Black Mirror Hiring 2024: Facts about finding your next job or career.

If you have reached this article, you are looking for a new job or a career change.

Having spent more than 25 years in the technology and IT field, the landscape of the hiring process has changed dramatically.

As Ashley Amber Sava satirizes the comparison between PRE and POST COVID job searching and the interview process, many of the crazy-insane comments made in her recent post are not far from the truth.

Her post went viral on LinkedIn and can be found here: Getting a Job 2024.

It's common to fill out 100-200 applications on LinkedIn and only get a 1-2 % response rate, even when the LinkedIn metrics and alignment with the posting are almost a perfect match.

Know what you are dealing with and educate yourself on the BLACK MIRROR HIRING process of 2024.

1. ATS Systems (Workday, ICMS, Oracle Taleo) measures and matches your info to the job posting criteria using rules engines, AI, or both.
2. In the case of a Manager, Director, senior director, VP, or C-level posting, the company already has its top candidates internally selected OR has hired a recruiting firm to search for the best candidate. The Job Posting is usually an afterthought or "unicorn" fishing.
3. Speaking of Unicorn Fishing, companies, and job posters tend to include all the information available on the internet and the "kitchen sink" in their requirements and desired qualification sections in hopes of finding that Unicorn hire. The reality is that anyone with that much SME knowledge usually has 20+ years of experience and commands salaries above 200,000.
4. Que the current trend of "go cheap" and "forgo" quality and experienced candidates. There is an entire area of business management dedicated to optimizing hiring for the strategic goals of the company called "Human Capital Management ."While many companies want you to believe you are unique and special for most, you are a resource and, like any other resource, can be moved, removed, or replaced for any reason or no reason at all. See "right to hire, right to quit" companies and state laws.
5. Unicorn Job Postings creates Unicorn Applications via job search and AI resume\coverletter tooling like Jobscan, Kickresume, and Resumebuilder.
6. Some recruiting services have automated systems that will send your resume, messages, emails, and the like to thousands of jobs by sweeping sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn in a shotgun blast approach. This costs $$$ but can produce results, as today's information age allows for this "drift net" job application process.
7. Be prepared for 2-4 interviews. HR Recruiter, Hiring Manager, Team Leaders, FollowUp\Final Decision Interview.

Given all the information above, your best weapon and approach is still networking and getting to know those who have the power to hire. Here are some tips and tricks to make your job search more able to land that next opportunity and career.

1. Persistence. Be ready for a long and frustrating process with automated declines or ghosting.
2. Patience. In today's job market, it's not uncommon for it to take 4-8 months to find your next employment opportunity.
3. Use the AI and Automation tools on the market because you may be in for a long process involving hundreds of resumes and cover letters. You don't want to be at a disadvantage because there are thousands of others applying and using these tools.
4. Always proof, modify, and edit the output to eliminate AI mistakes and false information created by AI hallucinations and oddities. You would be surprised at how much nonsense gets injected into AI-enabled resume and cover letter content.
5. Stay Active in the professional community. Dig deep and learn new skills and technology. Attend developer meetups and conferences. Give a talk or register as a speaker.
6. Know your Job Poster audience. They are looking for a match in skills, size, scope, and location. The skills match is self-explanatory. Size, have you worked or led a team of the same or larger size/budget as the job posting? Scope of industry is a term that means if the company posting the job creates electric bikes and is a 10 Billion dollar company with 100,000 customers, they are looking for applicants from the same or larger scope. Location is self-explanatory, AND with the increase in RTO and the decrease in Remote Jobs, be willing to relocate or limit your search to companies within a reasonable commute.

Be Strong, Be Persistent, Be Kind, Be Smart, Be Patient, Be You, Network, Network, Network.