3/6/23, 10:21 AM 6 Reasons Why Your Job Search Efforts Don’t Land You A Job

FORBES LEADERSHIP CAREERS

6 Reasons Why Your Job

Search Efforts Don’t Land
You A Job
Caroline Ceniza-Levine Senior Contributor
I help people make a great living doing work they Follow
love.

0 Mar 2, 2023, 12:45pm EST

Listen to article 6 minutes

I am looking for a new job. I was let go and have had trouble
receiving an offer. Am I doing something wrong, or is it just a
matter of time? – George

If your job search efforts don't land you a job, troubleshoot these 6 areas GETTY

It’s encouraging when I hear from a job seeker who recognizes

their initial efforts aren’t working and wants to course-correct.
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Being aware that something is wrong and then being willing to

make a change in response are critical traits for job seekers
because hiring is a multi-step process where a lot can go wrong.
Even smart, hard-working professionals will submit applications
that go nowhere, reach out to contacts and get no response or go
on interviews that don’t result in an offer.

You’re not going to get positive results for all of your efforts but
you should see forward momentum. If you feel like you’re
spinning your wheels, here are 7 reasons why your job search
may be stuck:

1 - You are not feeding enough active openings into your

pipeline

Worrying about getting a job, planning to look for a job and

reading up on the latest, greatest job search techniques can take a
lot of time and can make you feel like you’re working on your job
search. However, you actually haven’t applied to anything yet.
How many resumes have you submitted? How many people in
your network have you contacted to ask about openings,
introductions or at least information so you can more likely hear
of openings or get introductions? How many actual job openings
are in your pipeline?

Look at your time management for your job search — the hours
you have spent thus far and exactly what activities have taken up
your time. Many job seekers don’t spend enough time actually
applying to openings or generating leads into the hidden job
market. Instead, they squander their time intending to apply or
preparing to apply, but not doing so frequently or regularly
enough.

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2 - You are only applying to job postings

If you are applying to multiple job postings frequently and

regularly, then you are feeding some leads into your pipeline.
However, job postings are not enough because not all jobs are
posted (this is often referred to as the hidden job market). If you
aren’t also reaching out to people directly who are in a position to
hire or can refer you to openings, then you’re not tapping into
that hidden job market. A good rule of thumb is to spend the
majority of your time on networking, rather than job postings.
You can curate your message more specifically when you reach
out to people and more quickly get a response. When you submit
to a job posting, you don’t know who, if anyone, reviews the
resumes.

3 — Your network doesn’t know how to help you

But what if you’re already networking and not hearing about any
hidden jobs? Then you have to troubleshoot your networking,
and see if you are clearly explaining to your network what you
need. Some job seekers are so general about their requests – I’m
looking for my next step – that even a concerned listener won’t
know where to point them. As a recruiter, I get unsolicited
requests all the time. Just recently, I received a resume from a
professional colleague, trying to help their friend, with simply a
note asking if I had anything for the attached background. The
background had over 10 years of varied experience that could
apply to a lot of different things, and I had no idea what this
person was even looking for. Where to begin?

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Don’t assume that people know your expertise or what you’re

looking for. Make sure that, if you are in a conversation with
someone where you are asking for help, you help your network
help you by sharing your value proposition and clearly identifying
what you’re looking for. In the above case, the job seeker should
have coached my professional colleague that, if their resume is
shared, highlights include [INSERT unique value proposition
here] for jobs such as [INSERT specific job targets here].

4 — You’re asking your network for too much

Being clear about your requests is important, but so is knowing

when and what type of requests you can make. Asking someone
to refer you for a job is a big request because how you perform
will be a reflection on that person who refers you. Save those
requests for people who know you well and who are clearly
supporters, or who have offered to help. For everyone else, focus
your requests on getting information – nuances about a
company’s work environment, organizational chart or career
paths. Networking for information will still be very helpful to you,
and it’s less of an imposition to your contacts. They’ll know you’re
looking, they’ll have a chance to gauge how comfortable they feel
helping you and they’ll offer to help more if they’re willing and
able.

5 — Your interview technique needs work

If you already are at the stage where your networking and other
job search efforts are leading to interviews, but you’re still not
getting offers, then troubleshoot your interviewing technique.
One common mistake is that job seekers don’t realize quickly
impressions are formed. That small talk in the beginning of the
job interview looms large! Then, there’s the rest of the interview
to worry about – how well you respond to unexpected questions,
how persuasively you match your background to the job at hand,
how strongly you end each meeting and follow up in-between. If
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the interview stage is where you’re getting stuck, doing a mock

interview with a career coach or mentor can help identify and fix
problems.

6 — Your closing technique needs work

If you’re getting to late-stage interviews but not getting offers,

then your general interview technique is probably fine
(otherwise, you wouldn’t progress in the hiring process).
However, callback interviews are different than early interviews,
and your callback performance is lacking. Working with a coach
or mentor to review what questions or types of questions stump
you can reveal where you need additional practice. It could also
be that your energy wanes in later rounds, and you need to work
on your presence and stamina.

Track your efforts in order to figure out where you need

to focus

Going back to George’s original question that inspired this blog,

in his case he was getting to the callback stage, so that’s where he
needed to focus. He kept good records of where and how often he
was applying so he could easily see if he needed to increase his
efforts with job postings or networking. Do you keep good
records of your activities and their results? Having real-time data
on how many resumes submitted, contacts you have reached,
interviews, callbacks, etc. can tell you where you need to focus,
including if you need to do more. It’s not just quality, but also
quantity – the more leads you have, the better your chances.
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check
out my website or some of my other work here.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine Follow

As founder of the Dream Career Club, I help experienced professionals find

work they love, earn more doing it and achieve FI (financial... Read More

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