Job Searching Best Practices: Why Are Companies Ghosting You?
Do you keep applying to positions, only to not hear back? Maybe you get through a round, or two, or three, but at some point, all communication just stops. Here are some common reasons why companies may not respond to job applications or interviews, as well as proactive steps to enhance your communication with potential employers, ensuring a smoother job search experience. Interested in exploring new opportunities? Check out our open roles. Don’t face your job search alone; partner with us!
Companies are screening differently:
A majority of employers these days are screening candidates on social media. They’re reviewing your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook page (to see what’s public and what’s not), your tweets on Twitter, what kinds of pics you like to post on Instagram and Pinterest, and so on. Anything slightly objectionable on any of your social media sites can cause you to not hear back from an employer.
Not enough time in a day:
With so many candidates applying for limited positions, hiring managers and recruiters simply don’t have enough time to respond to every job seeker who applies for the position. In fact, on average, for every job opening, an employer receives 118 applications, and only 20% of applicants receive interviews. Also, the hiring process itself has lengthened in recent years. According to Glassdoor, the average process for hiring an employee takes 24 days. That means many hiring managers simply don’t have the time to send a standard “thank you but…” email.
You are applying for jobs that are a stretch:
You may think that your resume or skills match the job but in fact don’t. Many job candidates are squeezing skills to match a job description and companies are seeing through it. It could also be as simple as your resume just isn’t speaking to them. Companies are not legally obligated to give a reason why and as frustrating as that is for you, it’s best you keep moving forward.
What can you do?
If your current background — your education, internships, and first job — appears to be too much of a stretch to qualify you for the position you’re seeking (as stated above), you need to show them how you are taking steps to add to your skill set. In your resume and cover letter, try including what you’re doing to enhance your knowledge, whether it’s taking courses, attending industry conferences, doing projects in your desired field, or going back to get an advanced degree.
Become good at storytelling:
Interviewers go through so many conversations in a day. To stand out, you can’t just tell the hiring manager what you’re good at (everyone does that) — you need to show them by taking a storytelling approach. Storytelling is a great way to convey emotion and make a connection with your prospective employer.
Soft Skills:
Don’t overlook the “soft skills” like collaboration, communication, innovation, and critical thinking, as well as traits such as empathy, resilience, and ethical behavior. For example, in your next interview, don’t simply discuss your last internship or job in the context of the statistics, data analysis, and research skills you gained. Discuss the ways you practiced resilience by balancing work and school or work and family life, learned to collaborate with people across age gaps, and solved complex problems by bringing together multiple viewpoints.
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