An inverted job search
How understanding hiring processes can improve your odds
Bear with this apparently boastful intro below - my only intent is to give weight to this assertion -
A job search is an inverted recruitment process
(The other way around too.)
One reason I’m qualified to give job search advice is because of my experience of:
40000+ hours in recruitment, during which time I have tried to support candidates where I can
Working as an in-house recruiter on multiple occasions
Working as a hiring manager, and as part of an HR team
Having been a job seeker in a downturn (in 2001)
Free support to job seekers through my Reciprocate campaign since 2020 (I allocate one-sixth of my microbusiness’ profits to doing this)
On that last point, I spent a lot of time doing one-to-one calls with job seekers during the pandemic - in part because I had little else to do given all my clients were locked down.
And, in doing so, I learnt a lot about the state of the recruitment industry, how it’s perceived by job seekers, and how I can improve myself as a recruiter.
These lessons have improved every aspect of my professional work.
These calls were the Gemba where value comes from - you can click on the link if you aren’t familiar with the term, and how it applies in recruitment.
So: A job search is an inverted recruitment process.
It goes to follow that, whatever you can learn about the actual workings of recruitment (the system of hiring) and hiring (the filling of vacancies) processes, the better armed you are to navigate them.
The first way in which this is true is around the routes to market employers take to fill a job.
You see employers want to fill vacancies in the most economical and efficient ways possible.
Sometimes they’ll rely on external advice, sometimes they’ll figure their own way out, and sometimes they’ll employ people to do it for them (such as a TA Manager or internal recruiter).
When they rely on external advice, it may not surprise you that it’s as varied and contradictory as job seeker advice.
For example, this nugget of wisdom:
80% of suitable candidates are not actively looking for work. By advertising, you’ll only have access to the 20% that applies to adverts.
Hang on a minute! Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the Hidden Jobs Market?
Of course, candidates aren’t hidden - much like hidden jobs you simply need to understand how candidates can be found, rather than worry about things outside of your control.
The channels through which we recruit for your ideal job directly mirror the channels through which you look for that job:
Job boards
LinkedIn
Recruitment agencies
Confidential headhunting
Internal promotions
Secondments
Temp-to-perm hires
Consulting-to-perm hires
Referrals
Networking
Speculative approaches
Careers pages
Talent pools
Candidate databases
Every job is different, dictated by principles like supply and demand, confidentiality, reputational risk, wherewithal, budget and capacity.
The job search of a Software Developer will look very different to that of a Sales Director.
Have a read of my article on the Hidden Jobs Market for a bit more insight.
A second way it’s accurate is the notion that
what’s true for one is not true for others.
This relates to the subjectiveness of advice. For example, you should always follow the instructions given when applying to an advert or through an agency.
If they instruct you to:
Write a CV, Cover Letter and Duplicate it on the ATS
Tell them your salary when they don’t list theirs
Do 17 interviews before reaching a decision
Deliver a 6-month strategy plan by presentation
Or any other request that is deemed unreasonable by Career Coaches, Jobseekers, or people otherwise uninvolved in that process
Don’t forget that what some consider systemic best practice will be piffle to others.
Then it becomes your personal choice to play the game or not. Either follow their instructions or step away. You don’t have to apply if you don’t want to.
In a similar vein, if you hear that a hiring process has a specific preference, or if there are specific gaps in their employment armoury - these are things you can lean into.
For example, you can make bias work for you.
The hiring manager loves Arsenal Football Club and is biased towards people who love the same? Now might be the time to lean into that bias, if you can fake it or make it.
They love a one page resume? Why not apply with a one page resume.
You know the hiring manager of an advert with 400 applications? Give them a call - they might give you the job without following due process.
Objectively poor practice all round, yet subjectively things you can take advantage of.
For each and every stage in an application, there is an opposed force, as candidates and the hiring process meet each other.
It’s rarely an equal force, because every vacancy has supply and demand, resource, skill level, biases and intent at play.
But if you can learn what the other needs for that strategy or stage to be successful, you can deliver against them. (That point about the Gemba again)
By debunking job seeker myths, like ATS rejections, or misleading notions like Hidden Jobs, you can look at what matters.
By inverting real hiring processes - your odds will improve.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Greg