By Caroline M. Cole
Two weeks ago the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest Employment Situation report, indicating that an estimated 11.8 million people in America remain unemployed. Although Washington and Wall Street will inevitably debate what these and subsequent figures mean, companies remain cautious if not reticent about hiring for various reasons. Some employers say they’re still not convinced the economy is stabilizing the way some pundits suggest, while others say they’re waiting to see how current debates about government spending, tax rates, and policy mandates will impact their bottom line. Then there’s the glut of overqualified, unemployed individuals, which makes it possible for companies to take their time reviewing applications, delay decisions, and even manage with interns, volunteers, and part-time employees because employers know they could fill a position in a moment’s notice if necessary. Such reasons are understandable, but they offer little consolation for job applicants—especially the 4.4 million “long-term unemployed” (people who have not had a job for 27 weeks or more) that many companies are actively dismissing for reasons other than their qualifications.
In their October 2012 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston report, Rand Ghayad, doctoral student in economics at Northeastern University, and his doctoral advisor, William Dickens, found that even when long-term unemployed individuals were qualified for a position, they ranked lower than other candidates simply because of the time they had been out of the workforce. Supporting this theory is Ghayad’s field experiment, in which he submitted 4,800 fictional applications to 600 job openings across America. Varying the applications by experience in the industry, references to job hopping, and length of unemployment, he found that “recently unemployed applicants with no relevant experience are more likely to be invited for an interview than those with experience who have been unemployed for more than six months.”
A recruiter survey conducted by Bullhorn, a global leader in online recruiting software, supports Ghayad’s findings. Surveying 1,500 corporate recruiters and hiring managers who use its software, Bullhorn found that unemployment increases the likelihood of people remaining unemployed. According to the survey, recruiters agree that anyone who is presently not working can be hard to place, but the degree of difficulty increases with time between positions. For example, 17% of respondents indicate that it would be difficult to place candidates who have been unemployed for less than six months, and 36% say it would be difficult to place someone who’s been out of work 6–12 months. And if someone has been out of work for more than two years? Forty-four percent of survey respondents say it would be easier to place someone with a (non-felony) criminal record.
Employers are quick to explain why they’re hesitant to hire the unemployed in general, and the long-term unemployed in particular. Aside from arguing that it takes more resources to verify an unemployed person’s credentials, employers claim that people with jobs are continually proving they are valued by others; people with jobs are more competitive; people with jobs can adjust to similar or new tasks more quickly; and people with jobs may be applying for a position they really want, not just makeshift work to fill out their résumé before moving on.
These and comparable explanations inevitably prompt unemployed workers and their advocates to remind companies that not all terminations are fair or value-based. Some companies, for example, make employment decisions at a national level, reducing or eliminating positions according to spreadsheet data, rather than employee competence. Other businesses, having faced ever-diminishing resources in a recession with no end in sight, found it impossible to keep even their most valued staff members. Some sectors and organizations employ a “last hired, first fired” policy, regardless of employee performance, and some industries have been disproportionately affected by the recession, forcing record numbers of employees at all levels back into the job market.
The amount of time someone has been out of work should be neither the sole nor the primary factor in deciding whether someone is qualified for a position, yet the perceptions employers seem to have about unemployed applicants still keep qualified individuals from getting interviews and offers. And while applicants can continue to debate the accuracy, logic, or fairness of these perceptions, doing so has yet to change this problematic, though currently legal, hiring bias.
Whether they have been laid off today or whether they have been looking for work for months, applicants can be strategic and remain more competitive while un(der)employed. Recognizing employer prejudices is part of the process, but considering where and how some of these prejudices might be connected to and, perhaps, fueled by some job applicant behavior can help job seekers work to minimize or off-set employer concerns, regardless of their foundation. The discussion below offers ideas for doing so.
