By Audrey Gup-Mathews

Guest contributor

You’ve made it to the second interview round for a job that seems like a “perfect fit.” It felt like you and the interviewer were “buddies” by the end of the second meeting, and he did everything but offer you the job. You begin to plan your life around a work schedule that seems inevitably within your grasp. Then the letter arrives in the mail: It’s a rejection. You’re floored.

What just happened? Did you blow the interview? Could your sense of well-being have been the ultimate self-deception? Was there a remnant of a hastily eaten lunch stuck to your teeth when you smiled a final farewell to the interviewer? Or was there someone more experienced, who knew the company from the inside out (and probably the interviewer as well), waiting in the wings to whisk the job out from under you? You have just encountered “The candidate from within!”

We are all aware the competition for jobs is intense in the present economic climate. A single position attracts hundreds of applicants, and only a small portion of those individuals actually makes it to the interview stage, much less the second interview. (Pat yourself on the back if you have made it to a second interview – that is quite an accomplishment these days.) However, don’t forget the competition from within the company – loyal employees who are watching the job announcements closely for the next “step up” on the career ladder, or perhaps a “safer” position that won’t get chopped in the next wave of budget cuts. Before you throw your hands up in despair over losing a job to an internal candidate, consider this: In the long run, it might be better for you that the internal candidate got the job. I offer the following personal experience:

I had just moved to Maine and was looking for employment. Combing the Sunday classified ads, I saw an opening for an office manager position. I applied and got the job. My new boss mentioned that there had been one internal candidate for the job – a clerk who had worked at the company for several years. She was good at her job, he added, but “a little rough around the edges.” Perhaps in a few years she would be ready for a management position. She was the only employee under my supervision.

Darlene (not her real name) turned out to be a keg of dynamite with a long fuse. For a while she quietly resented me, and I couldn’t totally blame her. She had worked hard to get where she was, and I had swooped in to block her from moving further up the ladder. At times, I thought perhaps we would get along. At other times, I felt I had to handle her with the utmost of diplomacy to avoid a defensive flare up. 

Then the keg of dynamite exploded. The phone was ringing in our office, and I was unable to answer it at that moment. Darlene was speaking to someone at the reception desk, but it was her job to answer the phone. When I called over to her that I couldn’t get the phone, she blew up.

“I don’t know why you got that job, and I didn’t!” she screamed at me across the office in front of clients and vendors. “I’ve been here a lot longer than you, I do more than you, and you get paid the big bucks!” she continued at the top of her voice.

My boss came out to see what the commotion was, and called Darlene into his office. She apologized to me afterward, but life at the office was never the same after that.

Now, I’m not saying that you should be afraid to apply for positions that may attract internal candidates, and Darlene’s reaction was certainly extreme. However, if you happen to lose a job opportunity to an applicant “from within,” perhaps it was meant to be. Not only will they continue on their intended path of advancement, but their “old” job may open up as a new opportunity for you. On the flip side, if you should land a job, and you sense resentment from a fellow worker, for no apparent reason, it may be that you are sitting in the seat that he or she had planned to occupy. You may need to spend a little extra time and effort developing a working relationship with that person, but it will be worth it in the end. 

Gup-Mathews can be reached  at www.writeimpressionmaine.com.