Searching for a job can be a full-time commitment. Job seekers need to find a position that suits them and their abilities, which will pay them commensurate with their skills and experience, for an employer that they find acceptable. This is a tall order. Not only that, the process of searching and applying for such a position is riddled with additional challenges that make job hunting an often unpleasant, frustrating experience. Here are the five top challenges of talented job seekers in today’s market.
- Too many places to look. There are dozens of places that job seekers can look for open positions. Job seekers can use online resources include LinkedIn, job boards, and employer websites, go to networking and industry events, and look through newspapers and trade magazines, and these options are only the tip of the iceberg. The problem is that with so many options, job seekers don’t know where to concentrate their efforts to see the best outcomes. As a result, they can spend months looking for a position with nothing to show for it.
- Uninformative job descriptions. Candidates depend on job descriptions to know whether if they are suited to the job and should apply for the position. However, job descriptions can be uninformative, either because they are too long or too short. Glutting a job description with every imaginable detail does not give the candidate a good idea of what is actually important. Conversely, if a job description is too short, it may not tell the candidate what the important skills and tasks are, and what the salary and benefits include. In these situations, job seekers are effectively hunting blind.
- Not enough information. Candidates want to know about their potential employers before they apply for a position. Most job seekers spend a couple of hours researching a company before they hit “Apply.” Unfortunately, companies often don’t have information about their company, its products and services, culture, values, and environment readily accessible. Potential candidates have to play an online game of hide-and-go-seek for company information that involves combing through information on Better Business Bureau, Glassdoor, Google, Yahoo Finance, and other resources in order to learn about prospective employers.
- Lengthy, confusing hiring processes. Once a job seeker has found a job that he or she wants to apply to, there are a lot of steps that they need to go through. Many organizations have application and hiring processes that were not designed with the candidate’s experience foremost. Job seekers can become frustrated or understandably confused when it takes thirteen steps to submit an application, or when they’ve submitted an application only to encounter radio silence. Even when a candidate has been interviewed, they often have no idea where they are in the interview process, because the employer’s hiring processes do not include keeping candidates up to date.
- No feedback. Once a candidate has sent in an application, completed interviews, and spent time, effort, and energy trying to get a particular job, receiving a curt “You have not been selected for this position” can feel like a slap in the face. A major challenge that job seekers face is that they do not receive any feedback on their applications or interviews, so candidates do not get a chance to correct any issues or mistakes with their performance or application before applying for the next position.
Finding a position in spite of the hurdles in a job seeker’s way is a challenge. However, it is a challenge that potential employers can take steps to make easier. Reviewing hiring and application processes to be more efficient and applicant-friendly will go a long way towards removing the challenges within the hiring process. Making your organization’s job openings easier to find, being transparent about your company, and redoing your job descriptions will also help ease the path of the job seekers and applicants that your organization needs to fill open positions and achieve its potential.
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