One Piece of Advice.

For any new readers, you can check out some of the previous stuff we’ve put out here.

• The Cover Letter is dead. Replace it with this. Click here.
• Do this and let jobs come to you. Click here.
• Why you should go all in on LinkedIn. Click here.
• Nail your next interview with these 5 tips. Click here.
• Make sure these three things are not on your CV. Click here.

I think there’s a want from people within the region to be helpful - but this does not always necessarily translate into tangible advice which is useful to jobseekers.

A lot of recruitment companies push personal branding without any guidelines and you end up with a lot of fluff on LinkedIn?

I think in Marketing you sometimes come across people posting content for content’s sake.?

This got me thinking: what is the one piece of advice I would give to jobseekers here in the UAE?

The one piece of advice I would give anyone looking to enter the market here and find a new role is this:?assume no one is coming to save you and work backwards from there.

Ultimately, the job market here isn’t broken, it just operates under a huge deal of strain.?

People still get jobs and LinkedIn ‘Easy Apply’ technically does work but that doesn’t make the process efficient or ideal.?

Take this example. There was a candidate who InMailed me asking for advice recently. They said that they had reached out to fifteen different Recruiters without hearing back.?

My response was along the lines of ‘why do you need a Recruiter?’

The implications on the silence are clear. It’s not a profile that Recruiters think they are able to help with. In a market that operates at such a high volume as the Middle East, no response is a response.??

If I took everyone up on the offer of a coffee that reaches out to me I wouldn’t have any roles to work as I’d spend my entire existence booked out in an endless procession of coffees.??

We unfortunately have to be extremely selective on how our time is allocated.??

Secondly, even if someone did come back to you, they’re not a golden ticket to a new role. They can get you a shot at an interview process - the rest is on you.??

What does a Recruiter have that you don’t? Access to opportunities? Potentially.?

But what Hiring Manager wouldn’t want to receive a profile directly rather than spend? thousands on paying for it through an agency??

I sound like a broken record with this fact but to do the maths: every job advert we post gets over a thousand applicants.??

Assuming that the role is filled with someone who applied to the job advert (less common than you’d think), that leaves one ‘happy’ person to 999+ ‘unhappy’ people.

The odds of being that ‘one’ off a job advert of one thousand people is 0.1%.?

That isn’t to say it’s not worth applying if the role aligns, the reality is just that at a junior-mid level there’s usually plenty of people who can do the role and so it’s hard to stand out.?

It might sound quite harsh but it’s a reality for most. If someone does come along and reaches out directly then it’s a bonus but that is a rarity for most and definitely not the norm.?

Like most things in life, effort is rewarded.?

If you are networking within your space, maximising your LinkedIn connections, regularly posting with relevant industry topics and putting yourself out there.?

You are 10x more likely to see results than spending one hour a week spamming ‘Easy Apply’ on as many jobs as you can.??

Do the work and see what comes back. Be accountable for your own output not reliant on the goodwill and response of others.?

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