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I was urgently looking for a job in the past 3-4 months, and during an interview, and, from the first question thrown by HR lady, my gut told me I didn't get the job.

I received a rejection email a month and a half later.

Thankfully, I found a job at the right moment.

Yesterday, the lady who kind of kicked me out of the interview, contacted me yesterday through LinkedIn, pretending she didn't know me and that my profile looks good, and I may apply through sending her my resume again.

I find it strange, because the same scenario happened with this company: When I desperately am in need of a fresh job, they reject me, and, when I finally find a job and prepare to settle, they suddenly are interested in me, but need me to go through the whole hiring process again.

Indeed, they require the full salary details document, and I always feel bad when I hand it to them (I feel like that's all they want).

Why would this recruiter contact me to start the process over again when I am no longer actively seeking a job (I disabled the open to new jobs flag on LinkedIn) ?

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    Your introduction suggests you had a normal interview and then didn't get the job. However the "who kind of kicked me out of the interview" suggests that they cut the interview short. Which is it? – Mark Rotteveel Aug 4 '18 at 14:51
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    "they require the full salary details document" - What country/state is this in? – PeteCon Aug 4 '18 at 14:56
  • Your question is unclear to me: how many times did this happen? – user8036 Aug 8 '18 at 12:06
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Yesterday, the lady who kind of kicked me out of the interview, contacted me yesterday through LinkedIn, pretending she didn't know me and that my profile looks good...

It's entirely possible, and I would even say probable, that she wasn't pretending anything. When hiring, a company will go through lots of candidates. Especially someone in a position like HR, or a recruiter, who are generally involved in ALL hirings, not just hiring for one department.

Maybe she legitimately didn't remember that you had applied before.

Why would this recruiter contact me to start the process over again when I am no longer actively seeking a job (I disabled the open to new jobs flag on LinkedIn)?

I'm constantly getting contacted by recruiters through LinkedIn as well, and I'm definitely not looking for a job. They don't necessarily care about the "open to new jobs" flag because they know a certain percentage of people will still respond even though that flag wasn't set. Simpy put - not everyone is as diligent as you about making sure that flag is set correctly for their current attitude.

I received a rejection email a month and a half later.

Just as an aside, the fact that you were rejected the first time doesn't mean they hated you or even that they thought you were insufficient for the job. All it means is that they found someone else who they liked better. Maybe that person didn't work out, or another person left, and now they're prepared to reconsider you.

Don't take the rejection personally. If you're not interested in going back for seconds, just ignore the offer or politely decline.

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  • This lady accused me of job hopping, and now she's telling me your resume looks good. – Leonidas Aug 4 '18 at 13:40
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    In that case, I would probably opt to pass on the second interview. I wouldn't bother confronting her about it, though. – Steve-O Aug 4 '18 at 13:42
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    "now she's telling me your resume looks good." No, she's revealing that she mass emailed a bunch of people matching a perfunctory keyword search, without actually looking at their details. – Chris Stratton Aug 4 '18 at 19:34
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    "Don't take the rejection personally." - Yeah but why go back to the company that rejected you? Especially when she doesn't remember interviewing you? – Dan Aug 8 '18 at 12:04
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It is a small world. Why not reply by politely reminding this person that you had a prior interview with her and ask either tell her you are happy where you are or ask if she wants a second interview.

No need to overthink this.

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The job of an in-house recruiter is to get qualified individuals into the pipeline. In your case you are/were already in the pipeline. In some cases getting potential employees to enter their resume information into the database is the goal. In other cases getting qualified candidates to apply for specific positions is the goal. In the first case you re-applying doesn't help them, but in the second case it does.

Unless you failed the interview in a spectacular fashion you have not been eliminated for positions. You might have been mismatched in the earlier application, or you may have just missed out being selected.

Regarding the question:

Why would this recruiter contact me to start the process over again when I am no longer actively seeking a job (I disabled the open to new jobs flag on LinkedIn) ?

It doesn't take much effort to do a keyword search and contact people who appear to meet the criteria. The fact that some of those people aren't actively looking is immaterial, some percent will still think about it. In the mind of the recruiter the extra effort to contact people who haven't shown an interest in looking for a job is still worth it if they get a handful more applications.

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A couple factors would determine whether or not I would be interested in applying:

1) Did you feel the interview the first time was fair? As an example, I had an interview with a company once who was looking for a Ruby developer (I'm a Java developer). I was told by the recruiter before the interview that they are looking for someone bright who would be willing to go in and learn Ruby, not someone who was already a pre-qualified Ruby all-star. So I tried it out, and about half the interview was them asking me questions about minutiae of Ruby. Needless to say, that interview did not go well. As a result of this, I have more or less blacklisted both that company and that recruiter for irresponsibly wasting my time and setting dramatically incorrect expectations.

2) Did you feel the company treated you with respect? As an example, there was a company I interviewed with once where I went in for a primary interview, then was invited back for a second and final interview with the CTO (it was a relatively small company). At the end of the interview, the CTO mentioned to me that he really liked me and wanted to hire me, but he wasn't sure there was a place to fit me. To which my response was (I didn't say this but it was what I was thinking), if there was no job opening, why did I waste my time attending the interview at all? Subsequently, I was rejected, so either they lied to me about having a position to place me in, or the CTO lied to me that he really liked me and wanted to bring me on-board (this wasn't the standard "I think you might be a good fit, let me get back to you"; his exact words were "if it was my choice, I would hire you immediately, but it's not my choice unfortunately"). Somewhere along the line, someone lied to me, and this also is a company I will not interview with again.

My suggestion would be to remind the person who sent you the request that you interviewed there before and were rejected. I would ask them how this time would be different before deciding whether to spend your time going there for an interview, and you can prioritize accordingly based on their response.

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Yesterday, the lady who kind of kicked me out of the interview, contacted me yesterday through LinkedIn, pretending she didn't know me and that my profile looks good, and I may apply through sending her my resume again.

My guess is she simply doesn't remember you. I think she is looking at recently updated profiles, then sending out messages. She doesn't remember you but if you came to the interview or contacted her, she will probably remember.

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