One of the most frustrating moments in a person’s career is when they are either: 1) unemployed and looking for a job; or 2) employed but looking for a better job. Along with thousands of other professionals, at some point during your career you may have found yourself in such a predicament.
Consequently, you may have adopted the miserable “I’ve applied to tons of positions, but no one is hiring or calling me back†mentality.
To help professionals overcome this debilitating “no one is hiring†mindset, Alysse Metzler wrote The Recruiting Snitch: Recruiting Secrets to Help Land Your Dream Job. The Recruiting Snitch , loaded with secrets that 101 recruiters and hiring managers have revealed about their hiring methods. “Practice makes perfect, and knowledge is half the battle. So once you really know what’s going on inside recruiters’ heads, you will be able to ace the résumé review, get through the application process, impress the recruiter on your phone interview, wow the hiring manager in the face-to-face interview, and have a smooth offer process,†she writes.
With her groundbreaking book and position as a senior recruiter at EA Sports, Metzler has branded herself in the career development industry as “The Recruiting Snitch.†Due to her unrivaled platform and success as an industry expert, Metzler was a contestant and then judge on the popular Miami-based reality TV show The Top Recruiter for Seasons 1 and 2.
Metzler offered the following insights on why you may not be receiving phone calls for job offers as well as strategies that you can use to beat your competition in the job hunt:
You are highly qualified, but your personality doesn’t fit with the culture. “Beyond qualifications for the job a hiring manager is looking for a culture fit and wants someone on their team that will fit in,” Metzler says. “The candidate may be the most qualified for the role but if the hiring manager can’t see the candidate meshing well on a personal level with the other teammates or themselves, they won’t hire you.â€
Job Hunt Tip: Research the company’s culture prior to your interview. Be sure to inquire about the culture and demonstrate that you can align your work ethic and style accordingly.
You have branded yourself as a jack of all trades or are applying for way too many positions that you aren’t qualify for.
Many professionals believe that landing a good job boils down to a game of probability. In essence, they feel if they apply to hundreds of jobs as a professional who can do all things, their chances of being called for an interview and job offer will increase.
Metzler advises against such an approach. “A common mistake that job hunters make is applying to jobs where they don’t meet the minimum qualifications. People waste so much time doing this,†she says.
Job Hunt Tip: Metzler encourages applicants to “focus their time on applying to one to two jobs per day where they are 100% qualified for as opposed to 20 a day where they don’t measure up. “They will get better results because systems are set up to automatically disqualify candidates who don’t meet minimum requirements, so we aren’t even seeing a lot of the unqualified résumés,†she adds.
You aren’t fully committed to your job search.
It’s very easy for them to overestimate their ability to land a good job, especially for highly qualified and educated job seekers, Metzler says. Part of the reason is because some candidates believe their past successes and credentials alone will easily get them interviews and job offers. Therefore, on occasion, they may submit incomplete application packages and fail to effectively prepare for interviews. In addition, they may only apply to job announcements in their spare time as opposed to dedicating a substantial amount of time for their job search.
Job Hunt Tip: Job seekers should always bring their A-game during each phase of the application process without taking anything for granted. “Candidates need to treat finding a job as if it is their full-time job. Most people I speak to say, ‘No one is hiring. I’ve been out of work for 3 months now.’ I then ask questions only to find out in the past week they’ve been sleeping until noon, going out at nights and hanging out with friends during the day or watching TV. They’re not treating finding a job like a full-time job,†Metzler adds.
You don’t know what you want to do or where to go with your career. Far too many professionals are clueless about their career path. For some of them, they have just been working in various positions merely because they somehow fell into them.
However, having an undefined career path is tremendously problematic and ineffective for optimal career growth.
Job Hunt Tip: Applicants should become clear about where they are and the next move they desire to make on their career path. “Job seekers should first sit down to analyze what it is they really want to do with their life. People need to take the time to see what natural skills and talents they have and what makes them happy. Then they should go out and apply to jobs that will make them happy; and not just apply to everything that is open,†Metzler says.
You don’t know how to make a genuine connection with hiring managers and recruiters.
Hiring managers are human, too. Just like job seekers have pet peeves and frustrations about the tough job-hunting climate, there are particular things about applicants that turn hiring managers completely off as well. In fact, hiring managers often place applicants in various undesirable categories based on the type of annoying behaviors or characteristics they demonstrate.
In The Recruiting Snitch Metzler highlights responses from a survey she conducted with 101 recruiters. She asked them their biggest pet peeves and found that many comments were focused on what she calls “the desperate applicant.” “Many relationships end up failing when one person becomes needy, annoying, too demanding, and overbearing,†she says.
Job Hunt Tip: Keep the human element in in attempts to impress hiring managers. “Research them ahead of time,” Metzler says. “Look up their LinkedIn profile to see their background, where they went to school, and which groups they follow or are part of in an effort to find some common ground. That way there is an opportunity to talk about relevant topics without sounding like a stalker. Don’t immediately start the conversation by saying, ‘I Googled you and saw you went to Ohio State, so did I.’â€
Antoine Moss, Ph.D., (@2PositiveTweets) is a nationally recognized resource on internships, early career achievement, leadership and motivation. CEO and founder of CEO Style Consulting L.L.C., Moss empowers professionals and organizations to reach their full potential, and serves as speaker, workshop instructor and consultant. The author of Learn to Intern CEO Style, Moss has been a featured expert on outlets including Fox 8 TV News and George Fraser’s 2011 Power Networking Conference.