Why You Aren't Getting Traction In Your Job Search

INTRO

I speak to hundreds of candidates a week. Compound this effort over 9 years, and I’ve spoken to over 10k job seekers in my lifetime.

Over that period of time, you start to recognize the common mistakes job-seekers are making in their job search.

As a part of my standard protocol, I go over what they’re looking for, what they’re seeing, and ask them why they think they haven’t gotten any traction (if they say they haven’t).

Time and time again, at least one of the below comes up in conversation after I dig in deep enough.

Let’s dig in to why you might not be getting the traction you want. This will require you to take a good & hard look in the mirror for yourself.

1: LinkedIn Not Optimized

Most people I speak to from the job boards or job applications, or that reach out to me directly on LinkedIn have terrible LinkedIns.

Think of your LinkedIn like a small business on google.

If you’re looking for an electrician, you’re not going through hundreds of companies across dozens of pages. Chances are, you’re going to call the companies listed on the first page and stop the search once you find a few to compare prices with.

The same goes for recruiting. Fill out your LinkedIn entirely - from headline, about me, work experience, skills section etc. This will help you increase your SEO compatibility.

2: Resume Not Optimized

The mistake most job seekers make is focusing on only the roles and responsibilities.

You’re writing a resume, not a job description.

You want to stand out from everyone else, not blend in. You should show how YOU made a direct impact on the team, project, company, etc that helps you stand out from the rest of the pack.

Every bullet point you write, you should be thinking about this, as well as how can you quantify this impact. Using numbers and percentages will help amplify this for you.

3: Not Prepared For Interviews

This is especially common for the more senior pro’s.

They think just because they’re good at their job, they think they’ll be a good interviewer.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, the interviewing process is broken, just like everything else in the job search process. But no one’s come up with a universal solution *yet* and I highly doubt someone will anytime soon.

So you need to practice interviewing just like you’d practice for any team sport.

Repetition & muscle memory matters. Practice with a friend, in front of the mirror, and record yourself. Gather the feedback and do it again, and again.

4: Tone / Body Language

There are many times where it’s not what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it.

Tone & body language matter just as much, if not more.

Again, especially for those senior pro’s in high demand, there is a fine line between being cocky & confident. Make sure you are well aware of that line.

If you think this pertains to you, then it probably does. The best way to go about fixing this is to follow the steps from practicing interviews.

Record yourself answering questions from a script then rewatch it. Or, have a trusted friend ask the questions and listen to your answers and be sure to ask them for their candid advice.

5: Expectations too high

I also work for a massive recruiting agency that has tons of clients of all sizes in all industries.

That gives me a solid grasp & an inside scoop of what’s going on in the market first hand along with the public info that an everyday person has access to.

There have been many times I speak to candidates and they are the ones shooting themselves in the foot. Here are some examples of recent:

• Sr. Java Developer has 10+ years of experience in banking. He lives in Central NJ. He doesn’t want to commute to the city anymore (which wipes out most of his expectations to work at any bank) to work remote and still wants to make over $225-250k. I advise him only banking & big tech pay those salaries for individual contributors, banking is almost entirely onsite and big tech is either frozen, laid off, or hybrid. He’s “desperately” looking, but won’t compromise. Chances are he’ll be on the market longer.

• Mid-level Data Engineer. Out of work since July. Refuses to go hybrid 2x/week. Says he needs a job asap because his emergency fund is almost out. If you’ve been on the market this long, especially without an emergency fund, you’re going to need to compromise.

These are some extreme examples, but point being, if your job search is taking too long and you need to find something sooner rather than later, you’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and see if there is something you can compromise on.

Keep in mind, there is nothing wrong with a bridge job.

If you’ve made it this far, I have some offers for you for my subscribers only:

1. I’ve added more purchases for my $5 LinkedIn Optimization Ebook

2. Just finished building out my DIY Resume Builder. The difference between this and the free resume templates is that it shows you step by step how to write out your resume, the same process I’ve used to place over 600 times. Also only $5.

3. Both of these have been added in & included into my Job Seeker's Ebook, which is always half off for subscribers at $9.99