So you applied for a remote job at code 2, and you didn’t get an offer. Why?
There are many reasons why someone might not get an offer from us. We’ve found that the most common reasons fall into 1 of 10 categories. Here is a list of the top 10 reasons your remote job offer was rejected:
1. You did not answer all parts of our application questions
2. Your code samples were insufficient or had no code samples at all
3. Your work experience was not relevant to the position for which you applied
4. You did not have the required number of years of work experience in your field (for senior positions)
5. You had too many years of work experience in your field (for junior positions)
6. The only time you ever worked remotely was when you took off a couple days to go skiing with your friends in Colorado last year. And that’s just cheating! If it’s not a full-time gig, it doesn’t count! Not even if your friends were super cool! Sorry!7. We decided to hire someone else who already works here instead8. The only time you ever worked remotely was when you took off a couple days to go skiing with your friends in Colorado last year
There are many reasons why candidates turn down code 2. Before we get into them, I’ll say that I have a great deal of respect for the people who have turned us down – we’re not the right fit for everyone, and that’s okay. It just means we need to keep trying to find someone who is.
I’ve been on both sides of the job search: I was once a candidate and am now a recruiter. For anyone who has been rejected by code 2, here are the top 10 reasons why your remote job offer was rejected. As with most technical companies, our recruiting process is multi-faceted and rigorous, so there are many ways to be rejected (and even more ways to make it all the way through to an offer).
10) You applied for a job that we don’t have open.
9) You applied for a job that we used to have open, but then closed it because we found someone.
8) You applied for a job that we used to have open, but then closed it because no one was good enough.
7) Your resume had typos in it, and you didn’t use spellcheck or ask someone else to proofread it.
6) Your resume looked like you created
If you’re a new remote job seeker, you might find yourself wondering why you didn’t get that remote job offer you were hoping for. Code 2 has created a list of the top 10 reasons you didn’t get that remote job offer.
You Didn’t Follow Instructions
This is the most common and most frustrating reason to be rejected from a remote job. You can’t believe how many people don’t do this one simple thing.
Many times in the job application, companies will ask you to write something specific in your cover letter or on your resume. Maybe they want to know what your favorite food is or what languages you speak or how much experience you have with React. If they don’t ask for it, don’t provide it. It shows them that you’re not detail oriented and that’s the number one reason they won’t hire you. In fact, sometimes they say “do not include…” and people will still send that information anyway!
They say to include a link to your portfolio but instead of putting their name at the top of your resume like they asked, you put their logo on it instead. Or maybe they said “tell us why we should hire you” and instead of answering this question in an email, you put the answer on your GitHub profile
If you’re a remote employer and you have no idea why your applicants are rejecting your job offers, or if you’ve received an email from a remote job seeker explaining your offer was rejected and you have no idea what to do about it, this blog post is for you.
After the first remote job I tried to hire for at Code 2, I had my very first experience of being ghosted by a candidate. A candidate accepted my offer, and then never came back online. No reply to emails, no response on Slack. He just disappeared. It was super weird and it felt pretty awful. Still, I was hopeful that the next one would be better. The second time around, the process went better until I reached out with an offer. And then? The exact same thing happened again!
Seconds after I sent out an offer email congratulating the candidate and asking him to let me know when he was ready to begin work, he logged off of Slack and stopped responding to emails. This time, however, I wasn’t going to take it lying down. I spent hours sending messages on Facebook trying to get in touch with him.
Finally, he picked up the phone and told me that he’d decided not to
We know that many people are interested in working for code 2, so we thought it would be helpful to let people know why they might not have been hired. Here are the top reasons:
10. We didn’t feel your skills were a good fit for the job
9. We decided to hire someone internally
8. You were overqualified
7. A more qualified candidate was referred by a current employee
6. You were under-qualified
5. We felt you would be bored in the role
4. Your background wasn’t a good culture fit with our team
3. We had budget constraints and needed to hire someone less expensive
2. We didn’t like your personality
1. You didn’t follow instructions in the application process
1. You asked to interview during the standard business hours of 9am-5pm ET, but you don’t want to work a 9am-5pm ET schedule.
2. We emailed you on your Yahoo account.
3. Your last job was not software development and/or you have no desire to get into software development.
4. You are not committed to immersing yourself in the code 2 culture and participating fully in our community.
5. You are applying for the remote position only because you can’t get a job with a local company that would require you to actually be in an office somewhere.
6. You can’t find our office on Google Maps and don’t consider that an issue worth addressing or researching further before applying for a job with us.
7. Your phone number is completely unlisted and when we try to call you, it goes straight to voicemail without even ringing once.
8. You have no idea what code 2 does or what we stand for, yet somehow feel entitled to ask us for money in exchange for working here with no explanation as to why we would ever do that and how it would benefit us in any way whatsoever if we did do that.
9. Your online presence is nonexistent, as
There are many reasons why you did NOT get that remote job offer. In no particular order, here they are:
1. You didn’t follow the instructions
2. The rate was too high
3. The rate was too low
4. We already hired someone
5. You didn’t have the skills we needed
6. We had an internal candidate
7. Your resume was poorly formatted and confusingly organized
8. You reached out on LinkedIn and we hate that platform for recruiting
9. We don’t hire people from India/the Philippines/Ukraine etc.
10. Your cover letter didn’t explain why you wanted to work for us