Should I admit I’ve interviewed for a role before?

Dear Work It Out, 

Is it okay to tell the panel that I have previously appeared for the interview for the same position in this very company previously and wasn’t successful? And that I’m now trying it for the second / third time?

Sincerely,
This time’s the charm?

*

Dear TTTC,

Unless there’s been a lot of turnover at the company or their HR team isn’t great at keeping track of previous applicants, I would go in assuming they know you’ve previously interviewed. 

So not only is it okay to tell them you’ve interviewed before — you should be prepared to. 

Here are two ways that might go:

1. Someone on your interview panel asks, “You’ve been here before. Why are you back and why should we hire you this time?”
2. When you’re asked why you want the job, or what brought you in front of this panel, you bring it up yourself: “As you may know, I’ve interviewed for this position before.”

In either scenario, you get to show interviewers a few huge assets for any candidate:

• You’re someone who can embrace failure as a learning opportunity
• You know how to take and implement feedback
• You care about working for their company and toward their mission

The most important question you want to answer, though, is: How have you changed or grown since the last time you applied?

You want to show that you’ve become a stronger candidate since the last time you interviewed, even if your strength as a candidate wasn’t the reason they didn’t hire you before. That means highlighting the skills you’ve acquired or bigger projects you’ve taken on, and addressing any feedback you may have gotten the last time you went up for this job.

Show them you’ve learned.

For example, you could say, “In my earlier interviews, we talked about how crucial project management is to success in this role. Recently, I led X and Y projects which had Z positive impact.”

You‘ll want to be ready to address the question, “Why are you applying for the same role, at the same level, again?” Depending on how much time has passed since you first applied for this job, interviewers may wonder why you’re not going for a more senior role. Make sure you can tell them why this particular position is still the right fit for you. 

That might mean explaining that it was more of a stretch goal last time and you feel more confident about having all the qualifications now. Or that, though you could apply for a different role, you feel that this one is the best for getting to know the company because you’re passionate about growing your career there in the long term.

If you’re looking for a confidence boost, consider that your previous round of interviews could give you an advantage while going through this one. You’ve met some of the team already. You know what they’re looking for and you’ve had a chance to accrue skills and experience and come back as a better candidate.

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