And of course interns are just starting out. I've never been in internship before. A: It would probably be worth getting in touch with the person who's responsible for managing the recruitment process for your office. This person should have far better insight into the candidates than you do and might be able to help make more sense of your experience. Perhaps they could make some more suggestions of who else to interview. If you ask directly they might even reveal the candidates' name, and perhaps they could then offer you more specifics about why they rejected them. Even if they don't they could point you in the direction of who else to ask for details. If you try this suggestion and get no more information you should at least get some feedback from them about what you can do differently next time. The good news here is that a rejection is always an opportunity to learn and improve your techniques - it's just the way life works. A: From your description of the candidate's background I see two things: The person has strong skills to work with financial matters. Which is the case. The person is very immature and shows a lack of respect for those working on this. (you say she was rude, she might also show this to others) I would focus on strengthening my own knowledge of the financial market. Because this would apply to all candidates. If a candidate comes with strong finances but low professional skills, that is a great candidate as well. A: If you have had a long term relationship with a person (the student) and know the student well, you can still ask the student and say "I had hoped for your success here, but there is something troubling me about your CV. What are you really looking for, what is your long term plan." This will help the student to give more honest feedback for their own reasons and can give you a useful insight into the student. If it is a one off situation, then you could start at the point where you have nothing to offer the student. If you have ever found yourself in a similar situation, you might get useful insights. There is nothing wrong with admitting you could do better yourself and being self reflective and critical of your own strengths and weaknesses. A: There is one simple rule. The right person will do the right job. If a candidate is qualified and you feel the person would do well, hire him/her. Don't get too picky. I'm looking at the CV. The candidate has experience and qualifications that are very similar to what you want, yet she was not offered. You must think there must be something wrong with her. However, there may be something wrong with the person looking at her CV. The manager could have been busy, or they are not qualified to do the job you have in mind for your new hires. From your description of how the candidate was rejected, there may be nothing wrong with her - she could be perfectly suitable for your job. How can I tell whether this is a red herring or a real cause? Unless you know the person or have worked with them, you can't really tell. You mentioned that she was rude and that could explain it. If you feel the interview went well, call the person up and find out why they were rejected. What I think you should do is to send an email to the person who did the interviewing. You said you don't know if the candidate was "a good fit" but you can ask for feedback. "Dear X, I just wanted to know what your process is for reviewing candidates and why the candidate was rejected. If it helps I can elaborate on the position I am looking to fill and the reasons why I selected the candidate. Again, I want to apologize for my student's behaviour. She was rude and unprofessional, and I don't think I would have hired her if you had not done the interview. Can you give me some feedback on how I can improve?" What they say will help you. If they agree with you that they should have hired her or have a good reason why they did not, you will have cleared a couple of things up. If they can give you some feedback, you can learn from it and better shape your interviews next time around. You will feel better if you don't spend time thinking that there is something wrong with you. As @NathanTuggy and others have commented, we often have our doubts when someone rejects us. They could be rude, but you are not entitled to an interview, to be hired, or to be treated nicely when we apply for a job. You can still keep in touch with them for possible future employment opportunities. Just know that it is normal for hiring managers to not accept everyone and to reject candidates for different reasons. The whole interviewing process is not about choosing the best from the applicant pool; it is about filtering out as many candidates as possible. This is why they say "no" to many people. Some hiring managers will reject for rude behavior. I know from my own interviews that they tell candidates they do not fit their culture and they need people who will fit in with the company. Another scenario is when the hiring manager is not competent and did not do their job right. It doesn't always make sense, but it is still important to recognize that rejection does not always mean you are a bad candidate. A: I'm surprised by how many answers are here suggesting candidates to ask for interviews at other people's companies. You are already at your company, and you've now learned that there is an interview that your company should have had but didn't. Ask your company what the real reason was. It's possible that the right person was rejected because she had unprofessional behavior with the interviewer, or it's possible that your hiring manager was inexperienced and didn't feel qualified to talk to her. It doesn't matter what the actual reason was. What matters is that they chose to reject her for a reason that wasn't good enough for you. If your company's HR or interviewing process is inadequate, or your hiring manager is less qualified than the interviews you've seen in past, that's not your problem. The company can hire its way out of the problem. If the hiring manager is inexperienced or doesn't fit with your company's culture, then get out of there. If you've been there for a few weeks, and they already rejected the candidate, then you are in a much stronger position than the inexperienced new hire that was rejected. I would avoid making any future career decisions based on the experience you've had today. Also: Interviewing on campus with a student who was recently graduated from my own MBA program Your MBA program has probably given her plenty of interview and networking training already. They do that for free. You can't do anything to top that, at least not at the interview stage. You could try interviewing her on campus in front of the whole company, so she can demonstrate her interpersonal skills with all of your coworkers, but no hiring manager worth their weight will care about that. Now that you've had some experience doing interviews, you've probably gained some insights into what makes a good candidate, which will now be at the top of your mind when