It Seems You end Up in Neverland!

What's wrong with you?

Nothing.

Somehow I'm sure you've wondered why your unsolicited job applications are never answered, why your online applications receive nothing but a simple confirmation, why the recruiters you try to approach seem ignorant and - well - why it is just so difficult to be heard in the job market. Have you? I have.

There may just be one answer to this and it is to be found in your school books from when you did micro-economics. Remember "supply and demand" theory, movement along the curves and shifts of these? Well this guest blog entry is not to be a lecture on market movements but I do choose to draw feed from the theory. Think of vacancies as demand and job seekers as supply. In healthy economic environments demand will soar but supply will hardly. In reverse economic situations, demand will shrink and supply will increase. Equilibrium - the stable balance betwee
D&S will be off and may not be reachable in adverse situations leaving excess supply i.e. unemployment. If you keep this as a base line thought, you have an answer to the statements in para 1. When times are tough beggars can't even be choosers. We as job seekers will resort to be beggars then and those representing vacancy holders, the demanders, may leverage having lines of beggars. There is no pun intended here. I'm not suggesting that employers or recruiters exploit market situations but at the end of the day, it's about economics and finding the ideal fit.

Recently I came across a linkedin discussion in the Jobs & Career network http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=63568 with the captio
" What do Recruiters and HR staffers do that really gets you upset? ". So far this discussion has drawn more tha
17,000 comments! Now I have obviously not been through them all but did scan about a thousand. It quickly transpired that what annoys job seekers the most, is the lack of communication - non-responsive interviewers; ignorant recruiters and the blatant absence of any form of communication to job applicants. The reason rests in the same economic thoughts. Consider and keep in mind:

1. A recruiters is contracted by a demander and gets paid to satisfy explicit demand. In excess supply situations, the recruiter has options but need only satisfy the demander. He/she is neither paid by nor need to satisfy suppliers.

2. A recruiter spends about 90 seconds reviewing received resumes. If nothing jumps off the paper, it gets back in the file - at best.

3. A typical mid-sized recruiting company may on average keep a database of about 0.5 mio. job candidates. Sourcing is done by exact matching so don't be surprised if you are not called upon even if you find yourself a perfect fit.

4. I live in Singapore and the defacto modus operandi here is to only contact shortlisted applicants. There goes your unsolicited application and your first approach to a recruiter. Simply, no recruiter will have the resources to consider and respond to every single contact - even if you think they should.

In this scenario, what are your options? Well I won't be covering this here, in this little blog entry, but will revert to this later, in future submissions. The answer lies within uniqueness. The old cliche - and yes it's old - I'm unique, just like everyone else - , will not make you stand out. You must consider your recipient and plan to position yourself so that you do stand out. Stay tuned.
Let me just sum up with a small request to recruiters who might be reading this. Please do consider this: job seekers are real human beings and not just resume submissions. If and where you promise to revert to someone, if and when you promise to respond - do keep your promises please and don't leave job seekers in the lurch. If you know that you either won't be responding or simply don't have the time, well then don't promise, no matter how good your intentions might be.

Have a frightfully great day.