In This Issue

1. Welcome Message

2. The 4 Universal Truths of Job Seeking

3. Q+A

Welcome!

Whether you have been waiting since April when I first teased a newsletter, or have just found me and subscribed this week, welcome to issue 1 of The Realistic Recruiting Newsletter. I realize a lot of you may have signed up months ago and totally forgotten…so…SURPRISE!

I don’t want to waste a lot of time, but thank you to all of you who have subscribed and followed on the interesting journey I have been on over the last few months since beginning to make content for you all.

My goal in this newsletter is to dive a bit further into a topic or two that I’ve discussed during the week on TikTok or Linkedin, answer some questions and that you can submit to be answered each week, and be able to spend a bit more time really bringing my realistic approach to job seeking and career advice to you all.

4 Universal Job Seeking Truths

For the 1st issue of my newsletter, I wanted to start with 4 must accept rules that we must accept about looking for a job. These aren’t always the most fun to hear, but understanding them will help us be realistic with ourselves and hopefully give ourselves the needed slack we deserve during a search.

Almost every video or post I make ties to 1 of these 4 things .

1. There is no universally true job search tip

The very first TikTok video I ever made said this same exact thing, and I will continue to say it as long as people are listening to me (and probably long after) There is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding a job.

The easiest example is resume length. There are people who swear that 1 page is the only acceptable resume length and others - including myself- who say content is far more important, use the 2nd page if you need the 2nd page. But if you listen to me and then send your resume into a hiring manager who hates 2 page resumes did it make my advice bad?

The same applies for almost all questions about the job search. I’m often asked about the best job board, but again there is no universal answer. I personally have never found a job on Indeed, but when I mention that, I am immediately met by several people who say they have found all of their jobs on Indeed and never had success on Linkedin. None of us are wrong.

The only way to truly be wrong in situations like this is to swear your way is the only way and will always work. Embrace experimentation, try different resume types, try different ways to apply, try different ways to network. Try all of the things qualified people are saying could work, and until you find what suits you best.

2. Anecdotes don’t make it good advice

In the digital age, we are constantly bombarded with success stories and anecdotes from people who found their dream job and can’t wait to tell you exactly what they did to get it. There are a few key things to remember though

1. If this story is from anytime before the last year it may be totally irrelevant in the 2023 job market. There is a huge difference in what hiring looked like in the Spring of 2022 compared to the Summer of 2023 which mean what worked back then may be unlikely to work now

2. Causation is not Correlation. There is a huge difference between you did X AND you got a job, and you got a job BECAUSE you did X. People love to say they got a job because of 1 factor or another, but the truth is they likely have no idea. They got the job because they were the best candidate for the company at that time, not because of one little thing they did which overrode not being a good candidate.

There is a huge difference between I got a job because I did X and I got a job AND did X. Don’t let somebody mix up those 2 things for you. The truth is, most people didn’t get a job because of 1 thing they did. To say otherwise is to dismiss their qualifications and entire candidacy outside of the 1 magic question they asked or 1 magic resume format they used.

3. There is no such thing as the most qualified candidate

People don’t like hearing this one, but it’s true. There is no such thing as the most qualified candidate. What does exist is the best candidate for one role at one company at a given time.

Assuming the qualifications for a role are met, comparing people is very hard. What makes someone the most qualified for a role over someone else if all of the requirements are met?

• We can all agree that just having more years of experience doesn’t make you better at the job right?

• We can all agree that just going to a more prestigious school or having a higher GPA doesn’t make you better at the job right?

• We can all agree that having a better answer to a question like “tell me about a time you overcame a challenge” doesn’t make you better at the job right?

The point of course is that people have to make tough decisions in hiring, and there is no perfect roadmap of how to do it. Your experience at 1 company is similar to my experience at a different company, but they are still very different experiences. We both did the same job in similar ways, but there is no way to just line up the 2 experiences and say this one is better.

But 1 may be better for the company’s needs at that specific time. The main point here is you can not just assume you were screwed over for not getting a job, or that the company did not know what they were doing. Definitely don’t waste your energy figuring out who got the job and convincing yourself you are better than them based on the tiny bit you see on their Linkedin profile.

The notion of a "perfect" or "most qualified" candidate is subjective and can change based on the company's needs at any given moment. Rather than striving for unattainable perfection, concentrate on showcasing your unique strengths and demonstrating how you can contribute to the organization, someone will see and need that.

4. Failure is inevitable

Failure is beyond inevitable on the job search, it’s what is going to happen the majority of the time. Full Stop!

• Most estimations right now say the average person gets interviews at 2% of the roles they apply to.

• Most hiring managers are reporting a higher level of applications than they’d ever seen

Combine those 2 things, and there are very few easy wins. You are going to get rejected from over 90% of the jobs you apply to without even interviewing, and you are going to get rejected from most of the jobs you do interview for. The market is that tough and we need to accept it and give ourselves some grace.

While there may only be 1 big win to your job search (getting a job), it’s important to focus on daily or weekly wins you can also feel happy with.

• Applications sent in

• New contacts made

• Resume updates you’ve been meaning to do

• Any non job search goal you also want to achieve, because you need to make time for yourself too.

Most days a job offer is not even on the table as something that may happen unless you recently finished an interview process, so it’s important to find the other little wins you can be taking that will help add up to the big win.

This job search is harder than most people have ever had to face and it is a job market like most people have never seen. I personally think this is so different than 2008 which is the most recent comparison because of the rise of remote jobs and higher competition for them, so it’s important to be kind to yourself.

It’s easier said than done to tell you just let the failure role off your back, but you can not sit around and take each failure as a personal attack. There is going to be a lot of it for most people no matter what you do. Accepting that is incredibly important for yourself.

Q+A

I’d love to answer your question in an upcoming issue. Submit any questions you’d like me to discuss here.

For this week, due to the length of my first post and the fact that you are just not seeing this form we will have no questions. But I look forward to answering some for you next week!

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