Why you may not be finding your next job

In the current market scenario, we often see candidates post on Linkedin saying they were laid off and after trying for months they still haven’t found a good job.

Sometimes these posts go almost viral with lots of comments and reposts/shares and yet we discover the person hasn’t still found anything suitable.

That sounds strange as Linkedin is the right forum so why are people still not able to find the right role despite those posts?

As a Search firm, we interacted with many such candidates across levels/industries and tried to understand the reasons. Here’s our take on the reasons that have contributed to this, especially in the current situation:

• 1. Poorly written CVs— Very little focus on building a CV, spelling & careless mistakes.
• 2. Incomplete and Half-baked Linkedin Profile— When you are approaching someone on Linkedin for a role a poorly crafted incomplete profile will end in rejection.
• 3. Job Hopping/ Breaks with no reasons— It’s perfectly fine to change jobs and take breaks but one may get sceptic when the pattern is recurring. Always mention the reason behind the short stints and make sure these are genuine.
• 4. No real accomplishments to talk about— Everyone looks for result-oriented professionals.
• 5. Unrealistic Salary Expectations— You may think 40% increase is a standard since your colleague got it. But that doesn’t make it a benchmark. Understand what you bring to the table and the role before asking for it.
• 6. Steep Salary Hike in Last Role— Your last job got you a 50% hike on your earlier salary but lasted only a few months. Well unfortunately in the current market, this could mean you remain unemployed for a long time. So, consider your real market value versus what you got from one company which perhaps needed your skills only for a few months to accomplish a project.
• 7. Not knowing your strengths— Many times candidates have a misplaced sense of their strengths and what could be an area of development is seen as a strength.

So if you are facing this situation do evaluate and see what you could change.

And watch out for our next post on what you could do.