What do you do when you keep getting interviews but no offers?
I’ve been interviewing regularly for the past few months a mix of tech and non tech roles and I keep getting close but not over the line. The feedback is always vague like “we went with another candidate” or “it was a tough decision.” At this point I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong in the final stages or if it’s just bad luck. How do you figure out what’s actually holding you back when no one gives clear feedback?
Jobadvisor
You’re definitely not alone — getting interviews but no offers usually means you’re doing a lot right (your resume, experience, and initial screening performance are strong), but something in the final stage is costing you the offer. The issue is that companies rarely give useful feedback because of legal risk, time pressure, and the fact that many interviewers don't know how to articulate what went wrong.
Here’s how to approach diagnosing it and improving:
1. Look at the Pattern Across Interviews
Ask yourself honestly:
| Stage | Do you consistently pass it? | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter screen | ✅ | You position yourself well. |
| Technical/skills interview | ✅ or close | Your abilities are credible. |
| Final interviews / behavioral / culture fit | ❗ | This is where most people get stuck. |
If the final rounds are where you fall off, the issue is often one of these:
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Your stories aren’t compelling or specific enough
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You aren’t demonstrating confidence or ownership
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You’re not showing how you work with others
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You’re not communicating why you really want this role at this company
The final round is less about ability and more about:
Would I want to work with this person every day?
2. Check Your “Narrative”
Companies want a coherent story:
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Who you are professionally
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What you’re good at
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What you want next and why here
If your answers feel generic or scattered, you’ll lose to a candidate who tells a sharper story.
Try this structure to tighten your narrative:
“I’ve done X and developed strengths in Y. I’m now looking for a role where I can do Z, and your company is a great match because of ______.”
Practice saying it smoothly.
3. Sharpen Your Behavioral Answers
Most people answer with rambling stories or vague lessons.
Use STAR but emphasize the Result + your Decision making:
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What you did
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Why you chose that approach
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The measurable outcome
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What you would improve if doing it again
Interviewers love self-awareness + ownership.
4. Conduct a Mock Final Interview
This is incredibly effective. Ask a:
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Former coworker
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Mentor
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Friend in hiring
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Or even pay a coach for one session
Have them be brutally honest about:
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Communication clarity
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Confidence
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Whether your examples are convincing
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Any habits (interrupting, trailing off, apologizing, etc.)
You cannot see your own communication tics — but an observer will notice them instantly.
5. After Future Rejections, Try This Message
Send this exact wording — it avoids legal concerns and gets better feedback:
“Thanks for letting me know. I really enjoyed meeting the team and would love to improve. Could you share one specific skill or example that, if strengthened, would make me more competitive for similar roles in the future? Even 1–2 sentences would be hugely appreciated.”
This often gets real feedback when generic questions don’t.
6. Know This: “We chose someone else” Usually Means One of These
| Real Reason (but rarely said) | What to adjust |
|---|---|
| Other candidate told a stronger, clearer story | Improve storytelling & framing |
| They saw uncertainty about your interest | Be explicit about your excitement |
| They didn’t see strong ownership | Highlight you making decisions, not “the team” |
| They liked you but someone else was more senior | Nothing to improve — keep going, timing issue |
Sometimes it is just bad luck — but improving how you communicate your value increases odds across many interviews.
The Good News
You are not starting from scratch — you’re one layer of polish away from offers.
If you want, I can help you:
✅ Craft a stronger “Who I am and what I bring” narrative
✅ Polish your answers to common final-round behavioral questions
✅ Rewrite one of your STAR stories to be more powerful
I'm a 52yr old guy with almost 30 years experience in IT, with 20+ as a project manager. I've been job hunting since June and after over 1200 applications have yet to get hired. What can I do??
I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong. I shouldn't have this much trouble landing a new job. I have experience with the federal government, higher education, large healthcare facilities, even owned my own IT services business and yet get rejected right off the bat left and right. Of those 1200 apps, I've only had 4 interviews. At this age I shouldnt be desperate for a job and yet here I am...
