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&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s the hardest part of job hunting: never knowing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Never knowing if you resume was even seen, then never knowing if you&#39;ll get the interview. Then, if you do, never knowing why you didn&#39;t get the job.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What if, when you applied to a job, you received a score?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That could be in the future says John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University. According to him in the Wall Street Journal, applicant-tracking systems, which are used by most large employers, &quot;score candidates based on rough measures like the number of keyword matches between a job description and a r&#233;sum&#233;. Employers could theoretically send candidates their scores. If you scored 90 out of 100, you might apply again later. But if you scored a 20, you know you applied for the wrong job,&quot; Sullivan says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This kind of feedback may still be a long ways off (since, according to the WSJ, &quot;So far, none of the companies for which he has recommended this, have adopted it&quot;—mostly out of fear that their keyword matching processes will be revealed, says Sullivan).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Wall Street Journal asked some of its readers about feedback they received, and the answers weren&#39;t encouraging; they were vague.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&quot;“You were excellent. We just had a ton of competition for the job. We had over three hundred people apply!”&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-“my background and skills weren’t fully aligned with the role”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hiring managers weighed in too—but most of them admitted there wasn&#39;t much they could say. &quot;As a hiring manager,&quot; writes one (in the WSJ piece), &quot;I have been severely restricted by company policies. All I have been allowed to say was something to the effect of “Your application will stay on file for 90 days. Feel free to reapply in the future…”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what if you &lt;em&gt;were&lt;/em&gt; qualified, and you &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; hit it off with the interviewers, and you even remembered the thank-you note?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Three possibilities:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Cultural fit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You dropped an F bomb. You wore a paisley shirt. You were too stiff. It&#39;s impossible to know how you&#39;ll fit at a company from the outside, but if you get rejected for &quot;cultural&quot; reasons, you can probably trust that the hiring manager knows best (assuming you were &lt;em&gt;mostly&lt;/em&gt; appropriate). You want to put your best foot forward at an interview, but if you true personality or work style isn&#39;t a fit, you won&#39;t like the job. Feel good about losing it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Experience fit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You&#39;ve done this skill too much already and you&#39;ll be bored. Or you haven&#39;t done this skill quite enough, and you&#39;ll need training. Frankly, many companies don&#39;t know what they want. Or they do, and they&#39;re flat out wrong. As annoying as this is, it&#39;s not your problem. And it&#39;s certainly not your fault.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Soft skills&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Writes one WSJ responder, &quot;I asked for feedback and I was told that during my group presentation I read from my PowerPoint presentation and avoided eye contact. I appreciated the feedback and I took it as a learning experience. It’s certainly something I valued.&quot; It sounds small, but communication skills go a long way in convincing an interviewer that you&#39;re competent.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That said, interviewers may find it awkward, at best, and legally tricky at worst, to fill you in on what you&#39;re doing wrong. So if you&#39;re really worried about your interview skills, try your alumni office or a career coach. They&#39;ve got the feedback you could really use.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324423904578523683173841190.html?mod=WSJ_Careers_CareerJournal_4&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Didn&#39;t Get the Job? You&#39;ll Never Know Why&lt;/a&gt; &#160;(WSJ) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/workplace-issues/why-does-the-us-hate-vacation-time&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Why Does the U.S. Hate Vacation Time?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/job-search/can-a-mooc-boost-your-career-this-one-can&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Can a MOOC Boost Your Career? This One Can!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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