It’s not just you. Despite the unemployment rate being at a 49 year low, a good job is hard to come by even if you’re 100% qualified. Elements such as bad interviewers, not having ‘the right’ college degree, and stagnant wages are just some ways you’re not finding the job you deserve. Why?

The hiring system is broken:

#1: Priorities and perceived needs have shifted

Many companies do not prioritize their recruiting resources and in turn sacrifice both talent and job impact. An example of this is ‘experience inflation’ or ‘degree inflation’, whereby jobs that in the past did not require a certain requirement (such as a Bachelor of Arts degree) are now standard. An “entry-level” job requires years of experience (approximately 3 years!) and creates a credential gap that disadvantages middle-class workers.

Not only does this hurt jobseekers, but it costs employers money creating an unsustainable cycle.

#2: Increased Outsourcing + Remote Work

Today, you’re not only competing with local jobseekers, but jobseekers from all over the country (and possible world). Due to the low unemployment rates and talent shortage, employers are establishing more flexible work models which includes freelancers and contract work. The use of contractors has increased 24% since 2017, and more than half of hiring managers use the remote work model (59%).

#3: Being ‘black-holed’ is commonplace

Our team coined the term ‘black-holed’ to mean resumes falling into the great abyss post-submission. You could have the perfect resume and be 100% qualified and this will enviably happen to you. “Ghosting” candidates (or lack of communication and transparency) contributes to the broken hiring system. As a result, it’s even becoming a trend where job candidates are ghosting hiring managers and new employers!

#4: Robots (aka the ‘ATS’)

The ‘ATS’ or applicant tracking systems are key word parsers that score resumes based on particular words being used; most often it will be the exact phrasing being used in job descriptions. If your resume is not machine parsable it will most likely not make it through to the actual human hiring manager. Both large and small companies use an ATS to widdle down large candidate pools. Be mindful of word choice and keywords and keep your resume short. The cover letter is where you have an opportunity to differentiate yourself and let your personality shine through.

#5: Heightened Competition

The normalization of higher education is creating a flatter, more even playing field. The power of education cannot be underestimated and should be upheld and fostered, but does pose a challenge in terms of competition where the college degree represents the new high school diploma. More qualified, educated people means more competition for jobs across industry.

#6: Time is against you

There will never be more than 10-15 interview slots for a job opening, no matter how many people applied. Any given manager’s calendar will usually be filled for days at a time with interviews during a hiring period. As an example, our CEO/founder Kushal shared his personal calendar when trying to hire for particular position. As you can see, it’s crazy:

He said that to interview just 3% of the applicant pool, he basically did nothing but interviews for all of Friday (the blurred names are interviews). There were another ~2 days like this after having made a shortlist (3% of the total pool of hundreds).

#7: “The Perfect Candidate”

Many employers drag their feet in search of the ‘perfect hire’. It’s due to lack of recruiting priorities and not setting internal/external schedules for positions. For the candidate, that might mean waiting an unnecessarily extended period of time to hear a hiring update of any kind.

#8: Terrible Candidate Screening

There’s nothing worse than actually making it to an interview and the person sitting across conducting it asks half-hearted, unrelated, or uninformed questions:

What is your biggest weakness?

Tell me what you think about the individuals you just met with?

How would you calculate the production and sales of all the white paint in the US?

Such lazy, oddball questions predict very little and may even create a sense of resentment from the get-go.

#9: Hiring Manager Biases

Employers are people too, and, of course, people are inherently (subconsciously) biased. This shows up more prominently in work environments with unstructured hiring processes and those that fail to set diversity standards.

Our data suggests that there are data-driven ways to force objectivity such as quantifying experience and avoiding collaboration-oriented words.

#10: Resume Blemishes

If you were previously fired, laid off or left a job before 18 months you have what is called a resume blemish and it hurts your hireability. How much does it hurt? Controlling for experience, people who were fired, laid off or quit in the first 15 months of a job were 43% less hireable when applying to new jobs.

Whereas everyone else saw a 13.4% interview callback rate, the callback rate was only 7.6% for these folks. Averaging across industries and cities, getting fired meant roughly same as wiping out ~5 years of experience for them.

Conclusion

It’s hard to have a favorable hiring experience in general when the system is broken. From submitting great resumes that fall into a black-hole to decisions being made weeks from whence you expected, it’s discouraging. Understand that you are not alone in feeling discouraged. Check out our ‘Science of the Job Search‘ blog series authored by TalentWorks Founder/CEO Kushal Chakrabarti for data-driven tips and tricks to navigating your next job.

Let us help you navigate! For $10/month we can automatically find the best jobs and pre-fill job applications for you based on your desired role, location and years of experience. In addition, you’ll get our Interview Guarantee — if we can’t get you an interview within 60 days, we’ll refund everything back to you, guaranteed. (90% of job-seekers using TalentWorks get an interview in 60 days or less).