The Broken Job Market: How the System Fails Jobseekers and What We Can Do About It
The job market is broken. Over the past eight months, I’ve applied to hundreds of job listings, tirelessly crafting each application to match role requirements, only to receive one interview invitation. One. In a sea of weekly rejections, most of which offered no explanation, and similar sentiment from those on social media, it’s becoming painfully clear that the system is failing jobseekers. It’s not just the rejections that sting, but the silence, the lack of feedback, and the overwhelming sense of being left behind.
Full disclosure: As of last week, I’ve recently had two calls with Amazon as a boomerang candidate, and I was sought out in those instances by Amazon’s recruiting team, not via an application submittal.
This experience is not unique, as it’s a reality faced by countless others who are dealing with the gauntlet of today’s hiring landscape. As candidates, we pour hours into the applications, manually entering data that has already been uploaded in our CVs, only to be met with silence or a vague feedback email when we are passed over. “Another candidate more aligned with the role requirements was selected” is a phrase that has become all too familiar, yet provides no real insight into what went wrong or how we can improve? In some cases, where a resume and experience are exact matches, there is still “another candidate more aligned with the role requirements”… I gonna have to call b.s.
A System That Doesn’t Serve Jobseekers
The problem starts with the hiring mechanisms themselves. Each company typically will have their own candidate submittal system, its own method of ingesting and analyzing resumes of various formats. Some require candidates to upload their CVs, only to ask them to manually re-enter the same information again. This redundancy is not just frustrating, it’s a waste of time that adds to the already overwhelming burden of job hunting.
These systems, often driven by algorithms and applicant tracking systems (ATS), are supposed to streamline the hiring process. But for jobseekers, they often feel like black holes.
In a 2023 poll, 97.4% of Fortune 500 companies said they use ATS to filter candidates.
We have no idea how our resumes are being evaluated or why we’re being filtered out. There’s no feedback loop, no insights on opportunities for growth or improvement. We’re left to guess at what has gone wrong, leading to a cycle of repeated mistakes and continued rejections.
The issue is exacerbated by the sheer volume of applications for each role. With hundreds or even thousands of candidates vying for the same position, companies often rely on automated systems to filter out resumes. While this is efficient for hiring teams, it’s a nightmare for jobseekers who meet or exceed the role requirements. These systems are not infallible, and they often overlook qualified candidates simply because their resumes don’t have an exact matching keyword or criteria set by the algorithm.
I’ve been told on more than one occasion that top tech companies deprioritize candidates from their job board mechanisms, and have gatekeepers that will seek out CVs forwarded by existing employees.This is disingenuous if true!
The Psychological Toll of Ghosting Candidates
I’m pretty resilient. I’ve been unemployed before (way back during the Dot-com bust), so this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve faced rejection most of my life and have learned to roll with the punches. But rejection is not fun, and truthfully, getting mentally ‘kicked in the nuts’ over and over is going to eventually take its toll physically.
The psychological toll that comes with being repeatedly ghosted by employers is real (ref. Ghosting from the workplace, ref. Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences). When you’ve invested time and effort into an application, only to hear nothing back, it’s hard not to take it personally, and shows the toxic traits of that employer. The lack of communication can lead to feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and frustration. Over time, this can erode a candidate’s confidence, impacting performance in interviews, and can make the job search much more daunting.
This lack of feedback in particularly damaging because it leaves candidates with no clear path forward. How can we improve if we don’t know where we went wrong? How can we tailor our applications if we don’t know what companies are really looking for? The current system does a disservice to jobseekers by leaving them in the dark and offering no opportunities for growth, adaption, and learning.
An example email from Microsoft, and how it fails to help the candidate understand why they weren’t selected.
A Customer-Obsessed Vision for the Future
There are many facets to this mechanism that need improvement to correct the overall dysfunction of the system, but one thing that really must be changed before anything else, is the mind shift that needs to occur in hiring. Businesses need to treat jobseekers as customers. Just like companies invest in understanding and improving their customer experience, they should do the same for the candidate experience. A customer-obsessed vision for the hiring process would prioritize transparency, feedback, and efficiency.
Although I may be a little biased from my experience, Amazon’s recruiting and HR teams do this really well. I am a Big fan of Amazon’s processes and policies for hiring.
To improve the system of hiring, a good first step is the creation of a standardized mechanism for defining and distributing a candidate’s CV. Imagine a system where you can create a single, comprehensive CV, that can be uploaded once and then easily pushed or pulled into an application for a relevant role and/or across multiple job opportunities? This would not only save candidates time, but also ensure that their information is consistently presented to potential employers.
In addition to standardized CVs, there should be a focus on creating mechanisms that provide meaningful feedback to candidates. This can be as simple as automated, but specific, messages that explain why a candidate was not selected, or more detailed feedback from recruiters and/or hiring managers. By providing candidates with specific insights and metrics into their applications, CV, and other inputs, the companies can help them improve and increase their chances of success in future applications.
Implementing the Standard: What Companies Need To Do
There should be collaboration and consensus between job application platforms across the globe, that unify around a single data standard for the transport of CV information. I do not believe such a standard exists. Additionally, mechanisms and protocols for distributing this data will need to be defined.
These companies implementing these standards would require a shift in how they approach the hiring process. First, they would need to invest in technology that supports the data transport standard, protocols, and feedback mechanisms. This would involve integrating new software and/or updating existing systems to align with the new standards.
Companies would also need to change their mindset when it comes to hiring. Instead of viewing candidates as one of many applicants to be filtered out, they should see them as potential assets to be sought out. This means building systems to poll and pull candidate CVs often, taking the time to engage with candidates, provide constructive feedback, and offer opportunities for improvement.
Next Steps: Creating a Better Job Market for All
The current job market is broken, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. As with any industry, there’s always opportunity for improvement, and leveraging new mechanisms to disrupt the status quo.
By prioritizing transparency, feedback, and efficiency, we can create a system that serves both jobseekers and hiring companies. It’s time for companies to step up and take responsibility for the candidate experience, and it’s time for jobseekers to demand a better system.
We need to start having this conversation more. If you’re a jobseeker, share your experiences with your recruiters and your social media following. Advocate for change. If you’re a hiring company, consider how you can improve your hiring mechanisms to be more candidate-focused. Together, we can create a job market that works for everyone!
Have you experienced the frustration of the current job market? Share your story in the comments and join the conversation on how we can create a better system for hiring great candidates.
