Today, job seekers all over the world face unprecedented levels of competition in the jobs market. Some areas more so than others. However, from my experience, I have observed eight challenges that job seekers commonly have to contend with. They are:
1. Not being given feedback from an employer as to why their application was unsuccessful.
As an experienced Australian employment consultant, I’ve worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of job seekers over my career to date. Whether it be to professionally tailor their CV and cover letter, deliver interview skills coaching, revamp their LinkedIn profile, provide job coaching and advice or help address key selection criteria, time and time again I hear the following words of frustration:
I wish employers would provide proper feedback as to why a candidate was unsuccessful for a role they applied for, rather than email out a standard email saying that on this occasion they were not successful… See related article: Coping with rejections from unsuccessful job applications, by Matthew Coppola
I completely agree that it’s frustrating that employers hardly every give proper feedback to job seekers. I’ve seen this time and time again. The truth is though, when an employer posts a job, they are likely to receive hundreds of applications from candidates. Now you can imagine how difficult it will be for an employer to provide individualised responses and reasons to every single job seeker, and then have to respond to follow up questions. It’s a lot to deal with.
2. Every application takes time and effort, which requires patience and focus.
My biggest suggestion that I give to job seekers is to personalise each and every individual job application. For example, if you are addressing key selection criteria, make sure that you incorporate aspects of the role.
3. Not every job is going to be the same. They differ in skills and experience required. Plus location and pay rate matters too.
Unfortunately you may come across a job that seems perfect, only to find out that it’s located two hours away from where you live. Or the job may be close to you, but the pay rate is far lower than what you expect. These are important things to consider.
See related article: Is It Okay To Mention Money In An Interview?
4. Trying to stay focused and not let emotions run high.
It’s important to stay focused and not let your emotions get in the way of writing up a great application. It’s like buying a car. You may see a car and instantly get emotional about it, without thinking logically to make sure that you can negotiate for the best price. The same is true with job applications. It’s important to be think clearly about the role and be prepared in your mind that you may not be successful, and to continue applying for other jobs.
For this very reason, some people choose to utilise the services of a professional employment services business such as Client Centric Executive Employment Solutions and have their CV and cover letter professionally written and tailored by the experts.
5. Making sure that your CV and cover letter market you as best they can.
In the article, Why You Should Tailor Your Generic CV, it mentions that advertised jobs receive hundreds of applications, so a generic CV is just going to get lost and most likely not make the cut. Once you tailor your resume to your target job, it will be an instant win for you.
6. Dealing with some recruiters who may be just trying to collect candidate resumes.
Unfortunately I have see this happen where a recruiter advertises for multiple roles at the same company, only for their to be one job. Their real intention is to obtain resumes of candidates which they can then use to market to other prospective employers or keep candidates on their database. This is just something to be aware of that can happen.