If you are in the interview process, you will need to be prepared for a long slog. There will be times when a company strings you along, neglects to offer feedback and ghosts you. It is easy to accuse the companies of being cold and harsh. However, they are in a tight spot. It’s hard to hire when there is so much uncertainty. Businesses don’t want to onboard new personnel only to terminate their employment a month or two later. It’s logical for the companies to take a wait-and-see approach.
Businesses will post job listings and interview people to hedge their bets. Although, this may be merely performative. They are listing jobs online to make it look like the company is doing well, while simultaneously appeasing workers to make them believe they’ll get some much-needed help. Meanwhile, the job hunter will naively believe that the companies want to hire quickly. They become crestfallen when they realize that the market is slow-moving.
Don’t Take It Personally
It may be cold comfort, but you are not the only one going through an arduous job search. To put things into perspective, getting ghosted or not chosen for a role is the brutal aspect of the interview process.
It’s hard to do, but avoid taking it personally. Being passed over isn’t an indictment of your skills and abilities; you just may not be in the right place at the right time. There could be others who possess a more on-point background. Sometimes, nepotism or knowing the right person comes into play. Or the job may never be filled because the company is only building a pipeline for the future.
What You Need To Do Now
While painful, every interview should be a learning experience. Deconstruct what you say, how you say things, your body language and your demeanor. Be honest with respect to your background relative to the role.
Role-play interviewing with people and ask for their honest assessments. Write to the interviewers and ask them why you were not selected and if they have suggestions for improvement. Similarly, if you are working with a recruiter, ask them to discreetly feel out the interviewers, hiring managers and human resources to gain insights into what you did right and what you need to brush up on. You may want to enlist the help of a career coach to improve your interviewing prowess.
Put together an elevator pitch. This is a 30-second to one-minute sales pitch about who you are, what you currently do and why you are well-suited for the role. By practicing and iterating on improvements, you’ll become more confident in your performance during the hiring process. Take a fresh look at your résumé, LinkedIn profile and social media postings. You want a coherent and consistent brand that makes you stand out. Don’t post anything that could put you in a poor light when the interviewer Googles you before the interview.
Despite the setback, you must work on maintaining a positive attitude. If you don’t, you’ll go into the following interview feeling frustrated, angry and resentful. That’s the worst thing to do. Hiring managers don’t want complainers and malcontents. They want people who are motivated, enthusiastic and resilient.
Don’t keep things bottled up inside. Share your experiences with family, friends and trusted co-workers. Ask them for any suggestions and advice. Take some time for self-care. Get involved with hobbies, socialize with friends, go to the gym, ride your bike, do yoga, meditate or whatever it takes to keep you positive.
The key is not to give up. Keep applying to jobs. Stay in touch with your recruiter. Hit up people in your network for job leads. Find someone you know who works at a target company and ask them for an introduction to HR or the hiring manager.
Why You Are Confronting Challenges
The United States is undergoing some tough times, with record inflation driving up the costs of nearly everything, a potential banking crisis and concerns over a possible recession. Although April’s job report was positive, the Federal Reserve needs to continue its agenda of fighting inflation, which will include job losses. When people lose their jobs, they’re less likely to spend money, which will bring down inflation.
In prior recessionary environments, blue-collar and frontline workers were the ones who lost their jobs first. Now, it’s a white-collar recession, as college-educated office workers—in sectors ranging from tech to media to Wall Street—are being downsized. Additionally, the banking crisis, started by the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, JPMorgan’s taking control over First Republic Bank to avoid insolvency and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by rival UBS, will lead to both layoffs and hiring freezes until there is more certainty around what the future will look like.
Within this context, the job search will be more challenging for white-collar workers. There will be more candidates for fewer roles. Remote positions have declined, as many companies are nudging employees to return to the office. One of the disturbing reasons for their push for return is the fact regional and small banks lend money to commercial real estate.
Landlords are in a difficult position as people continue to work remotely or on a hybrid basis. With fewer tenants, real estate owners will find themselves in a squeeze, as they are losing revenue and profits. If they go under, the banks, which are already reeling, could lose out, as the building owners can’t repay their loans.
Source: Forbes
