Why Cant You Get Hired?

You probably should be getting more interviews than you are, and it can be extremely frustrating (as well as anxiety inducing) trying to figure out why you arent.

If you read to the end, there is a simple solution.

In this article I will attempt to explain why things are the way they are.

Disclaimer: some of what I see you may not want to hear, but its true.

Sometimes in life we have to look in the mirror and ask "what is it about me that is causing this to happen"?

Other times, we have to realise that there may be some fundamentals we have to accept.

Life deals cards and we have to manage that hand of cards to the best of our ability.

I myself have been through some extremely frustrating application and interviewing experiences, some you may relate to:

1) 10x interviews, 2x flights & presentations, to discover they wanted someone with an experience set you didnt have (which you stated from the first call).

2) Not getting call backs on applications that you are beyond a perfect fit for.

3) Networking into conversations to discover the job itself isnt what is advertised.

4) Missing out to internal referals.

5) Zero communication after CV send, interview, even final interviews. Just an impersonal acknowledgement email.

The answer must be that recruitment teams, HR, hiring managers and "the system" is broken right..?

Like most things in life the answer isnt a simple binary 0 & 1 answer like most tech bros would have you believe.

There are a few factors, some HR/Recruiting professionals can manage, some they cant. Some of the challenges job seekers face they arent aware of, because theyre behind the scenes.

So, as a job seeker, which challenges are you up against?

Lets start with challenges you ARENT facing:

1) AI bots auto rejecting your CVs

Honestly this is a laughable myth that is propagated throughout circles (sometimes by people trying to sell you "optimised CV services") anyone who has worked in recruiting or HR functions can tell you that most of them are barely held together by a myriad of shitty excel trackers.

Most lack any really insightful data or the ability to leverage it.

Furthermore, I have not encountered an ATS (applicant tracking system) yet that has this capablity, and I have worked on or with all the big ones (though no doubt its on its way).

2) A personal conspiracy

Most recruiting and HR teams are massively under resourced and over worked, part of the reason for this is lack of systems and data maturity that can save them a lot of time (see above) part of it is just budgetting.

With the greatest will in the world, your application is often one of 100s, and until they meet you or speak to you, you are unfortunately just a random name with no real meaning to them.

None of what you are experiencing is personal.

What about the challenges you ARE facing?

1) Hidden Job Market

I wont put a number to this, some people have, but lets just say there are more jobs that you arent aware of than you are.

The reason for this is simple, many jobs are filled before they are advertised - by previous people interviewed, by referrals, by internal transfers.

There is another reason though that people dont discuss and I am surprised people are surprised by - many roles exist in leaders heads, these are created when they meet the person.

in 2013-2016 I built an entire team around this notion, where we mostly only worked on jobs that were "if you find this person...".

Learning: If you are relying on job applications you are missing at least half the target market.

2) Saturation

Most jobs get a lot of applicants, most HR and recruiting teams dont have time to process them all.

Most hiring managers just want to see 1-3 good candidates. If you do the maths you realise pretty quickly that the % chance of you getting an interview by a job application are low.

This is excaerbated by LLMs and a tight labour market. Economic tightening also means less manpower to process said applications.

Because there is less manpower and because it is more efficient, most HR/Recruiters will go to their pool of candidates they engaged with before or referrald they receive FIRST. Often they will even directly source new applicants ahead of reviewing job applications.

One fun fact - Linkedin application numbers arent real, they are based on how many people clicked apply NOT actually submitted.

Learning: job applications are often the lowest priority source of talent for recruiters & HR. though dont be dishearted by the number of applicants displayed on the LinkedIn job.

3) Referrals

Most companies prioritise referrals, and rightly so - its the best way to hire.

If you arent using your network and being referred, you are losing out on the best route into a role.

Referrals dont just mean "being referred by someone working there" - although that is a good source. Often people referring you will get some kind of incentive for doing so.

Referrals also mean being recommended by a recruiter who knows the business/hiring stakeholder well (agency recruiters or internal talent acquisiton teams).

How do you know if the recruiter has a good relationship with the stakeholder/business?

• Ask them how many people they placed there in the past 12 months
• When was the last time they met them
• What is the business/hiring stakeholder hiring preferences/what do they look for from candidates

Learning: network > everything.

4) Shit job adverts

If you can credibly argue to me that you have seen consistently good job adverts I will buy you a steak dinner.

They rarely/never articulate:

• the reason the hire exists
• key selection criteria
• what success looks like

This is a challenge to you the budding job seeker because you are operating blind.

Learning: most of what you are reading isnt helpful (apart from this article).

Whats the answer?

To me, the answer isnt "the system is broken". There is a whole variety of fundamentals that HR/recruiting need to work on and can fix.

Recruitment is working just fine, however you are possibly playing a version of the recruitment game you have the lowest chance of winning.

Job adverts are broken (and probably always were).

In the 21st century we have got into a mindset that we can have everything on demand - the job advert game plays into this.

Checklist to succeed:

1. Be clear on your value proposition, the role you want + the skills/experiences you have relevant to it
2. Network with the decision makers in this field
3. Network with reputable recruiters in this field
4. Build relationships with with HR/Talent Acquisition folks
5. Follow companies you have an interest in
6. Proactively look at your network to see how can refer you into all of the above - often they will get a fee or reward for doing so.

I have helped several people build an approach to doing this that has brought success.

That isnt the purpose of this article (as its #3/4 of a series about "recruitment isnt broken").

However if you are interested, I can share the link for this business on request (DM me)

Disclaimer: I only ever work with two clients at a time.

Part # 1 Lack of humanity

Part # 2 The hiring manager experience

Part # 4 "How can HR/Talent Acquisiton be better?" next week...