Back in late 2018, Randstad came out with a survey that said that the average job search took five months. Let me say that again. When there was an economy that was chugging along with relatively low unemployment, it still took five months, on average, to find a job. Fast forward to 2020, when the employment rate is over 13%, and we are still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. For many, the amount of time to find a new job will be significantly longer than five months.

Therefore, it is even more vital that you recognize when your job search is failing, so you can quickly correct the course. You can shorten your job search. Wouldn’t it be great if instead of taking the average amount of time, you did better than average? It is possible. Let me show you how.

Do You Have a Strategy?

“Hope is not a strategy.” Vince Lombardi

When you started your job search, what did you do? If you are like most people, the first thing you did was to update your resume. If that is how you started your job search, that may be part of the problem.

Your resume (or CV) is a marketing tool. It tells the market who you are and what you have done. But what is the product that you are selling? Apple has had very innovative marketing. It uses a variety of marketing tools to promote brand awareness and introduce new products. Before Apple can come up with its marketing strategy, the company must understand what it is about - what they sell and why. Here is the mission statement of Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO:

• We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products.

• We believe in the simple, not the complex.

• We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make.

• We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

• We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

• We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

• We don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

Apple understands what they are about as a company and what they want to offer to the world. They are very clear about this, and their marketing supports this. Are you clear about who you are and what you provide to the world? If the answer is no, how can your marketing, your resume/CV, capture this? Take some time to figure this out. It is not easy, that is for sure. You won’t figure it out on your first attempt at it; I can guarantee that. But when you get clear on this, you can start strategizing about the types of roles that would be a fit and the types of companies where you would like to work. Then your job search activities become more proactive than reactive. Hoping you can find a good job turns into strategizing to find those jobs that will be a good fit for you. See the difference?

The Job Board Black Hole

When I start a call with clients who are in a job search, one of the first questions I ask is what activities they are doing to find a job. Invariably I get the answer, “I apply through job boards.” I will then follow up by asking if they are doing anything else. 80% of the time, the answer is no.

While some people do get jobs through job boards, the odds are not good. Here is a typical recruitment funnel.

So out of 150 candidates, there is one hire. That means that the chance of being hired is .66%. Not good odds at all.

So if you are only relying on finding jobs and applying through job boards, your job search could be failing.

Employers Need You to Have the “Must-Haves”

When an employer has a job opening, the hiring manager has an idea of what knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that someone successful in the role would need to have. I refer to these as the “must-haves,” “want to have,” and “like to have.” As an example, a Senior Accountant job description might include Accounts Receivable (AR) as a must-have, a CPA as a want to have, and public accounting experience as a like to have. 

The employer is going to look at candidates that first have the AR experience. If you, as a candidate, do not have that, you will not be considered. Next, the remaining candidates will be assessed based on having a CPA. The candidates that have the best match will have both the A/R experience and a CPA. Some applicants may be included in this further review group if they have strong A/R experience and are working on completing their CPA. If any of these candidates also have public accounting experience, that may put them a bit higher on the match list.

If you applied and did not have A/R experience, it is unlikely that you will move farther in the process because it is a job requirement. That is why being realistic about your own KSAs and the match to the job is essential. Most candidates will not have everything cited on the job posting. Those that do are referred to as “unicorns” - a creature of myths. That said, many candidates will have a high percentage of what is listed in terms of KSAs. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 75% of what is requested by the employer. If you do not, then the chances of getting contacted for an interview are slim.

Job Accomplishments Are Your Best Selling Tool

Does your resume read like a list of your job duties? This could be a reason why your job search is failing. If you only write about your job responsibilities, how can the employer tell if you were any good at it? They can’t.

How do you construct a resume that lets the employer know that you have the KSAs to do the job but can do it at a high level? By highlighting your accomplishments. Even better if you provide metrics to provide some context around the accomplishment.

Here is a typical bullet one might see in a job duties focused resume:

• Responsible for providing excellent customer service through the customer resolution process of the product support team.

The employer cannot tell if the applicant was good, bad, or just okay in this job duty.

Now see the difference when you write accomplishments instead:

• Reduced answering delays by 25% and increased processed tickets by 20% through the implementation of key performance metrics. Resulted in customer service scores rising from 3.8 to 4.5 out of 5.

Which sounds more impressive? Which person would be of interest to you?

No Interviews = Generic Resume

Do you have a generic resume that you send to every employer? It is not doing you any favors. Every employer has specific hiring needs. Take a typical job, such as a customer service representative. If you bring me ten postings for this work, I can guarantee you that there will be ten different duties and job requirements. Smaller companies may require different job responsibilities than larger companies, along with varying skills. Different knowledge may be required in various industries. 

If you are only using a generic resume and not customizing it for each job, you are squandering an opportunity to distinguish yourself among all the other candidates. Going back to the example of “must-haves,” “want to have,” and “like to have,” if you use a generic resume, you may miss the opportunity to demonstrate that you have KSAs in these three categories. What you thought was unimportant when you wrote the resume because it was not emphasized at your particular past employer, may be very important to a new one. If you are not making sure your resume is a representation of all the experience, skills, and knowledge that this employer says are needed, you likely are not making much traction with your job search.

You Are Not Researching Companies Prior to Interviewing

If you are getting to the interview stage, you are at least getting interest in your resume. That is a positive for your job search. But if you are not researching the company and the people that you are interviewing with, you are making a costly mistake. Hiring teams are assessing your fit in several ways - whether you can do the job (skills), whether you want to do the job (desire) and whether you are someone that they would like to work with day in and out. When you spend hours researching the company and learning about its history, strategy, competitors, etc., you can answer questions about how you can and would do the job more convincingly. You understand the issues the team faces and can address potential concerns. You can also show with your extensive research you have a genuine interest in the job and want to earn a spot at the organization - otherwise, you would not have spent the time learning about the company in such a thorough manner.

Also, researching the people you would work with helps you to understand them better - their experiences and thoughts. What better way to start building rapport than to understand better the person that is interviewing you and trying to build on any commonalities.

Practice Makes Perfect

A downfall of many job candidates is that they try to wing it in the interview. Thinking that they are good conversationalists, they figure they can think on their feet to answer any questions posed to them. This strategy rarely works. Just as you need to edit your resume for a particular employer, you should also be practicing answering interview questions that might be posed by this employer. If you have researched the company and interviewer(s), you should have an idea of areas of interest for the interviewer to probe you on. The job advertisement or job description will give you some idea of the type of areas that would be ripe for discussion. Also, look at common interview questions for a list of possible questions. Then practice your answers. What is the point you want to make, and how can you do it succinctly? What stories can give context to your response and show you can do what you say? How can you keep the interviewer engaged? You have to do all of these things in your interview. If you practice, you will be able to answer well and have great confidence in doing so. That is a winning combination and a better strategy than winging it. 

Conclusion

So have you now diagnosed why your job search is failing? If you know where the problem is, you can do something about it. You can work on solutions that should put your job search back on track. Don’t despair if you are not making progress with your job search. Do something about it!

For more information about diagnosing your job search issues, please read the following blog posts:

Has Your Job Search Stalled? Here Is What to Do.

Want Better Job Search Success? Spend the Time On It

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.