Ten challenges in the current job-market

We all know that candidate experience can make a real difference in the hiring process. However I am currently noticing that some aspects of the current job market are not making for a good experience – and that it makes all the difference if you are searching for a job when you don’t have a current job. After all, everything to do with securing my next role has to be a top priority. Here are some things I’ve noticed that make this harder than it needs to be.

Job searching

1.????? Recommendation systems underlying searches. About ten years ago there was a knack to getting google to give you exactly the result you wanted. Now it hardly matters what your search term actually was – the system will show you the results it thinks you want, not the results you’ve asked for. The results I get when I search for jobs in LinkedIn seem to rely as much on my previous job titles, the skills on my profile and the previous jobs I’ve saved or applied for as the types of results I’d actually asked for. This leaves me feeling less in control of my job search and fairly sure there are good roles out there that I’m just not seeing.

2.????? Web scraped job descriptions. Often presented as a painful wall of text with no line breaks. I’d also include any job description that doesn’t tell you what actual organisation or industry the job is for – I’m sorry to recruitment consultants here, I know you have a job to do, but honestly, the sector and the organisation are extremely important information when I’m applying. Not having that information makes the decision of whether to spend more time on it that much harder.

Job descriptions

3.????? “Hybrid: London, UK”. London is? a big city and it therefore has lots of jobs and lots of talent. It’s also fairly well connected to the rest of the UK. However I live in Scotland and commuting to London is just not going to work for me. Yet somehow the algorithm here on Linked In seems to see these options as equivalent to remote working when it comes to the job search. I’m afraid that’s only true if I’m already in commuting range of your location. If by “hybrid” you mean “visiting for key events every 4-8 weeks” that is much more achievable for me. Other candidates might have different capabilities. Also, if I need to be near your office, it’s not remote.

4.????? “Wanted: leader. Must have: eight years of python experience, proficiency with SQL, ten years’ experience with the Cloud (AWS preferred)”. I’m sorry, but how much cloud, SQL and python do you want your leader to be doing with their time? Do we really need to clutter up the job description with all of this? I’m sure you already have experts in the team who are extremely proficient in all of your tech stack, and a good leader can tap into that capability. If you want a leader, please do focus your job description on what you need them to do day-to-day.

5.????? “Must have: at least 5 years’ previous experience in the same role in the same sector and using the same tools and technologies”. I get it, I really do. You want someone who can step into the role and hit the ground running. You are concerned that there’s too much going on for your team to work with a new hire who doesn’t know the key concepts. But actually, transferring learning from sector to sector isn’t actually that difficult, and all new starts have to learn a new context. And are you really going to be attracting candidates if you can’t offer them something interesting to help them learn and grow?

6.????? “Data scientist wanted, must have experience with GenAI”. So we’ve all see generative AI in action, creating convincing texts, its own artwork and predicting what our code should look like. Thing is, unless you’re OpenAI and actually building a generative AI model, you probably aren’t looking for a data scientist here. There are three things you can do with GenAI. You can build it, if you have massive quantities of training data and access to a quite staggering amount of computer power. You can use it, by entering prompts in a web-based system set up by someone else, or perhaps with API calls. Or you can incorporate it into your existing software, in which case it’s more a software problem than a data problem. As a data scientist, I’d rather be working with data, by and large.

Job interviews

7.????? “Here is your 1-hour interview slot” with no further information. Many interviews have a number of steps, and as a candidate it really helps if I know what you’re looking for from me before an interview starts. Is this a technical conversation? Culture fit? Do you want to discuss leadership approaches? My preparation is going to depend on all of these things. Besides, this is also a point of accessibility – neurodiverse people and people with anxiety and I’m sure other challenges I’m not thinking of will always find clarity more reassuring than open-ended interviews.

8.????? Mistakes and unforeseen delays. It is absolutely in my interest not to be the bottleneck in creating appointments, but that doesn’t mean my time is not valuable. I understand, really, but when things crop up and keep cropping up at different organisations it can start to feel like my time is not being valued. In reality, I suspect everyone is just at very near-capacity and when everything is important, nothing is. It can take resilience to avoid taking it personally though.

Just me?

9.????? Emotional investment. I am very direct and honest by nature, and if I want to demonstrate enthusiasm I will therefore be spending some time finding real things to feel enthusiastic about for each and every role I apply to, and more so if I get to interview. It’s quite a roller-coaster, especially since we all get rejected for far more jobs than we apply to.

10.? I am a Xennial, and an introvert. I do not like answering the phone. Especially unscheduled calls by unknown numbers. Sorry. Yes I know it’s just “a quick call” and that it’s important to actually talk to people and make sure you’re on the same page, and I value that. Still, being open to all people who might have or guess my mobile number isn't always a good thing, and sometimes I wish I'd had some notice to expect your call.

Finally, some things that I've not included that you might expect to see. I actually don't mind if the interview process includes preparing a presentation or a technical test, assuming the ask is relevant to the role. These are actually easier when you're not balancing a day job, and I know they can be an important part of the process, although I have yet to find a non-branded powerpoint slide design that I actually like for this purpose. I don't mind meeting a selection of people from your organisation through a multi-stage interview process. I don't mind when the interview process is fully remote, although there are still some advantages to in-person interviews with regards to actually getting a feel for a workplace and culture. And I don't mind rejections -- if you don't want to progress, I really appreciate that you took the time to let me know.