Job Search Dragging on? Temper Your Expectations

By now you’ve heard me say a million times, at the end of the day, the market doesn’t lie.

The longer your job search drags on, the more it’s telling you something’s off.

This can be due to a number of different factors, whether you’re asking for too much more than what you’re worth (at least in the short term) in conjunction with a very slow market we’re experiencing today.

While each individual person’s situation is different, there are a few general key areas that can make or break your job search.

Here are 6 tips tips that should help out, let’s dive in 👇

1: Figure out where you can compromise

Are all of your deal breakers really deal breakers? Likely not.

Don’t worry about what you heard other people on the internet are making or the work situations they landed themselves, and if you’re selling yourself short comparing yourself to them (especially if you don’t even know them!). They’re not the one paying your bills.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve placed candidates this year when they ended up compromising on a few deal breakers that weren’t really deal breakers in the end.

Some of them were looking only for remote, when they realized how competitive those roles were, and ended up landing something with me shortly after considering hybrid.

Some of them were looking for 20%-30% raises, and ended up landing something when they were ok for 10%-15%.

Some of them even took a completely lateral move $$$ and hybrid wise just to join a better work environment.

Take a step back and ask yourself what’s truly a deal breaker and what’s not.

2: What if it’s your salary?

To make the math easy, let’s pretend you’re looking for jobs that pay $100k.

Crickets. Months go by. No one’s picking up on your resume.

You apply to some other roles paying $85k and start landing interviews. At least in the short term, that’s this market telling you something.

Now, in a candidate friendly market, you probably don’t resort to this. But in a market like 2023, if you don’t have strong interview activity in your pipeline, a strong emergency fund to bide time for the *right* role, or recruiters consistently reaching out to you, this is likely something you’ll have to consider.

There *might* be other ways to make up for it. Sign on bonus. Performance bonus. RSUs/Equity. Etc. Or even just non-monetary things just like an easier, more flexible working environment can make up all the difference.

At the worst case, something like this ends up as a bridge job for you until the market eventually goes back to your favor.

3: Remote vs. Hybrid

Everyone wants to work fully remote. We all got a taste of it, the freedom and balance it provides, to some people it’s truly priceless.

More, and more, and more companies are going back to hybrid. Corporate culture is a copy cat league. Once the big guys start doing something (Amazon, Meta, Google to Goldman, JPM), other F500s follow suit.

Because of this, remote jobs are the most competitive jobs out there.

You have true A Players willing to take significant pay cuts to land these roles. People from FAANG willing to take even up to a 50% pay I’ve seen. Absolutely crazy!

As I mentioned before, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve placed candidates this year that were able to land jobs with me relatively quickly once they’ve opened themselves up to hybrid roles.

Sometimes that’s all it takes.

4: Most people can’t have it both ways

High compensation. Fully remote.

My unofficial, 0 evidence, yet gut feeling says most people will only be able to pick one and not the other.

So figure out what’s more important to you.

The highest paying roles - at FAANG, Big Tech, Banking/Financial Services are predominantly hybrid. The ones that are remote are the absolute most competitive roles out there.

So if you prefer a high comp plan, then be willing to go hybrid.

If you prefer fully remote, be prepared to potentially take a haircut.

5: Currently working? Bide your time.

The best time to look for a job is when you have one.

You have the ultimate leverage.

You don’t need to quit.

You may hate your job, but no one needs to know that. You could just be “looking for a better challenge or to advance your career” for all I know.

Unless the stress is taking years off your life, you can use your current job as a bridge job to bide yourself time looking for the exact right fit for you.

Whatever that may be, it doesn’t matter, because you have a consistent paycheck coming in and have the time to figure it out.

Now, the same principle still applies. If your search is dragging on, that’s the market telling you something, and we’ll need to temper expectations.

If 4 months go by and you’re hearing crickets, then something’s gotta give. Maybe you compromise on your search somewhere, or maybe you realize you’re actually in a good spot and take yourself off the market completely.

6: But what if I’m doing everything right and still crickets?

You have a solid resume. You’re asking for a reasonable salary. Hell you’re even willing to go onsite 5x/week at this point.

Still crickets. What gives?

Remember, we’re in a tough ass market right now.

Most of you have never looked for a job during an employer’s market.

Think about it.

2000. 2008/2009. Briefly 2020. H2 2022-Present.

That’s not that big of a sample size. Only a small % in the past two decades.

If you’re just updating your resume, posting it online, applying to jobs, and not seeing enough traction, then you’re not doing enough.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting the same result. So let’s change it up, and let’s diversify.

You need to go on OFFENSE.

Go to meetups, in person and virtual. Go to conferences. Start networking. Reach out to previous colleagues. Reach out to previous bosses. Reach out to previous alumni. Reach out to recruiters. Reach out to hiring managers. Reach out to the job poster.

You’re going to have to kick it up a notch. The more touch points, the higher chance you give yourself of eventually landing something.