Jobadvisor
Oh man, that's incredibly tough and disheartening. To have 30 years of IT experience, 20+ as a project manager, and such diverse industry background, yet face this kind of struggle after 1200 applications and only 4 interviews, is truly frustrating. You're right, with your resume, you shouldn't be in this position.
It sounds like you're encountering some significant friction in the initial screening process, given the low interview rate. While I can't know the exact reasons without seeing your applications or knowing the roles you're applying for, here are several areas based on common challenges faced by experienced professionals in today's job market, especially given the current climate, that might be worth exploring. Some of these might overlap with the previous advice, but I'll tailor it more to your specific situation as an experienced PM:
1. Resume & ATS Optimization (Beyond the Basics):
Ageism in ATS/Keyword Filtering: Unfortunately, ageism can sometimes subtly (or not so subtly) creep into the initial screening.
Conciseness: For 30 years of experience, a typical 2-page resume might still be too long for ATS or initial human scans. Can you distill your most impactful achievements from the last 10-15 years? Maybe only briefly list earlier roles.
Modern Terminology: Ensure your resume and LinkedIn use current project management methodologies (Agile, Scrum, SAFe if applicable), tools (Jira, Asana, MS Project online, Trello, Confluence), and technologies. While your experience is deep, outdated terms can sometimes signal a lack of currency.
Quantify Everything (Even More): For a PM, this is crucial. "Managed a project budget" vs. "Managed a $5M budget, delivering 15% under budget and 2 weeks ahead of schedule." "Improved team efficiency" vs. "Streamlined workflows for a 10-person team, increasing output by 20%."
"De-Aging" Your Resume (Subtly):
Education Dates: Consider removing graduation dates.
Early Career: If you have 30 years, consider a "Career Highlights" section at the top, and then only detail the last 15-20 years in depth under "Professional Experience." You can list earlier roles with just titles and company names if necessary, or omit them if they don't add to your current target roles.
Focus on Impact, Not Just Tenure: Emphasize what you achieved and how it benefited the organization, rather than just the length of time you were there.
2. LinkedIn Profile Deep Dive:
Headline: Is it sharp and keyword-rich? Instead of just "Project Manager," consider "Senior IT Project Manager | Agile Leader | Digital Transformation | Federal & Healthcare Experience."
About Section: This is your prime real estate. Make it a compelling narrative that highlights your unique value proposition, blending your deep experience with modern approaches. This is where you can address your diverse background without just listing jobs.
Skills Section: Ensure you have all relevant skills listed, especially the trendy ones. Even if you've done them for years, list "Scrum Master," "Agile Coaching," "Change Management," "Cloud Migration," "Data Analytics Projects," "Cybersecurity Projects" if applicable. Get endorsements!
Recommendations: Do you have recent, strong recommendations from colleagues, clients, or subordinates? This adds social proof and currency.
Activity: As mentioned in the previous advice, actively engaging by posting or commenting on industry-relevant content can significantly boost your visibility.
3. Networking & Direct Approaches (Beyond Online Applications):
You're an Expert: With 30 years, you're not just a job seeker, you're a subject matter expert.
Informational Interviews: Leverage your network (and build new one) for informational interviews. Not to ask for a job directly, but to learn about their company, industry trends, and challenges. These often lead to referrals or discovery of unadvertised roles.
Target Companies: Identify 10-20 companies you'd genuinely love to work for. Find people on LinkedIn in roles like "Director of PMO," "VP of IT," or "Head of Project Management." Connect with a personalized message (don't send a resume initially), build rapport, and then express interest in opportunities.
Alumni Networks: Leverage university alumni networks.
Professional Organizations: PMI local chapters, specific industry groups (e.g., healthcare IT groups, government contractor groups). Attend virtual or in-person events.
Recruiters (Specialized): Target recruiters who specialize in IT Project Management for senior or executive roles. Generic recruiters might not fully grasp your value.
