The Inhumane Pain of the Career Search

The job search process can be so inhumane. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s one thing to submit your resume and not get any response at all.

Are You a Struggling Career Searcher?

Hi, team! Oh, man, are you a struggling job searcher right now? I wanna give you a little bit of hope and some validation. First, the job search is absolutely inhumane! My name is Christopher Lawrence, and I am with changemylifecoaching.ca, changemybusinesscoaching.ca, and gp2, the number 2, now.ca. Listen, I wanna validate what you might be experiencing if you’re one of those job searchers who’s put so many resumes out and you’ve hardly heard anything back. And there are a couple of tips and tricks that we can do to get you moving. But I just wanna validate something first, which is the job process, the job search process can be so inhumane. I mean it’s, you know, it’s one thing to submit your resume and not get any response at all, it’s another thing to submit your resume and get an automated response, at least you’re getting that. You know, I understand some of these companies, you know, it’s like for one position they might, certainly where I live, they might get anywhere between 200 to 2,000 applicants, so responding to everyone sometimes isn’t an option. I get that. I also understand that you know, you submit your resume and you get no feedback. It IS inhumane!

The Career Search can Be Completely Demotivating Because It is Inhumane

So what happens? We start to kinda cave in, and we start to lose motivation because what — why am I doing this? Like, it’s like, you know, having a blog that nobody reads. You know, if you’re doing it just for your own cathartic experience, well, that’s one thing, keep doing it, right, if you’re getting something out of it. But it’s like, you know if you’re going through that job search process and you’re getting zero feedback whatsoever, or nothing, or very little, it can be completely demotivating. And then what’s even worse is when you get an interview and then you don’t hear back at all, and this one is a message to recruiters, because this pisses me off, like, what happened to hu- to being, you know, to remember that these applicants are humans, like if you, I get it. Like you can’t respond to every single applicant if you get hundreds of resumes outside of using an automated system and a generic response, I get that. But if you give somebody an interview, give them the courtesy of calling them back to tell them they didn’t get the job. I have so many clients who do an interview and hear nothing from the hiring manager or the recruiter or whoever it happens to be, and I know you’re busy, but you’re probably only doing like, three to six, maybe ten interviews. I mean, if you’re doing ten, you’re doing a lot, right?

Let Them Know How They Ranked

I’ve recruited hundreds of people over the last, you know, 20-plus years that I’ve, been in a professional career. I’ve recruited hundreds of people, and so it’s like I know what that process looks like, so you can’t give me a line of bull and tell me that you don’t, you know, that it’s, like, “Well, you know, it’s hard.” And it’s like, if you’re interviewing hundreds and hundreds of people, you’re doing it wrong, so, and you’re not gonna get good quality candidates, so you know if that’s the case. So at least send them a message saying, “Thanks, we’ve decided to move forward with someone else,” and give them an opportunity to ask for feedback. I’m not even saying you have to give feedback, I’m just saying give them the opportunity to ask for it, because it’s a hard enough thing and we’re human beings. If your neighbour is starving, you can’t do better, right, because they’ll always want what you have, so we can lift job searchers up by, you know, by at least letting them know where they, you know, how they ranked, which is as simple as, “Hey, you know, we won’t be proceeding with your application.” That’s it, you know. Specifically, if you give them an interview.

Rejection Proof?

Back to the job searcher, sorry about that rant there, but I just, oh God, it drives me nuts! Okay, so, to the job searcher, I understand that this can be extremely painful, but what I want you to do is remember that all forms of rejection are just somebody’s opinion and if you wanna learn more about that, read the book “Rejection Proof.” It was a real game-changer for me when I read that and I kind of understood what rejection really was and that it was just an opinion. And then get back out there and keep trucking, and keep trucking and keep trucking. And honestly, I’m with you, like, if you’re in that position, post below, I or someone on my team is gonna give you some words of encouragement to kinda keep moving forward. You know, and just, maybe a tip or two, ’cause I’m here with you.

Take A Little Step Every Day

I mean, it’s such a brutal process, and it’s so inhumane, especially, you know, it’s like if you’re in a market that is, like, where there’s hardly any jobs, it’s so inhumane because you’re probably getting rejected, you know, maybe even hundreds of times through the whole process. And, you know if you’re in the other market where it’s like, there are tons of jobs out there, then it becomes weirdly and strangely competitive in a totally different way, and so it’s like be patient with yourself, take a little step every day. Try to get one application out every day. More if you can, right? But one application out every day, and then use that feedback. Like if your resume isn’t getting noticed, then change your resume. If you’re getting callbacks from your resume, but you’re not landing jobs, then work on your interviewing skills, okay? Those are kind of the two key criteria, so pay attention to the data that you’re getting back. And if you’ve kinda done what you think you need to do, then really focus on your networking skills, cause lots of people are getting jobs through networking. And, by the way, networking is developing one or two really good contacts, it’s not about going to a job fair and dropping your resume and business card off with every single booth, it’s like, no, stay for a minute, have a conversation with them, ask them questions. I’m gonna do another post on that probably in a couple of months here, I’m just looking at my schedule, so, in couple weeks or a couple of months, we’re gonna do another post on managing job fairs and that kinda thing.

Good Luck

So, good luck with your journey, I’m here for you. Christopher James Lawrence, changemylifecoaching.ca, please do check us out, and comment below if you need a little bit of a leg up, and if you’re one of the people who don’t, provide some words of encouragement for those that do because it’s a brutal market in some places right now. So, take care, folks. Bye!

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