This is Why the Job Market is a Mess

This is why the job market is a mess.

I spent two intense months job hunting, and let me tell you, the job market is an absolute disaster. It's not just tough to land a job—the entire hiring process is chaotic. Final candidates are accepting offers and then bailing before they even start or within the first couple of months. Others are rejecting offers left and right. This seems to be happening at an unprecedented rate; a whopping 75% of the businesses I spoke with had similar horror stories. I've been pulled into second-round interviews multiple times because the first-choice candidate bailed, sometimes on a search that started long before I was even job hunting. This isn't just bad for businesses—it's bad for everyone. It perpetuates a vicious cycle we're all trapped in.

Here is the candidate experience.? Every job that comes out on LinkedIn gets 500 applicants.? Sometimes over 100 in the first 5 hours.? You can assume you are going to get lost.? So, you need to send out many applications which just furthers the issue of 500 applicants per job.? Because there are so many applicants’ businesses are entertaining tons of candidates and have a very long many touch process.? This reinforces to the candidates, you’re not special, you are 1 of 12, good luck.??? If you fail to make it to the next round, there is typically ZERO feedback.? Yes, we get a rejection email from Workday that is generic.?? No way to get better, no idea what happened.? More often than not you just get ghosted.? Candidates learn to say whatever you need to say to keep moving through the process.? “Will I live at the bottom of the Ocean for 6 months?, Sure bags are packed already.”

You end up applying for jobs you are overqualified for because it seems like a game of numbers.? This exacerbates the issue that businesses are trying to hire overqualified candidates (a good candidate for less money).? I get the laws of supply and demand, but I think that is what is leading to the high bail out rate.? At first it seems like a good opportunity to get a job offer, then when candidates see the smaller numbers, reality sets in and they bail out.? I think HR or Internal recruiters see a load of highly qualified candidates and send them over to the hiring manager assuming that they will look good for having such a great selection.?? Or, its certainly less work to send over a bunch of over qualified candidates and fill the interview roster then send “maybes” over and over again.??? In the long run, doing it twice is more work, but sometimes its hard to see that point of view.? The job screeners ask all the right questions and get all the right answers, but still there are issues, “He said he would accept that amount, not sure why that’s changed?”, “She said she was willing to move,” etc etc.?

The candidates have been trained to agree to everything or you will get cut out in favor of one of the other 500 candidates.?? Now there really aren’t 500 qualified candidates, but I don’t know how you effectively sort through that many candidates accurately.?? Please don’t say the tools let you search or pick up key words etc.? Yes, but also no.?? Candidates can be 100% perfect for a role, a total match and never get contacted.? In fact that happens over and over again.? I don’t know what the filtering apps are doing, but something must be wrong.? I have sent tailored resumes to positions that mimic and answer every comment and requirement in a job posting.? No lying or exaggerating, just only focusing on what they say they need.? I have server and network experience.? If this is a Network Director role, I can send a resume that spends all the time talking about network stuff.? I custom tailored too many resumes, didn’t matter.? Didn’t even move the needle.?? This resume looks like 100% match or a 90% match, no contact.? I am sure this is just as painful and tedious for recruiters, HR, internal recruiting/hiring managers.? This is good for no one.

And the processes are long.? I guess when you are cutting 500 applications to 15.? Then 15 to 10 folks to interview, its going to take a long time.? I have tried to push the envelope and explain other offers are expected in a week, could we expedite.? No.? Mostly, “oh that would be great, I wish we could, but its going to be 4-6 weeks.”? That means at least 6.? Be a pain about it, you’ll just get let go.? Candidates learn just to say “ok” and if you have to bail or you have to accept a job offer and then change your mind, that’s what you have to do.? With processes that long and then the dance with the final offer, maybe even an acceptance and 2 week notice, if a person bails out, the other candidates have since moved on.

I’m a fixer by nature, I wish I knew how to fix this.? I cant think of anything that would stick.? Each side reacting to the other in a downward spiral, and we must be near the bottom.? I could say “Candidates should stop….”? But why and how would you incent them not to.? Same with the hiring side.? Typically, once the pain is felt long enough and people figure what it’s from, then they can try to course correct.? I don’t think that’s happened yet.? I think the hiring side needs to make a change.? I don’t know what, but something that reduces the 500 resumes issue (because nobody calls me back), to something manageable.? That way people are applying more to only what they want, and resume screeners aren’t overwhelmed.? I don’t know how that happens, but I think that’s what we need to see.