What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

Conclusion
There is no magic in job-hunting. No techniques work all the time. I hear
regularly from job-hunters who report that they paid attention to all the tips
I have mentioned in this chapter and the book, and are quite skilled at
securing interviews—but they never get hired. And they want to know
what they’re doing wrong.
Sometimes it is because there are levels of screening, some within your
sight, some beyond your sight. And everything may appear to be going
well, on the levels you can see; but not necessarily on the levels you can’t
see.
Still puzzled about why you’re not getting hired? Sometimes,
unfortunately, the answer is: “You’re not doing anything wrong.” I don’t
know how often this happens, but I know it does happen: namely, some
employers play despicable tricks on job-hunters, whereby they invite you
in for an interview despite the fact that they have already hired someone
for the position in question, and they know from the beginning that they
have absolutely no intention of hiring you—not in a million years!
You are cheered, of course, by the ease with which you get these
interviews. But unbeknownst to you, the manager who is interviewing you
(we’ll say it’s a he) has a personal friend he already agreed to give the job
to. Only one small problem remains: the state or the federal government
gives funds to this organization, and has mandated that this position be
opened to all. So this manager must pretend to interview ten candidates,
including his favorite, as though the job opening were still available. But,
he intended, from the beginning, to reject the other nine and give the job to
his favorite. You were selected for the honor of being among those nine
rejectees.
You will, of course, be baffled as to why you got turned down. Trouble
is, you will never know.
On the other hand, maybe no games are being played. You are getting
rejected, at place after place, because there is something really wrong with
the way you are coming across, during these hiring-interviews.
Employers will rarely ever tell you this. You will never hear them say