Looking for work

It is an interesting aspect of our industry that while things may grind to a halt during bad times (bank crash of 2008 and now Covid-19, as examples), the work doesn’t go away – it just stacks up and becomes more urgent and more expensive.

You would therefore expect that when the economy picks up again, all will be back to normal but this is seldom so.

It is true that adverts for jobs pick up dramatically but unfortunately the number of applicants for each job picks up as well – even more so. This is due to a number of factors:

• The people who were laid off are obviously applying
• People who hung on (unhappily) to their existing jobs start looking for better opportunities
• People who took lower paid, lesser positions just to get money now want to move to more appropriate roles

Add to this the changes to the working environments:

• Companies might be smaller (a significant factor following 2008 and now Covid-19)
• Changes to the way of working attracts people from further afield (e.g. the option of Working From Home being more acceptable to Management - again more significant following Covid-19)
• The roles advertised are not “real jobs”. They are real, but are already assigned to existing staff or colleagues – they are only being advertised to satisfy governance requirements
• The roles advertised are more demanding, i.e. the companies want “more for less” – they don’t want a Project Manager and an Actuary, they want a Project Manager who is a qualified Actuary!
• Companies have changed. Roles are different and you find your skills and experience do not match exactly.

The result of this is that you are unlikely to get many responses to the hundreds of jobs for which you apply – and those that you do will be a standard generic email that states such things as “after careful consideration, we have decided not to proceed with your application” or “unfortunately, your profile does not match our current needs”.

You might be lucky enough to get a “your application is being considered” or “we are currently reviewing your skills against our needs” but they almost all apologise for the “large number of applications” they receive and for you to assume you have been unsuccessful if you have not heard from them “within 5/10/14 days”.

Its not personal. Don’t be disheartened, but bear in mind that job boards are not very effective (for the reasons above). Even LinkedIn’s job section tends to have a large number of jobs that either no longer exist (once you get through the quagmire of Workday portals) or are in themselves are links to other portals (some requiring you to register and subscribe to get any further).

Use your contacts. They are your best bet. Since 2008, as a consultant contractor, I have suffered from the same problem. Of the hundred (maybe thousands) of jobs for which I have applied on jobsites, only 3 ever turned into real jobs! All the others have been through networking, work of mouth or chance meetings.

Take care out there! Keep plugging away - you will eventually be successful!