I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that looking for work can be an incredibly frustrating experience. We’ve all been there. Sending out dozens of applications only to hear nothing in return is a hard pill for anyone to swallow.In my time as a career coach, I’ve determined that one of the primary causes of frustration for many people is their lack of knowledge of the hiring process. This lack of knowledge is not their fault though! Unless you’ve been a hiring manager or recruiter, how would you know what really goes on in the hiring process? You wouldn’t. Job seekers are at a disadvantage this way, in that their perspective is limited to one side of the equation.This is where a career coach can be incredibly valuable. Partnering with someone who has sat on both sides of the table broadens your perspective immensely and gives you a competitive advantage in your search. By working with a coach, you can receive inside knowledge regarding what employers are looking for, how they use LinkedIn and how they evaluate you in interviews.Here are the top three reasons why job seekers are at a disadvantage: - Lack of reliable salary information. Many employers have access to salary surveys that provide them salary information for their industry and location. This allows them to create a “benchmark” for each position they are hiring for and to determine whether or not they are aligned with their competitors. Job seekers don’t have such a luxury, putting them at a disadvantage in the salary negotiation process. What you do have are websites such as Salary.com, Glassdoor.com and LinkedIn which do provide some baseline salary information that can help job seekers, but it's not nearly as accurate.
- No feedback from their interviews. It’s highly unlikely that any employer is going to give you feedback on why you didn’t get the job. Employers will do everything they can to avoid discrimination claims. Even if no discrimination occurred, the liability risk is too high for the employer and they are unlikely to share any interview feedback with you—at least in most cases. As a result, candidates don’t know how to course correct and improve their interviews to secure a position. This is where doing interview coaching with a professional can help. You’ll gain valuable feedback from an outside perspective that can uncover mistakes you didn’t know that you were making.
- Too much competition. With the onset of online job boards, searching for a position is faster than ever. That means hundreds of applicants are applying and recruiters are wasting time navigating through applications and resumes of people who are only half-qualified. Modern recruiting software makes the screening process more efficient but it does NOT necessarily improve the quality of the hiring process. Learning effective networking techniques can help you to get your resume in front a person, not a computer system.