The Job Search Advice That Will Make You Angry

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Kevin with Careering with Cameron. Thanks for joining us on another episode with me, your host, Kevin, talking about things that will help you with your job search. I'm here alone today because I'm going to talk about something that I've been hearing an awful lot about recently, and I want to share some current direct data that's going to help you to understand what's going on with the job market. And then we're going to follow up with some tools that can help you with your search. Stay tuned.

[00:00:28] Okay, so if you're currently in the job market, you're thinking about entering the job market, maybe you're thinking about making a move, maybe something is happening with your employer that's creating a situation where you think you may need to look for something else. This is where we are right now with the job economy. Depending on who you talk to, you're hearing mixed results in terms of what the job market looks like.

[00:00:53] Let's be honest. The rules of the game have shifted dramatically over the last few years in terms of how do you find an opportunity. So what I hear pretty much every day from a variety of different people, sometimes more than once, depending on where I am, is essentially how long is this search going to take? How long until I get an offer? How long until my next role?

[00:01:19] How long until I get an offer?

[00:01:51] So when you're in transition, it's uncomfortable. When you're in career transition, you're going to be forced to be uncomfortable. That's something that takes a couple days, typically, to get your head around and decide this is not going to look like your nine to five, eight to six job. This is going to look like something different. You want to know, are you looking at four weeks, three months, six months? Is it a year?

[00:02:20] How long is this going to take so you can plan around your finances and make sure you have the energy to apply at any given point in time? Here's the thing, though. The timeline isn't just a matter of calendar days. It's a direct reflection of your strategy. And I will add, of your network. That's what helps people move forward.

[00:02:45] If you're relying solely on traditional methods, that timeline stretches out longer and longer. But if you shift your approach to how hiring happens today, you can drastically shorten that gap. Today, we're going to talk about what the modern search strategy looks like, backed up by real practical examples from just this past week. And by the way, this week would be in August. To show you what I mean, I want to share some incredible news from our team at Talent Connect.

[00:03:15] Just last week, we had six people receive great job offers for brand new jobs. Six people who walked into new opportunities, signed offer letters, and took their next big step in their career. The most people, when they hear that, they're imagining how many hours did they spend at a computer applying to hundreds, if not thousands of jobs. They're tracking how many positions they've applied to. I encourage you, by the way, to track how many positions you're applying to.

[00:03:44] But also, the thought process is, that's a lot of screen time. And the bottom line is, it's not. Because we're not relying solely on the standard front door application portal. So let's break this down a little bit. We're just talking about last week. We can talk about longer views of the past and future episodes. But I want to talk about what's happening right now, in the summer, when typically hiring is a challenge.

[00:04:12] So right now, of those six people who landed new opportunities, one person applied to the standard front door application process, went through the traditional pipeline, start to finish, just one. What about the other five? How in the world did they get hired? They networked into the role. Two of them were able to network directly into that role.

[00:04:42] They built direct relationships within the companies they wanted to work for. They started conversations long before a formal request was even posted or prioritized, positioning themselves as the obvious solution when that opportunity arose. The next two utilized direct introductions. So two of those candidates were directly introduced to hiring managers by either Talent Connect or people that they know.

[00:05:11] When we're working with folks in outplacement and career placement, we're bypassing the automated screening software. We're picking up the phone. We're picking up our keyboard, as you may say now, and making them match and putting that person directly in front of decision makers. The goal here is you become a real person, not an applicant.

[00:05:31] The remaining candidate took our job search support tools and framework, identified key figures in their industry, proactively reached out and set up informational conversations that ultimately led to the internal referral and a job offer. Think about that for a second.

[00:05:48] Think about that.

[00:06:18] Think about that.

[00:06:48] They're hearing back. At that point, the person's in a new role. So keep that in mind. Let's talk a little bit about how the job search has changed. So why is this whole thing changing? What's happening? What's going on? The job search process has changed significantly over the last few years, as we know. Ten years, five years ago, posting a resume to an online portal gave you a fair shot. Today, job boards are inundated.

[00:07:18] The average job posting can receive hundreds, sometimes thousands of applicants in 24 to 48 hours. So many of you who worked with me have heard me say this. We have taken the recruitment process, the application process from a place where there weren't enough candidates.

[00:07:37] And careful what you wish for created an opportunity for many, many, many more people to apply to positions directly through a portal or a website where they may or may not have the background. They may be utilizing third-party software to submit their resume. It's very easy to submit a resume online into a job application. Companies are also using applicant tracking systems, ATSs, and AI screening tools. And we talk about this every day as well.

[00:08:07] And people have a dramatic fear of what the applicant tracking system or the ATS is going to do, what the AI component is going to do in terms of not allowing them to be considered for a role. That may or may not be the case. You may or may not be screened out based on those tools. It may purely be a situation where maybe they have a limit. They're going to interview seven people out of the first round of candidates they find.

[00:08:34] And you simply were not referred in, so you're not one of those seven. Here's the thing. With that situation where you have the AI screening tools, you may not necessarily be getting the best, but simply finding people who are matching up to the job description the best. And I've said this countless times. If you're hiring somebody who's already been in the job that you're hiring for, you're hiring somebody to bore them to death. There is no learning there for them.

