The job search is a daunting gauntlet of hard work and uncertainty. It’s even worse when you don’t know the pitfalls that await you. These 9 truths, learned from hard experience, will prepare you for what lies ahead, and help you find a job you want, not just one you need.
The job search is mostly random
Lazlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google, and head of hiring, said this in an interview with the New York Times in 2013:
Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at Google is particularly good at hiring. We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship. It’s a complete random mess, except for one guy who was highly predictive because he only interviewed people for a very specialized area, where he happened to be the world’s leading expert.”
If Google, a company that has invested millions in hiring, and is “25 times more selective than Harvard, Yale, or Princeton” can’t train interviewers to score job candidates in a way that reliably predicts future performance, then no one can.
During a job search, you’ll submit résumés, participate in phone screens, and hustle through second interviews, third interviews, practical interviews, etc. But after all that, you still need a little bit of luck if you’re going to get the job.
There are simply too many factors involved in the hiring process for any candidate to predict and control. I’ve known excellent candidates who were more than qualified who didn’t end up getting the job because:
- The company had a structural change that made hiring for the open position no longer necessary.
- The company fell on hard times and decided to freeze all hiring.
- The company was simply too lazy to get around to finishing the hiring process. (This is particularly common at smaller companies or companies without a dedicated HR staff).
- A significant local, national, or global event occurred (such as the 9/11 attacks in the United States) that caused the company to panic and stop hiring.
- A key member of the hiring team quit, was promoted, got pregnant, or changed his mind. (I’ve seen all of these happen).
All of this is completely out of the candidate’s control, mostly unpredictable, and totally unrelated to a candidate’s ability to do the job.
Should you change your approach to the job hunt? No. Just make sure you’re not betting everything on just one potential position, and you’re aiming for multiple offers.
Should you quit trying? No. This is just part of the job hunt.
Actions: You’re best bet is to focus on generating first interviews and building a match between you and your potential employer. Let the things you can’t control worry about themselves.
Companies don’t pick the best candidate (or at least not the most qualified)
I remember interviewing potential candidates for a marketing position. One candidate (call him Joe) had a few years of experience, excellent interviews, and a good grasp of the industry. Another candidate (call her Sue) was an internal candidate who had no experience in the marketing world, and was only relatively new to the industry.
We ended up hiring Sue, and for good reason. While experience was useful, both in marketing and the industry, Sue already showed the company that she could turn in reliable work. Also, the hiring team felt she could learn the skills necessary to complete the job, and be compensated less due to her experience. If we had hired Joe, he would know marketing, but he wouldn’t know our company, and his time coming up to speed and beyond would cost the company more.
There’s no question that Joe was the more qualified candidate, but Sue was the better choice for the company at the time. And since the company is hiring, the company is going to choose what’s best for them, not what’s best for the candidate.
Actions: Make sure you understand the company’s needs as best as possible. Bring your qualifications to the table, but then focus on framing your abilities to match the company’s needs. By doing this, the company will not only see you as qualified, but as a good fit.
Not all jobs listed are actually available
For various reasons, company’s will list job openings for jobs that are not actually available. In some cases, the company already has someone in mind for the role, and they’re listing the job to fulfill a legal requirement or company policy.
You won’t know which jobs are actually open and which ones are just being listed. If you don’t receive a reply after submitting your application, you won’t know whether it was because the company wasn’t interested, the job wasn’t available, or some other reason.
Actions: Apply to the jobs you want, but don’t take it personally if you don’t get a response. It could be because the job wasn’t ever actually available in the first place.
Not all jobs that are available are actually listed
Most companies are always looking for good people, regardless of what positions are currently “open for hiring.” Just because your dream job and your dream company isn’t listed in their job board doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance of working there.
One of the best ways to get a job is to tap your existing professional network, reiterate your qualifications and potential value, and see what opportunities exist. Many professionals including myself have found a job that wasn’t listed simply by reaching out to others and asking what’s available. As long as you’ve established a good reputation and maintained a professional relationship, you can use those assets to bypass the job boards.
Actions: Think about your professional network and your potential connections. Then, in a professional manner, reach out to your network and tell them you’re searching. Be sure to follow up on any opportunities they bring back, and thank everyone you reached out to, regardless of the outcome of the opportunity.
You need a résumé to get a job
We’ve all heard of the innovative approaches that job candidates have used to get the attention of hiring managers. What we don’t here about are all the similar approaches that amount to nothing.
Even if you’re leveraging the power of a professional network, at some point you’ll need to send a résumé detailing what you’ve accomplished and what you’re looking to accomplish. A well-crafted résumé provides your potential employers documented proof of your ability.
Résumés can take many forms, including a LinkedIn profile, website, or even a video. Keep in mind, however, that the hiring manager will still probably need a written résumé that can be printed or easily emailed. If you don’t provide that, you may not be considered, simply because it’s too difficult for the hiring manager to let other people know about you.
A résumé is not enough to get you a job
For better or worse, the hiring process in most companies is the same as it was 40 years ago.
- Applicants submit a résumé.
- If the résumé is acceptable, then a first phone interview is scheduled (often called a phone screen), usually with an HR representative as opposed to the hiring manager.