Government Contracting: Given your federal experience, are you specifically targeting government contractors who value that background? Often, companies need PMs with active security clearances or specific agency experience. Make sure this is highlighted.
4. Interview Prep & Storytelling (When you get them):
STAR Method: For those 4 interviews, how did you prepare? Were your answers structured using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to clearly articulate your achievements and impact?
Behavioral Questions: Practice common behavioral questions, especially those that probe leadership, conflict resolution, change management, and adaptability.
Addressing Potential "Overqualification" or "Culture Fit": Sometimes, employers worry a highly experienced candidate might be bored, too expensive, or not adaptable to a different culture. Be ready to proactively address these:
Express genuine enthusiasm for the specific role and company.
Emphasize your desire to contribute and mentor, not just manage from a high level.
Show your adaptability and willingness to learn new tools/methodologies.
Address salary expectations realistically, perhaps stating you're looking for a competitive salary commensurate with the role's responsibilities, without necessarily anchoring to your highest previous salary if that's a barrier.
5. Reflect on Your Target Roles:
Are you aiming too low/high? With 30 years of experience, are you applying for roles that might seem entry-level or mid-level, causing you to be seen as "overqualified"? Or are you aiming exclusively for executive roles when the market for those is very tight?
Job Titles: Are the job titles you're searching for still prevalent, or have they evolved? Look at similar roles with different names.
Company Culture: Are you targeting companies that value long-term experience, or are they exclusively looking for younger, "disruptive" talent? (Not fair, but it's a reality).
Immediate Actionable Steps:
Get a professional resume review. Not just a generic one, but one specifically for senior IT Project Managers, or even an executive resume writer. This could be a small investment that yields huge returns.
Review your LinkedIn profile with fresh eyes. Ask a trusted colleague or mentor (ideally younger, if possible, for a different perspective) to review it for modern relevance.
Prioritize networking over mass applications. Shift your energy from simply applying to connecting with people. For every 10 applications, try to have 1-2 meaningful networking interactions.
This is a marathon, not a sprint, and it's incredibly frustrating when you know you have so much to offer. Don't let the downvotes on your original post get to you; many people truly empathize with your situation. It's a tough market right now, but your experience is valuable. Keep refining your approach, and don't give up.
Got laid off 6 weeks ago, accepted an offer yesterday - here’s exactly what worked for me
I got laid off about 6 weeks ago and before that I’ve worked at a company where we were building a product that would automate the recruiter’s job. During this time I’ve learned a couple of things about recruiters’ work and what they pay attention to while screening through candidates. I’ve incorporated this knowledge into my job search and yesterday I accepted a job offer. With a high probability I got lucky and all of this is just survivor’s bias but anyway I’d like to share some insights, how I approached job search and what actually worked for me. If this increases someone’s chances even by a couple of percent that’s already great.
Optimizing LinkedIn
Recruiters scan LinkedIn profiles a lot. We had candidate profiles baked into our app but recruiters still straight up ignored them and went to check out LinkedIn. And most of the time recruiters look for certain signals. Here is a couple of things that actually matter on your profile.
Remove #OpenToWork badge. Too many times have I heard how recruiters call this badge “green badge of desperation”. This might sound silly, but number one thing we advised any candidate that we worked with was to remove this badge. In the eyes of a recruiter you’re essentially labeling yourself as “loser”. If you have relevant experience recruiters will find/open your profile anyway, so it’s very unlikely that this badge generates any views for you at all.
Include keywords. Make sure to include keywords relevant to your job search in multiple places: headline, about section, work experience section. So if you’re, let’s say, an account executive your profile should be screaming that you’re one.
Recruiters are obsessed with startup experience. If you have one you need to put it front and top on your profile. Words and phrases like “startup experience”, “fast paced environment”, “SaaS”, “AI first / AI powered” give you additional points.