[00:09:05] There's no growth. Make sure that there's an upside for them. Make sure that you can grow. And that goes for candidates as well. People who are applying to positions, there should be some growth opportunity. And that really is one of the things you talk about when you're networking, is how you want to grow and where you want to grow. So there is a huge sheer amount of submissions in terms of people applying to positions.

[00:09:30] This changed as early as when we were able to apply for a new role on a phone at a lunch break. That's something that dramatically increased the amount of applications coming in. When you're submitting an application online, you're essentially entering into a black hole. It becomes a data point and a database of hundreds. I'm not trying to scare you.

[00:09:53] But I often use the analogy that when you apply to a position, it's kind of like being stranded in the ocean and firing off a flare. You might be seen. You might not. The goal is you're seen. Hopefully you are. But there's no guarantee. The people who are landing roles quickly, like the six people last week from Teleconnect, understand three major shifts because we've worked with them to understand those.

[00:10:20] They realize that hiring someone is expensive and it's risky. Managers prefer candidates who come through a trusted referral, warm introduction, or a meaningful interaction over a random piece of paper in a queue. Let me put it to you this way. When you're shopping for something, let's say you're online looking at products. When you're shopping for something, one of the first things you're going to do is look at what other people's experiences were with that product.

[00:10:48] Having a referral in place, having somebody share your information is literally giving you five stars because now you're known up against the hundreds of other people who may not be. It makes it much easier for that to happen. The hidden market also is real.

[00:11:08] A huge percentage of roles are filled before they ever get to be posted publicly or they're posted simply as a formality while internal or network candidates are really already being interviewed. What does that mean? Well, I've coached some of you around the fact that you should have a list of companies that you're interested in that are hiring and you should know what those positions are that are open. A hundred percent. Definitely, definitely, definitely. There is smoke there. There is no doubt that they're going to be hiring.

[00:11:37] But guess what? The folks who don't have positions posted are not up to their eyeballs in reviewing resumes and submissions and going about figuring out how they're possibly going to manage their day because they're doing their job, the job that's open, and possibly the job of interviewing as well, which nobody does every day. Therefore, they're not great at it. So it takes more work. And they're balancing all those things together. Somebody who's not currently hiring, they have a lot more time for you.

[00:12:04] They're much more open to talk to you because they're not talking to 17 other people that day. Reaching out to people on your list, your special list of companies that you're interested in that may not have opportunities is a good idea. It's a good way to ensure that you're covering a lot more ground than simply the job boards. Next, proactive beats reactive. Just like I just said, waiting for a company to post a position and applying is purely reactive.

[00:12:35] Identifying those companies is how you get to be more proactive. That's how you get to the hidden job market. That's how you're able to talk to somebody about what you've been doing, what you want to do, and why you are excited about this organization, which is proven out because you're reaching out to them without a posting. That's a very strong statement. When you take control of the narrative through proactive connection, you're not waiting for permission to be seen. You're making yourself visible.

[00:13:03] You're telling them, I want to work here. And at that point, they're much more likely to have a conversation with you than if you're just somebody who's applying and may or may not have taken more than four minutes to apply. Let's talk about the hardest part of the modern job search. It's not tweaking your resume. It's not your cover letter. It's the mental and emotional toll, specifically the phenomenon of the new term, somewhat new term, being ghosted.

[00:13:31] This is a very, very scary and slippery topic because it impacts a whole lot more than simply one job. Everybody at some point has experienced the component of being ghosted, having there be no response, spending hours tailoring a resume, writing a custom cover letter, maybe even having a phone screen or a first round interview and then complete silence.

[00:14:01] Zero feedback. No status update. No rejection email. Nothing. Ghosting is one of the most dangerous places you can land during a job search because you didn't get an answer and your brain is automatically going to fill in blanks. Human nature wired us to assume the worst in the absence of information.

[00:14:25] If you've been listening to the Career with Cameron podcast, you know, when we had Josh on, he was talking to us about like how many different dynamics of individuals are negative versus positive. When we have five negative, two positive. When you get ghosted, all five of those are like tag teaming up to say this is terrible. Something's going on. Internal dialogue's kicking in. I wasn't good enough. My resume is terrible. They didn't like me. They know somebody who doesn't like me. They didn't like my car. It could be anything.

[00:14:55] Then that turns into nobody's going to hire me and I'm never going to find anything. And guess what? That thinking now has gone beyond this one opportunity where you're not getting response and it's coming across in all of your interactions and conversations. We must get rid of that. It's hard. It's actually harder than learning how to network and learning how to build your network. Get that thing out of your head. Go for a walk.

[00:15:25] Do something else. When you start to feel like that's happening, get away from it. It doesn't belong in your search. There is no line, I guarantee you, in any of our coaching or any of our spreadsheets that show, hey, here's some time for negativity. Get that out of there. This shift to a negative mindset is insidious. Creeps in slowly. You start the week motivated.

[00:15:50] But after three rejections or four instances of being ghosted, your energy drops. The next time you sit down to write an outreach message or attend an interview, that frustration and fatigue bleed through. Interviewers can sense low energy and frustration. Even over Zoom calls. It creates a self-fulfilling cycle.

