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Dear Job Seeker, You're Not the Problem
More than 70% of people find their current job search more difficult than the last, according to a survey.
This is Part 1 of a six-part series where I'll be discussing:
😩 Why it’s hard to find a job right now
🤝🏼 Networking in 2024
🎲 Interviews vs. mind games
🦄 The myth of the ideal candidate
💔 Rejection emails
🧠 Mental health tips
Have you been looking for a job lately?
Maybe for a few weeks? A couple months? Almost a year? With no luck?
“We regret to inform you…”
“We thank you for your time, however….”
“moving forward with candidates more closely aligned with”
Ugh. We’ve all been there. But here’s the good news.
There’s no goblin (unless you’re my former-former boss).
The world isn’t against you.
And behind that cold-hearted rejection email is just an overburdened recruiter working with an inhumane application tracking system known as ATS.
As someone who, like many others, once waited 8 months to find a decent job, it’s obvious that modern-day hiring practices simply haven’t evolved to match the needs of a modern-day workforce.
Contrary to popular opinion, many 9-to-5 workers aren’t working out of an office. Many hiring managers aren’t looking for cookie-cutter responses. And many talented people don’t have referrals, nor the heart to spam someone’s inbox with “🎵Hello… is it me you’re looking for?"
Yet a plethora of emoji-filled LinkedIn posts would have you believe that the dream job could be yours if you *just* followed steps 1 to 5, like, repost, and follow for more! (Speaking of which, have you subscribed to my newsletter? 😬)
If you’ve spent countless hours tailoring your resume with targeted keywords, personalizing each cover letter, going to networking events, and being ghosted or turned down after performing reasonably well in interviews, I’m here to remind you: the problem isn’t you.
There are SO many variables that go into finding and actually landing a good job that, at the end of the day, you’re better off treating it like a game of chance—and keep playing. Here’s why.
Why is it so hard to find a job right now?
At this time, there are 210.95 million people around the world looking for work.
You are literally not alone.
Unemployment sucks. But it sucks a little more when you can’t find all the “amazing opportunities” that typically sit on the heels of an expensive education.
You re-enter the job market with a ton in student debt, build “real-world skills” aka take other people’s shit for a measly raise, work overtime only to get fired, re-re-enter the market thinking “third time’s the charm”—and learn do it all over again until, someday, you reach a 6-digit salary that hopefully includes generous mental health benefits.
It’s what industry veterans refer to as “experience”.
Not just on-the-job training, but the bragging rights you get from developing the patience and fortitude of a thousand monks.
Every cover letter in a nutshell
But the hustle doesn’t end even when you’ve supposedly “made it”.
You may get hired and fired due to budget cuts. Lack of funding. Missed targets. Restructuring. Poor corporate performance. Change in leadership. Change in priorities. Internal politics. And perhaps most importantly, economic downturn, inflation, geopolitical tensions, elections, etc.
In Canada alone, unemployment rate reached 6.6% this year, making it the highest since 2017. Meanwhile the unemployment rate among back-to-school students reached 16.7%, the highest since 2012 (not including the pandemic).
The chart below shows the dramatic dip in job vacancies over the past seven years.
Source: Statistics Canada
On top of that, we’re looking at a troubling rise in ghost jobs, which 7 in 10 employers consider to be “morally acceptable” and “beneficial for business”.
And what about the workers of the world?
Well, they’re definitely united… in their passion for other things in life.
59% of employees worldwide are “quiet quitting” or are psychologically disengaged from their work, according to a study that surveyed more than 2.2 million global workers since 2009.
This is happening for a host of reasons that include deteriorating work culture, lack of employee engagement, poor pay, no professional growth, inadequate benefits, and lack of certainty.
“I am not going to put in a 60-hour work week and pull myself up by my bootstraps for a job that does not care about me as a person,” says 24-year-old Hunter K’aimi. “Quiet quitting is if I’m hired to do A, B and C, that’s all I’m doing. It’s a resistance to doing the X, Y and Z that aren’t in your job description, and you’re not getting paid for.”
The backlash isn’t surprising.
In the tech sector alone, roughly 384 tech companies have laid off more than 124,000 employees as of August 2024, adding to the 428,449 tech workers who lost their jobs over the last two years.
Not the sexiest industry if you’re into job security.
But it’s happening all over the place. The current economy isn’t particularly favorable for job-seekers across the board—and less so for those who prioritize work-life balance, pay transparency, and humane working conditions.
What am I doing wrong?
We’re often told job interviews are a two-way street, but this simply isn’t true when there’s a long line of desperate applicants living paycheck-to-paycheck, willing to work for a lot less than what the job is worth.
So if it’s taking you longer than usual to find a job in this climate, consider yourself lucky for even getting a screening call. There’s a solid chance your application never even reached a human, let alone the hiring manager. And if you get rejected post-interview, it might not be for the reasons you think.
Remember: for every half-decent candidate in the talent pool, there’s a Kevin out there who’s done considerably worse and still somehow landed the gig. (Where do you think incompetent coworkers come from?)
That one person in a brainstorm meeting
How to get noticed
We all know there are ways to get ahead that have nothing whatsoever to do with qualifications, skills, and experience.
It’s no secret that internal candidates usually have a better shot at an open position. As do applicants from the employer’s personal and professional network.
Then there’s quality referrals. Applying as a former intern. ATS-friendly resumes. Leveraging a mutual connection. “Culture fit” (aka the ability to work with that one asshole on the team).
Who you know and how you know them often becomes more important than your “demonstrated history” or “proven track record”. Add to that some convincing, seemingly unrehearsed (but totally scripted) rhetoric about your undying loyalty and admiration for the company, and your chances of success get slightly better.
But even then, it’s luck and persuasion.
So while it’s great to learn from every interview, apply “best practices”, and do your homework, you should also know your own value, get comfortable with the pace, and explore alternatives as you continue your search for The Amazing Job™.
Check out my posts on Professional Networking and Job Interviews or Mind Games? from this six-part series—and mental health tips to get through it all.
Have some thoughts? Drop a comment below—and get notified when my next post is up!
