Six Months of Applying, Barely Any Interviews. Here's Why.

Someone booked a meeting with me yesterday to talk about 6 months of job hunting. Less than a handful of interviews. He said the job specs read like they were written about him but he's getting nowhere.

It's the same story at the majority of these job seeker discovery calls. Applying for months, barely any interviews to show for it, no obvious reason why. People always tell me that they are applying for jobs that, on paper, they are a perfect fit for and yet their application results in silence. Or a 'thanks but no thanks automated reply at 2.00am'. When there's no obvious reason, the mind finds one anyway. Usually the wrong one.

The people I meet don't lack capability or talent. They're just invisible. Their profile or resume doesn't say what they do inside seven seconds of someone landing on it. Their LinkedIn network is thin and they are not actively leveraging it. They're one of 500 anonymous names applying to people who've never heard of them. They call a recruiter once, don't hear back, and take that as the final answer.

Then they go looking for advice in the wrong places. The LinkedIn newsfeed. Ex-colleagues. A brother-in-law who hasn't looked for a job since 2014. And the advice usually amounts to apply for more, which just means more rejection and less confidence, faster.

5 or 10 years ago, job seeking was easier. Not because people were sharper. There were more vacancies than there were people to fill them. So when recruiters aren't calling you, you need to make the calls and don't stop until you're hired!

This is the hardest market I've seen in 30 years. There's no shame in getting help with it. I've watched hundreds of people find their way back through Talentology's 1-on-1 coaching or through The Hustle Game, and it fills my cup every time I see someone find success through my help.

I still don't understand why most people wait until they're worn down before asking for help with this. If you've been through it, I'd like to know what finally made you pick up the phone.