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Are you about to give a hiring manager déjà vu by applying for a job at an institution that once rejected you? Maybe you’re looking to become a “boomerang employee” by returning to a campus where you previously worked. Either way, as a candidate who is reapplying to an institution, you have a unique opportunity to distinguish yourself, even though your efforts might seem redundant or a formality, given that the employer already has your resume or CV on file.
“If you’re going to apply a second time, you need to be able to tell the story that something’s different,” said Mark Coldren, associate vice president of human resources at the University at Buffalo. “You have to be able to say, ‘In the time since I’ve applied, here’s what I’ve learned…’ You can reference that you applied before, but explain why you are more ready now because of such and such, and then (employers) see that opening for you.”
The same goes for boomerang candidates. In the years following the Great Resignation, when many professionals changed jobs, people might want to return to their old job. If you want to go back to your previous campus, have a compelling story to explain how you grew in your time away and don’t just express regret.
“We have seen a lot of people leave because they think the grass is greener,” Coldren said. “That’s happened a couple of times, and I’ve told managers to be ready for that. People sometimes take a job and they leave for money or remote work, and then they realize this isn’t what they thought it would be and they want to go back.”
Employers are more open to boomerang candidates than you might imagine. One survey showed that 86% of employers view boomerang candidates more positively than others. And to attract better candidates, employers are being advised to normalize resignations and develop alumni programs, unlike the “alumni engagement” that we’re used to in higher education.
There’s no set amount of time that needs to elapse before reapplying to an institution, and depending on the union agreement or institutional policy, boomerang candidates might even be able to retain their service time if only a short time has passed.
There are also variables to consider when reapplying if you were previously rejected. Is it the same position (meaning the hired candidate already left)? Are they adding more faculty within a department? Would a hiring manager think to contact you to see if you’re still looking for a job? Typically, you should wait at least a semester before reapplying so you have a chance to show that something changed.
In that case, you’re in luck. A do-over might go against an employer’s sound judgment, thinking you might leave again or you weren’t the best fit the first time they evaluated you, but a story is more powerful than logic. In Will Storr’s book “The Science of Storytelling,” he cited examples from neuroscience about how people simplify the chaotic world around them through narratives instead of processing data (or resumes and CVs). And the detection of change ignites people’s perceptual systems. “Every story you’ll ever hear amounts to ‘something changed,'” Storr wrote. “Change is endlessly fascinating to brains.”
Reapplying candidates can develop their “something changed” story by planning what they are going to say during the job interview, write in a cover letter, and update on their resume/CV. (This might go without saying, but if you were rejected, DO NOT resubmit the same application materials.)
Here’s one approach to perfecting your story when reapplying:
Use Feedback
A lot might have changed since the last time you engaged with this employer. You might have developed a new interpersonal skill, learned a software program, wrote a curriculum, or, heck, maybe you lost some weight. It might mean a lot to you, but make sure it matters to them. Use feedback from your last encounter with this institution.
Coldren said rejected candidates would often ask why they weren’t hired, but employers are reluctant to give specific reasons beyond “going in another direction” because it could come back to hurt the institution, possibly with legal action.
The type of feedback reapplying candidates can use include questions employers asked during the previous interview, the qualities of the person who replaced you or got the job instead of you, and what changed on the institution’s end; for example, how is the job description different?
Identify Values
Next, align your values and aspirations with the employer. If you determine that the institution has a greater emphasis on, say, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and you have since worked on a DEI initiative, build that into your story. Your story arc can consist of your crisis (my institution needed to be more inclusive), the struggle to fix it, and the outcome or resolution.
As Storr observed, Western storytelling is often structured into these three acts — crisis, struggle, and resolution — but most analysis of storytelling, going back thousands of years, reveals the following five acts:
Five-Act Narrative
Act 1: “This is me, and it’s not working.” For some job candidates, this act can be taken literally, as in, “I AM not working,” but for this part of your story, you describe where you were in your career before a change took place. It’s also the part of your story that establishes your theory of control, which describes your flawed sense that you need to act a certain way in order for your environment to remain stable.
Act 2: “Is there another way?” This is the point in your story where your theory of control is tested by circumstance or curiosity and a new way forward is sensed, learned, and actively experimented with.
Act 3: “There is. I have transformed.” You describe how you used your new strategy, whether it’s a DEI practice or a new curriculum, and reveal how you, your students, or your institution were changed in a profound and irreversible way.
Act 4: “But can I handle this pain of change?” Build further tension by acknowledging that a change was made, but you still needed to prove that it was sustainable. Did any administrators challenge your department’s new policy, or were any students adversely affected by this new approach to your work? Explain that this story is not some one-off achievement that you added to your resume/CV. It means more than that.
Act 5: “Who am I going to be?” Here is where the dramatic question is answered for the hiring manager. They are getting someone new — someone better — than the last time they evaluated or worked with you. This makes for a more compelling story, a stronger candidacy, and a resolution that will hopefully result in a job offer.
Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don’t imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.
