’re applying for a data scientist role, they will definitely review your profile as this is in demand job of the UK and will consider you for sponsorship. However, sales representative is not in demand list and they prefer local people who knows the UK market and UK’s culture rather than hiring someone who requires sponsorship. Also, they have enough people available locally in the market who can do the sales job and hence is not considered niche, so your profile may be rejected.
Reason number six: keyword is missing, so CV is rejected.
Most of the time your CV doesn’t have the keywords, which is a must for your profile. So always research keywords for your profile file like reading multiple job descriptions. Make sure to add that to your CV. If you follow this step, your CV will not be rejected by the ATS software, which is an Application Tracking System, which is a program to filter only those CVs with the keywords mentioned in the job description, which means your CV will be shortlisted and you will have a high chance to be called for an interview.
Good luck to everyone who are applying for jobs now, and remember to be patient, as finding a job is not easy.
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