Is this your experience of job hunting? 

The situation

We’ve seen an increasing number of large enterprise organisations downsizing in the press recently, shedding high-quality and long-standing staff members at all levels of seniority.

On the other side of the equation, there are numerous reports that one of the biggest issues to an organisation’s growth is the lack of good talent, especially in sectors such as tech, finance and healthcare.

With the above two factors at play, certainly in the tech sector, the assumption would be that those individuals would find it easy to find their next roles – but that’s not so!

Skills Gap

The problems I so often hear 

The company where you have spent years of good service, thriving in its culture and developing others suddenly cuts you loose. That supportive culture you knew so well has suddenly gone cold, lacks emotion and just falls into a process, which is so often poorly delivered.

Depending how well the process is handled, you typically go through an internal processing sequence, similar to that of bereavement (The Kubler Ross Curve), as a big part of your identity is no longer there, the loss of many of the things you loved, the people, the challenge, the routine of literally just working.

So, now you’re on the market for the first time in a while and it’s both frightening and exciting. Frightening because it’s unknown, and exciting for the same reasons maybe, but also because it’s an opportunity to do something different; to revisit the things you once loved, get your buzz back, rather than the role you just did for all those years and actually, on reflection, stopped enjoying.

You initially feel optimistic because of reports you hear about a shortage of good skills and you are that person with those good skills. You then take a couple of weeks off to get your head together and reflect on what’s next – but boy did that time go by fast.

Now, you need to start somewhere. And with no routine or work to go to, you start on your CV; the first time you have looked at it in years. You send it out to people you trust and get a lot of mixed feedback – change this, structure it that way, is it 2 pages or 3 – and now you are ready, or so you think.

Job Hunting

The job hunt begins

You apply for lots of roles you see advertised, the job boards make it so easy (one click to apply in many cases) and that CV you have spent hours perfecting must hit the mark. There are loads of jobs out there, this will be easy, you only need one…

And so the waiting game begins. 

You continue to wait in anticipation that interviews will come flooding in but they don’t. Very often, in fact, more often than not, you don’t even get a reply!

You try to follow up but get nowhere. Has the position been filled? Or perhaps it was never there? You just don’t know.

For those that do reply (which is a very small fraction), they say you were not successful as you don’t have the skills they require. You don’t understand as you were an exact match for that job and had everything they needed (and more). 

Occasionally, a recruiter will contact you as part of a search, and thus you feel encouraged because they want you. They are your new best friend. Then, after a few days of hearing nothing, you try and chase but they are always busy. So after a few attempts, you give up.

You get a few odd calls along the way, but the roles they are looking to discuss are irrelevant and you can’t understand why they’ve contacted you in the first place. 

And when your time finally comes and you are lucky enough to get an interview, you feel out of practice. After all, you’ve always been on the other side of the table. This is a completely different experience – and not one that fills you with confidence.

A change of tactics

After a few weeks of nothing, you start applying for lesser roles thinking perhaps you set your sights too high. After all, money isn’t everything. But alas, you hear nothing once again. So perhaps it’s your CV that’s the problem? Keen to resolve this, you send your CV out to a so-called professional. 

By this point, your initial optimism is waning, your inner voice starts speaking more negatively and frequently, and you start to question your skills and abilities. The Imposter Syndrome creeps in.  

You decide now’s the time to start contacting your network – but you are a bit clumsy. Whilst some of your network is helpful and shares contacts and advice, it’s all very slow and nothing feels tangible. And many of those contacts you thought you could rely on simply ignore you, reinforcing your negative views about yourself.

Whilst your network is sizeable, you refrain from contacting several people because it’s been a while since you last spoke and you fear they’ll think you are just after something. You also avoid sharing a generic post on LinkedIn because you feel a little embarrassed, they will think you are desperate, so again you do nothing. 

By now it’s been a few months and there’s still no sign of anything tangible in that pipeline. There doesn’t feel an end to this, you don’t know where to turn, the redundancy payment or compromise payment is starting to dwindle and the panic sets in. What if you go through another x months before you find something or, worse still, you don’t find anything at all – then what?

Does all this sound familiar? Either way, let me know as I would love to hear more about your experience.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be hosting some workshops designed to help you navigate your job search and make finding your next role (whether FTE, interim, contract or fractional) less traumatic.

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