Make Your Job Application Count

It’s your typical recession type media article – it starts with setting the scene of the newly redundant person, how that person has applied to 243 jobs, heard back from 20 and is still waiting for an interview. The conclusion (of course) is that employers are heartless, and recruiters don’t care and no one is there to help them.

What is missing from these articles is the reason why the person has had such a poor outcome. Experience tells us that in the majority of cases, it’s due to the person applying for roles that they’re not qualified for, skilled for or experienced in.  

Seek tells me that since April, which was lockdown central, the number of job applications has increased by up to 200%, despite the number of job ads being only 40% of what it was earlier in the year (in BC times!).*   

Less jobs being advertised and a huge increase in the number of applicants means that job advertisers (and some recruiters) are getting smashed with a volume response, which is hard to handle. (Enter crickets chirping and panning to the applicant waiting in front of their inbox for their application responses).

Companies (particularly SME’s or corporates who’ve restructured out internal recruiters & HR recently) that are advertising jobs are easily overwhelmed. A simple assistant role, which (in normal times) attracted 200 applicants over the course of a month’s advertising, now gets 600 applicants in just 3 days. There is just no way that companies can cope with the sheer number of applications coming through (if they want to do a good job). Please remember also, dear reader, that many of the people in companies and agencies are also stressed and worried about their own job prospects.

Recruitment agencies are better able to deal with sheer volumes of applicants if they have invested in technology, in training their staff and in developing a brand which attracts pools of good talent. For companies like Consult, we have the benefit of not having to advertise every role to find people – we already know them, so we can save time and stress of hundreds of applicants and speed up the process for our clients (without overwhelming our team).

It is in these times that many agencies realise the value of their years of investment in technology, training and brand (and if they haven’t made the investment in the good times, they are now realising their mistake).

As we move forward, and the extended wage subsidy starts to run out – will we see another increase in those seeking jobs? Who knows! We are living in pretty uncertain times as anyone in Melbourne can attest to right now.

What we do know, however, is that it’s much much better to spend your time and energy only applying for roles that you have a good shot at, rather than applying for any job vacancy you see.

“How do I do this?” You might be asking? Well, stay tuned fine reader, and next week we will give you our top tips for applying for roles in a recession.

In the meantime, if you’d like to have a look through some of the roles we have advertised, you’ll be able to find them here. Or if you are a job seeker and are interested in some handy tips for your job search – head on over to our blog – a right treasure chest of help right now!

All the best, irrespective of your current work situation. Remember – we will get through it!

• Info from Seeks very helpful employment snapshot, Week 23/24; and from other conversations with recruiters and hiring managers overwhelmed with job applicants.