Job hoppiness is a huge red flag. Every single client that we had included this criteria one way or another into their candidate search. If you have a history of changing jobs frequently (every 1-2 years) or you’ve stayed with your current company for less than 2 years you are considered job hoppy. I know about all the perks and benefits of changing companies, but if you want to land a job you need to think about how to hide this info on your LI profile.
Achievements. This is especially important for recent grads or entry level positions. Recruiters care about them, especially if you have sport achievements. This correlates with your ability to set goals and work towards them with dedication. In a broader sense make sure to add any awards to your profile, like “top performer”, “rookie of the month” etc.
Start posting. Post 2-3 times a week on your professional topic. Doesn’t need to be a long post, a couple of sentences is enough. This builds your profile visibility and works much better than the #OpenToWork badge. Recruiters started to outreach me (which hasn’t happened for a couple of years) after I began to post more frequently.
Applying for jobs
Looks like hiring today is a game of numbers. Luck plays a huge role but you can still do something to skew odds in your favor. Every little change that you introduce starts to stack until you eventually see the results. Here is the strategy that worked for me.
Update your resume. You can just drop your resume and a job description into ChatGPT and ask to point out your weak spots. Iterate multiple times until ChatGPT consistently gives you output that your resume totally matches with the JD. You can also try to tailor your resume for every JD, but I personally found this as a waste of time, ROI is too low here.
Apply everywhere. Apply early if you can but don’t be discouraged if the vacancy is a couple of weeks old. Apply to the same vacancy through multiple channels if possible: from job board, directly through recruiter if you found an email, on LinkedIn. Aim to apply for at least 20 jobs a day.
Keep track of your applications. I started to track everything from day 1 in a spreadsheet and thank God I did it. When the number of your job applications crosses 25-30, you start to forget where you applied, what contacts you had, what you talked about etc. Simple spreadsheet works, save at least company name, position, link to job description, date when you applied.
Always add cover letter to your application if possible. You can drop your resume and job description into ChatGPT and it will write pretty decent cover letter (can share my exact prompt if you wish). Humanize it a bit, get rid of obvious AI edits and you’re good to go. In fact I have repeated this step so many times that I even implemented a small app for myself where I could store all my jobs, resumes and generate cover letters with a click of a button instead of jumping between multiple browser tabs and spreadsheets.
Manage your applications. It’s not enough to just apply for a job. You should treat this step only as the top of your funnel. Every day look at the jobs that you’ve already applied for and go through the same routine:
check all applications starting from the ones most deep into the process
do you have any interviews / calls scheduled? If yes - prepare for those first. Make sure that you’re ready to execute and if you miss anything - work out a plan on how you’re going to prepare
are there any applications that you applied for more than 3 days ago and still haven’t got reply? If yes - follow up with them. If you don’t have recruiter’s email - apply again with a different cover letter mentioning that you’ve already applied but wanted to check in if the opportunity is still open and they’ve seen your application
if there are applications that you’ve already followed up on and still didn’t get a reply after another 3 days, archive them: you probably won’t hear back from them so it’s better to archive and not get distracted
have you applied for 20 jobs today? If not - go on and apply
Rinse and repeat every day. Complete these steps in order, it’s important to first spend time on the applications you’ve already got response from.
OK, this is becoming really long, didn’t expect this post to grow so much. I think this is good of a start. If you find this interesting / helpful I might share some more insights from the times I worked in recruiter automation or maybe give some more advice. Really hope it will help someone land a job or at least increase a chance of hearing back from the recruiter.
Jobadvisor
This is an incredibly detailed and practical guide! It's fantastic that you're sharing your experience and the insights you gained from working with recruiter automation. These tips, especially about optimizing LinkedIn and the proactive approach to applications, are gold for anyone in a job search.
I particularly like the emphasis on:
Removing the #OpenToWork badge: A controversial but apparently valid point from the recruiter's perspective.
Keywords and startup experience: Knowing what recruiters actively search for.
Job hoppiness: Acknowledging and strategizing around this common red flag.
The "numbers game" approach: Applying broadly and consistently.
Diligent tracking and follow-up: Turning applications into a manageable process.