Turning Down a Job Inside Your Company
By Joan Lloyd
Dear Joan: I love receiving your weekly articles. They have
helped me tremendously in my career. I never thought I would be
asking you a question…but here it goes!
I was interviewed yesterday for a different position within
our company. Half way through the interview, I wanted to run out of
the room as I realized that the job was not a good fit for me. The
interviewers were pleasant, I was well prepared and felt that I did
a good job at answering their questions. But as the dialog
progressed, it became apparent that this department was a train
wreck.
Next week I am scheduled to interview with the Director and HR
person for this role. I’m asking myself, how can I give it my
all if I’m no longer interested in the position? Can I
politely ask HR to withdraw my application or will that shed a bad
light on me for future openings? Or, do I take a deep breath and do
the interview and then pray I don’t get offered the job and
no one will be any wiser.
I’ve already decided that if I’m offered the job,
I will decline it. This situation has definitely put me in a
quandary when applying for inter-company job vacancies.
Thank you!
Answer:
You are much better off backing out now than after the other
department has invested time and energy in more interviews. If they
go through the process of weeding out people and choose you, they
will be very irritated that you have misled them. They will think
“If she didn’t want the job, why did she go through the
motions?” If they are annoyed that you were wasting their
time and just “practice interviewing” it could sour
them on future interviews with you. And they may even express their
frustration to your boss and others in a position of
influence.
The worst that can happen, if you pull out now, is they will
be disappointed that you have chosen to withdraw. However, you can
be diplomatic in your approach. For example, “I really
enjoyed meeting and interviewing with the people in the X
department but after serious reflection, I don’t feel that I
am the best fit for the position. So, as a result, I’d
like to withdraw my candidacy, so they can focus on other
applicants.”
If you were interviewed by a senior person with a lot of
clout, you may be worried that you will offend the person by
turning down his or her job. You may even want to make a personal
call to him or her. The danger in doing so, however, is that he or
she may try to talk you out of it. You may be pressed into giving a
deeper reason for your “fit” excuse. Perhaps a
better strategy—especially if you think you might like to
work in that department in the future-- is to send a polite email
to both HR and the senior person.
Another reason to pull out now is that you will probably not
interview well if you really don’t want the job. You will
likely lack enthusiasm, or even say things that could come back to
haunt you if there are future opportunities. If they remember you
as someone who didn’t interview well, why would they even
interview you again for a future job?
Finally, before you decide to say no to the job, try to
reframe the “train wreck” as a possible opportunity. If
you are the kind of person who knows how to solve problems and
could help to clean up the mess, you could be passing on a
career-making situation. I’ve watched a number of
successful people build their careers by moving from problem to
problem. They weren’t afraid to take a risk and took a bet on
their own moxie. You next best career move might actually be a
mess-- with your name on it.