- If that goes well, a second interview, often on the phone, with the hiring manager occurs.
- If that goes, the applicant is invited in for another round of interviews, often with many different people in the company, most of whom have no idea who the applicant is, and are handed the résumé a few minutes before meeting the applicant.
- If that goes well, the applicant may be asked back for further interviews, or may be given an offer.
All that to say, the résumé is critical to getting the first phone call, but after that it’s your preparation for the interview process that’s going to get you the job.
Actions: Create an excellent résumé, use it to get a first phone call, then focus on creating a fit between you and the company
A college degree won’t get you a job. (Nor will a Master’s degree, Doctorate, or MBA).
Up until about 15 years ago, high school students across the United States were told “if you get a college degree, then you’ll get a job.” Unfortunately that’s simply not true. Unemployment rates for college graduates, while lower than those who only have a high school education, are still high (between 5-19% over the last 15 years).
Still, if you’re reading this, it’s likely you’re not concerned with just having a job, but with having a great job (or at least a new one). If you’re a college graduate (or have an advanced degree) you shouldn’t worry about being unemployed, you should worry about being unattractive on the job market.
Bachelor’s degrees used to be seen as highly desirable by the business world. Now so many applicants have bachelor’s degrees that having one is more like table stakes—you need one if you want to be considered, but having one doesn’t impress anybody. The same is gradually becoming true for advanced degrees (with the exception of highly specialized fields). The unfortunate side effect of having more people in the job market with advanced degrees is that having an advanced degree becomes less valuable.
Actions: Don’t rely on a degree of any kind to get you a job. You need to demonstrate that you can bring something of value to a potential employer, ideally by pointing to prior experience. If you’re considering getting an advanced degree, make sure you’re doing it to increase your skill set, not to increase your chances of getting a job.
You should aim for more than one offer in your job search
As a potential hire, you’re trying to win over the companies you’re talking with. Many applicants, upon entering the interviewing stage of the process, will focus their efforts entirely on one company, and stop applying or following up on other opportunities all together. This is a mistake.
As discussed above, the hiring process is random. If you focus your efforts on one company and, even if they seem like a perfect fit, you don’t get an offer, your back at square one in your process.
Even if you get an offer from a company you’re interviewing with, you’ll be in a much better position to start your working relationship with that company if you have at least one more offer in hand.
49% of applicants never negotiate terms of an initial job offer. I’m surprised the percentage isn’t higher: after working so hard and waiting so long, you finally have an offer on the table. Why risk negotiating? What if your counter-proposal causes them to take back the offer?
To counter this fear and put yourself in a position to negotiate for compensation you deserve, you need at least one attractive alternative to accepting the offer in front of you. You need a BATNA: a Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. During a negotiation, your BATNA is the best outcome that will occur if you cannot reach an agreement. When you’re negotiating for a job after receiving an offer, if the negotiation falls through, your BATNA is the best alternative you have available.
Many years ago, I began looking for a new job in a new city. I desperately wanted to move, and was eager to jump at any opportunity that presented itself. As soon as one of my applications turned into an offer, I didn’t have much of a choice but to take it. The alternative (my BATNA), was to stay in the rural town where I lived an continue my search, which was likely to take another few months before any additional offers appeared. I took the job without any negotiation.
Skip forward several years, and I’m looking to move jobs again. This time I interviewed with several companies, got into the late stages of discussion with three, and received offers from all three companies. This put me in an extremely powerful position in negotiations. As I discussed the compensation with the company I most wanted to work with, I was able to say with complete honesty that I had other attractive offers on the table. I wanted to work with them, I said, but I needed to make sure it was the right move for me and my family, given the other options I had available.
Without the other offers on the table, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable negotiating the terms of my employment. Once the other offers were extended, I now had three strong alternatives, allowing me to ask for more during negotiations.
What’s more, companies actually want you more if they hear you have other offers. Other offers indicates that other companies have found you valuable, and each company who’s willing to extend you an offer will now work harder to get you to choose them over a competitor. They’ve already invested time and money in interviewing you and making sure you’ll fit, they don’t want to lose you now.
Actions: Continue to apply and interview so you receive multiple offers. Then pick your favorite offer out of the set and negotiate your compensation from a position of power.
You haven’t truly completed a job search until you’ve worked at the new job for awhile
Most companies, when hiring new employees, consider the first few months of the employee’s time to be probationary. As you’re getting settled into a new role, the company is continuing to evaluate you and make sure…
- you can do what you said you can do
- you fit in at the workplace
- you’re not crazy.
All of which is difficult to verify from interviews alone.
Even if a company doesn’t have a probationary period, you’re first months on the new job should be considered an extended interview. If you don’t live up to expectations, it’s much easier for the company to let you go early and hire one of the other candidates they had for the role than to gamble on you improving over time.
Actions: Treat your first 90 days as an extended interview. Make sure to learn quickly and contribute as soon as you can.
The job hunt can be a nerve-racking experience, especially if you don’t know what you’re getting into. By remembering the truths above and taking the actions outlined, you’ll give yourself the best chance of finding a job you want without going crazy in the process.
What have you learned about the job-search process? Add your thoughts or questions to the comments below.