We're not imagining it— job hunting is getting worse

The song by Jack Johnson recently got into my head, "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing..."

That's exactly how I feel right now about my current job search: sitting, waiting, wishing...

We're not imagining it. Job hunting is getting worse.

For me, I feel that when we were in lock down in 2020, it was easier to find a job. I was out of a job from March 2020-November 2020... I was seeing a lot of recruiting roles (the salaries/types of recruiting roles weren't a right fit for me) and this time around, I'm hardly seeing anything.

Job hunting became more miserable even before the pandemic, as the amount of time companies took to hire stretched out and as they asked candidates to undergo more and more interviews. Labor shortages during the pandemic gave a temporary reprieve, but now, as fears about a recession grow, companies are going back to their old habits of putting candidates through a grueling process.

As companies prioritize equity, they’re getting more people involved in the hiring process, inviting upper-level managers and the peers of a would-be colleague to weigh in, which adds time. Companies who laid off human resources staff are now delegating interviewing and hiring to line managers who aren’t familiar with the process.?

Many job seekers have expressed that they’d been targeted by scams in which supposed hirers offered them an appealing-sounding job, and even set up Zoom calls and interviews—but turned out to be people posing as recruiters looking for candidates’ personal information and job accounts... Thankfully I have not experienced that. If a recruiter seems like a bot, it's a bot. No recruiter will offer you a job without being interviewed first. Always look up the recruiter/company on LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Be a detective and do your research!

Even legitimate companies are posting "ghost jobs," that they don’t actually ever fill. Have you seen those jobs that have over 2,000 applicants within 15 mins? How is that even possible??

Employers post ghost jobs to get a pool of candidates that they may use someday, to give the impression that their company is growing, and to keep current employees motivated, according to a of 1,045 managers involved in the hiring process.

A lot of this is due to the uncertainty in the economy. Hiring managers and human resources personnel may think that they have the budget to hire one week, and then find out, after they’ve posted the job and even conducted interviews, that the company has changed its mind. I recently spoke to a wonderful recruiter (I hope to work with them one day) and they're currently building their pipeline of recruiters. So that one day, when they're ready to hire again, they can pull from that pipeline. That is SMART recruiting. I already have a connection with that company and it will make the interviewing process smoother. That's exactly what I used to do when hiring was slow. Recruiting never stops.

The barriers in the interview process may explain why more people seeking employment are turning to freelancing and part-time jobs—perhaps they are trying to avoid wasting their time jumping through companies’ hoops when they aren’t likely to get a job. I haven't turned to nannying yet... But, I might need to do that soon.

There's also an AI threat to so many jobs (look at SAG-AFTRA and WGA). Many individuals are worried that software will replace them, not that it would make it almost impossible to get a job. As much as I love ChatGPT, I use it sparingly...mostly to have them create a funny text to my significant other.

I am thankful for my part time role, but that will end in November. Everywhere I turn, I see my friends getting laid off from their jobs. Some of them have been at their companies for over 10 years.

It's a really uncertain time. I'll continue to sit, wait, and wish....while finding my new job home.