My name is Martin Buckland and I help senior executives reach their career goals.
Today’s question is “I’ve applied for over 120 jobs, and I’ve never received an answer.”
Sadly, this is very common. I can totally understand that you are frustrated after 120 and no reply. That would frustrate me. To allay that frustration. I would that say you need to take your time. Don’t be demanding of yourself and expect a reply instantly. Very rarely do you get a reply instantly during a job search. You are in this for the long haul. It’s not going to happen overnight, but you need to take the whole job search wheel as I call it. And you need to apply everywhere.
So what is that job search wheel? It consists of many different parts. Advertised jobs are only a small portion. Building relationships with executive recruiters is another aspect. They can manage your career for the rest of your life if you build and retain relationships with them. I suggest that you back off on applying for advertised jobs and you apply for hidden jobs. These are jobs that you don’t even hear that they’re advertised. Lots of human resource departments are looking for talent like you right this minute. Advertised jobs, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world and the percentile varies from country to country, are a slim minority of the jobs that are available. Advertised jobs have a certain run time. They can go anywhere between three and six weeks.
I have had people call me the day after they’ve applied because they haven’t received a reply. It can take six to eight weeks before you even get a reply.
If you apply for that job at the beginning of the run, the run ends and then normally the human resources take a about a week before they start calling candidates. Now those candidates could run into the thousands today. In good times, they can be in the thousands, but in bad times, like we’re in right now, they can go to the multiple thousands. You are in a competition. And if it takes eight weeks to get a reply, think of the winning bonus, you’ve actually got a reply. You’ve actually got a call from a decision maker. So to me as a career coach and a resume writer, that is a huge bonus.
So now you have all the information on why you don’t receive a call after applying for a hundred, 120, or even 140 jobs. So hopefully you will embrace this message and shift to searching for hidden jobs and building relationships with executive recruiters.
I’m Martin Buckland, I’m an executive career management practitioner, and I can help you reach your career goals. In fact, I am passionate about helping you reach your career goals. I have an offer for you, a free resume critique, and a LinkedIn audit. I will give you 30 minutes of my time, no obligation, no sales pitch, to go through your LinkedIn and your resume from top to bottom. However I will tell you, I am tough. I say it as it is, I’m realistic because you only get one kick at the can. You want to remove all those red flags and you want to go from A to B in the fastest possible way. I will tell you how to eliminate all those red flags and have a bank of green flags. That means you will sail through your job search and through your career transition. Are you interested? If so, email me your resume on LinkedIn, or send it to me by clicking on the button below. I’d be happy to help you. Cheers.
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