[00:16:12] Feeling discouraged leads to lower impact effort, which leads to fewer results, which leads to deeper discouragement. Here's what you need to remember about ghosting. 99% of the time, ghosting has nothing to do with you, your value, or your capability. 99%. Not you. Recruiters are often overwhelmed. They have hundreds of requisitions.

[00:16:40] Multiply that times at least 100 applicants per job. Internal priorities shift overnight due to budget changes or restructuring. Hiring managers get pulled into urgent projects and put hiring on hold without communicating. Sometimes that's actually also what's contributing to that is the hiring manager thinking somebody else is handling the communication or the recruiter thinking somebody else is handling the communication and nobody is communicating.

[00:17:08] So there are a lot of different facets that are here. The ghosting is a reflection of a flawed system and busy human beings. It's not an evaluation of your worth as a professional. Protecting your mental space is non-negotiable. You cannot afford to let silence from a stranger dictate your self-worth or derail your momentum. Staying positive isn't a nice phrase on an inspirational poster.

[00:17:35] In a job search, optimism and resilience are tactical advantages. Somebody who has that resilience, somebody who is positive, you can see them very easily when you meet people in a group. They're the people who will have more people around them. They're positive. People like to be around them. Keep that in mind. You want to have people who want to be talking to you around you because that helps it to make it easier to network.

[00:18:03] Notice next time you're out in a group, the people who are positive and how many people are around them. Okay. We want to help you today. So how do we take some action to shift your search today? We're going to put all this into practice. If you're listening right now and feeling like your job search is stalled or you're stuck, here are three actionable steps you can start taking today to shift your results. Flip your ratio.

[00:18:33] Take a look at how much you're doing. Time you spend in your job search. If 80% of your time is applying to online job boards and 20% is reaching out to people, flip it. Spend 80% of your time building relationships. So spend only 20% applying directly to postings. This one is so important. Similar to where we got into the ghosting and the mental aspect of job search. Tip number two. Reach out with value.

[00:19:04] Not asks. When reaching out to people on LinkedIn or via email, don't just ask, are you hiring? Can you refer me? Instead, start a genuine conversation. Mention an article that they shared. Compliment on a recent project that the company launched. Ask a specific question about their team's culture.

[00:19:28] People love to help, but they prefer connecting with curious, engaged professionals over cold applications. And frankly, if we take this back to our conversation, well, if we take this back to what I just said, about companies that are not hiring, having more time, people who don't think you're just in it to get an interview are going to spend more time. If you've actually done the research.

[00:19:54] If you genuinely are interested, they will spend more time than if you're calling or emailing and saying there's this position posted and I'm interested in it. Can you help me connect to somebody there? That's way too weak for what we can do today. Number three. Establish a mindset anchor. Set boundaries around your job search. Don't refresh your email box at 10 p.m. expecting a recruiter update. Treat your search like a business day.

[00:20:24] Start at a specific time. Execute your strategic outreach. Step away from your desk. Focus on the things that recharge you. Exercise, hobbies, time with family. Keeping your life balanced keeps your energy positive when you enter your next interview. Sidebar on this. One of the things you will hear me say when I start working with you as a coach is how many hours a day are you spending in your job search?

[00:20:52] And what do you like to do for fun? Those things need to be in check. Things that you need to do for fun that you enjoy don't go away because you're not working. In fact, they're probably more important than your job search because you need to feel good. Because when you feel good, it comes across. You need to feel good so that other people have things also to talk to you about. You will probably want to talk about some of those hobbies that you have or things that you like to do.

[00:21:20] That's a really nice way to break some ice and develop a genuine connection with somebody rather than it all being about this job description of the company. Add a little bit about you and let them get to know you. That's what this interviewing is about. All right. Those are your big three. So we're going to wrap things up here. If you're still asking yourself, how long will this take? Remember, you have far more control over that timeline than you think. Don't the black hole of online portal slow you down?

[00:21:48] And do not allow silence of being ghosted to convince you that you aren't qualified. The six people who landed roles through Talent Connect last week proved there are multiple pathways to success. You just need to use the right keys to unlock them. If you need support navigating this process, structuring your network outreach, or getting introductions, reach out to us. We're here to help turn frustrating job search into a strategic successful career move.

[00:22:17] Maybe you just want a few minutes to ask a couple questions. Reach out to us. We're happy to help. If you've enjoyed this podcast, if it's helpful to you, if you know somebody it can be helpful to, please go ahead and A, subscribe. B, like it. And also shoot us five stars. Then go ahead and send it to a couple people that you think it may help. It's a nice way to say to them, I'm thinking about you.

[00:22:44] I know that there's not anybody I can connect you to right now that you've asked to be connected to, to help you. But I want you to know that you're not by yourself. If this is something that's helped you specifically, go ahead and again, give us five stars. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. Go back and check out some of the older episodes because there's some great information in there. And make sure that you're sharing with other people that you're networking with who are also in job search mode. Lots more tips coming ahead.

[00:23:13] Hopefully we'll see you soon.