When Perfect Isn’t Enough: Why Strong Candidates Still Face Barriers

September 29, 2025

Last week, in my Off the Leash series, I asked whether you’ve ever applied for a role where your profile seemed like a perfect match, only to hit a wall in the process. The overwhelming response was: yes, often.

It’s one of the most frustrating experiences a professional can face. You have the credentials. You have the track record. You can do the job, in fact, you may have already done it elsewhere. Yet, for reasons that often remain opaque, you don’t move forward.

I’ve lived this myself and heard countless versions of it from peers in risk, audit, compliance, and technology leadership. It raises an uncomfortable but important question: what’s really going on when perfect isn’t enough?

1. The Invisible Gatekeepers: Technology

Most hiring processes now run through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These systems do more than organize résumés; they filter them. If your résumé doesn’t use the precise keywords embedded in the job description, it may never make it to human review.

This creates a paradox: the more senior and diverse your career, the harder it is to contort your story into a keyword-perfect fit. Highly accomplished candidates can be screened out simply for not echoing the posting word for word.

Takeaway: For candidates, it’s less about writing one résumé and more about writing many targeted résumés. For organizations, it’s worth asking whether over-reliance on automation is keeping qualified leaders out.

2. The Culture of Risk Aversion

Ironically, organizations that talk about risk management often practice risk aversion in hiring. Many would rather promote someone internally with “known gaps” than take a chance on an external candidate with a stronger profile.

The result? Hiring decisions sometimes prioritize minimizing perceived risk over maximizing capability.

Example: A bank may pass over a candidate with experience across global regulatory frameworks in favor of someone with narrower but internal experience. It feels safer — even though the broader experience might add more value.

Takeaway: Candidates should highlight not only capability but familiarity with the employer’s environment, while organizations should ask: are we hiring for comfort, or for growth?

3. The Chemistry Factor

Every interview has two tracks: what you say, and how you make people feel. Technical answers matter, but so does chemistry. Executives want to know: can I trust this person, will they fit in, will they represent us well?

That means strong candidates can stumble if their communication style doesn’t align with the interviewer’s expectations. It’s not always fair, but it’s real.

Takeaway: This is where storytelling matters. STAR (Situation–Task–Action–Result) stories help show not only what you did, but how you did it, and how others experienced you along the way.

4. Timing and Context

Sometimes, it has nothing to do with you. Roles can be posted for compliance reasons even when an internal candidate is already selected. Budgets shift. Priorities change mid-search. A merger reshuffles leadership.

These invisible dynamics can make a candidate feel like they fell short, when in truth, the outcome was never in their control.

Takeaway: Don’t measure your value by one process. Hiring decisions are influenced by context you may never see.

5. The Bias We Don’t Like to Admit

Finally, there’s bias. Age, background, disability, gaps in employment — these factors can color decisions, even in organizations that pride themselves on inclusion. For senior professionals, especially, this can be a silent but powerful barrier.

Takeaway: Candidates can’t control bias, but they can control narrative. The key is to reframe what others may see as a “risk factor” into a “value driver.” For example, presenting long experience not as age, but as pattern recognition that prevents mistakes and accelerates decisions.

So What Do We Do?

If you’re a candidate, remember:

• Tailor your résumé to each role.

• Tell stories that connect skills to business outcomes.

• Control the narrative around what others might misinterpret.

• Keep perspective — not every decision reflects your worth.

If you’re an employer, ask:

• Are we unintentionally filtering out top talent through our systems?

• Are we hiring for comfort instead of growth?

• Are we overlooking the hidden value of nontraditional candidates?

Closing Thought

I often tell my teams that risk is a language. The value is not just in measuring it, but in making sure everyone is speaking the same one. Hiring is no different. Candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters are often speaking different languages, of skills, comfort, culture, and context.

When perfect isn’t enough, it may not be the candidate that’s lacking. It may simply be that the conversation never reached the same language.

The challenge, and the opportunity, is to close that gap. That’s what Off the Leash is all about: tackling the tough questions we often think about but rarely say out loud.

Unfiltered insights on what’s broken—and what’s possible—in audit, risk, and compliance.