It’s not you. It’s the market.
If you’ve been searching for a new role this year, you might be wondering if there’s something wrong with you or your job search strategies. You’re doing everything you think you should be—networking, customizing your resumes and cover letters, practicing your responses to common interview questions, and improving your narrative—but you’re not getting any offers. Maybe you’re not even getting any requests for interviews. I’m here to tell you that it’s not you. It’s them.
Just this week, I heard these stories from clients. Client A went through five rounds of interviews with a company, only to be told that although they really liked him and thought he was great, they wanted someone with more SDR management experience. That’s fine. What’s not fine is wasting my client’s time in a Skinner’s box of interviews only to decide that he lacks experience in a certain domain, which the hiring company knew about from the start.
Client B went through multiple rounds of interviews, completed a project, presented to a panel, and was asked to provide her availability to meet with the CEO. After she provided dates and times, she was met with crickets. She emailed, called, and finally received an auto-reply stating that the company was not continuing with her candidacy.
Client C has extensive experience in software, from large Fortune 500 corporations to startups. Client C reached out to a connection of his to secure an interview with the COO of a software company. After meeting with the COO and other executive team members, he was told that the position was put “on hold.”
I could continue sharing anecdotes, but these three illustrate the point. It’s not the candidates. It’s the current market and the absurdity of the hiring process. While the last two years were times when candidates held the power, that balance of power has shifted back to the hiring companies, and they are running with it. This is unfortunate on many levels, mainly because hiring should not be an exercise in an imbalance of power. When it comes to hiring, both parties hold power. Candidates have something hiring companies need—industry knowledge, a proven history of delivering results, and specialized competencies. Hiring companies have what candidates need—an opportunity to learn new skills and compensation plans. It really should be a merger of equals.
The current publicized distress in the technology sector has amplified the disparity between candidates and employers. The tech sector was already well-known for its long, drawn out, often absurdist recruiting practices (Google was famous for asking dumb questions like “Why are manhole covers round?”), and today’s market conditions make the system rife with such irrelevant and extraneous exercises in futility.
What can you do about it? Not much, really, unless you are a hiring manager who wants to bring an end to the lunacy we are seeing. As for candidates, stand your ground, decide what you will and will not tolerate, and recognize that you and your fellow candidates are not the problem in this equation.
It’s not you.