• Verify the work you’d like to do and the skills you have to do it. The frailty of today’s economy has turned many workplaces into a game of musical chairs, forcing even employees who enjoy their present seat to stand up and shuffle with the hopes finding a place to sit once the music stops. Employees who are fortunate enough to find a seat after each turn may be relieved, but they become increasingly anxious about when the music will start again and whether they can remain faster, savvier, or more agile than the other players each round. Meanwhile, the employees who are eliminated after each sequence are left to find their way in a progressively challenging job market. Some of these individuals target comparable positions in the same industry, with varying degrees of success. Others say they’re going to look for “more rewarding” opportunities, prompting them to explore new positions or different industries altogether.
The problems with these various and ongoing shakeouts are many, but one effect that generates employer criticism is the overwhelming number of applicants applying to positions for which they are not qualified. Understandable as people may be applying for jobs they think are similar to the ones they’ve held because of identical job titles; unfortunately, as the market has eliminated various jobs, some positions have absorbed additional responsibilities, making job titles less accurate descriptors of an employee’s responsibilities. Then there are cases where people apply for jobs because they see an overlap in the work they have done and the tasks called out in a job description, yet those same individuals might not have or emphasize the particular skills valued most by the new employer. There are also individuals applying for positions they’d like to do, even if they have few to none of the required skills. The most problematic cases, however, are the applicants who are applying broadly and indiscriminately, just to increase their odds of landing something.
Collectively, such applications increase the stereotypes that unemployment makes people unable to fairly and accurately assess their skill sets against company needs. Perhaps as damaging is the impression that people looking for work have no qualms about wasting companies’ time and resources when businesses are already feeling restrictions.
These concerns are not meant to discourage applicants from looking at different positions or even new careers. Rather they are a reminder that the burden for demonstrating an interest in and competence for each position rests with the candidate. To that end, candidates should resist the urge to distribute applications widely and generically and, instead, target and focus their materials.
While this suggestion may seem counter-intuitive, especially in tight job markets where people are told to get the word out, companies are less interested in hiring people who want a job; they’re interested in employees who want their job. Consequently, you should verify (for yourself) that you want to do the work the position demands—as the particular organization does it—rather than suggesting you’d do such-and-such if you had to; it may seem like a small difference, but these attitudes can affect an employer’s interpretation of job applicants. Similarly, resist assuming that your present experiences will automatically or quickly transfer to the new forum. Instead, identify skills you may need to fill in, develop, or hone, and start taking action to move in that direction. Doing so can help you discuss and demonstrate ways you could create value for the target company.
• Act quickly. In the early days of the recession, some employees used their layoffs to reassess career goals, launch their own business, or return to school. However, in their July 2011 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Mark A. Aguiar, Erik Hurst, and Loukas Karabarbounis report that a majority of unemployed workers were using the time to complete projects around the house, spend more time with family and friends, engage in various hobbies, volunteer, travel, or simply take a break.
Some of these individuals ultimately took early retirement, while others eventually returned to the workforce, but as layoffs across all sectors continued to add highly educated, skilled individuals to the labor pool, opportunities to quickly and easily re-enter in the market disappeared. Unfortunately, this climate prompted many people, including employers, to pass judgment on workers who delayed looking for reemployment and, eventually, on those who struggled to find jobs at all. The result: blanket generalizations and stereotypes about employees’ commitment to work, their competitiveness in pursing opportunities, their attitudes of entitlement, and even their competence. Such prejudice is evident in comments like, “If people really wanted a job and if they were truly competent, it shouldn’t take months to find work—even if they had to take something ‘beneath’ them during the interim.”
Misinterpretations aside, such biases have and continue to create challenges for unemployed individuals looking for work, perhaps explaining Ghayad and Dickens’ findings that, while unemployment can create obstacles for everyone who’s looking for a job, those with shorter durations of unemployment ultimately fair better in securing interviews and offers.
Rightly or wrongly, companies factor employment gaps into a candidate’s credentials. Therefore, applicants should remain attentive to any lag time between positions, being particularly cautious as unemployment approaches 27 weeks—the point at which studies show a sudden drop in the interest companies give an applicant. Easier said than done, certainly, especially if someone has been out of work for several months already. In such cases, then, it can be strategic to shift the focus away from elements that raise flags for employers and toward activities and efforts that hiring managers value. The following actions may help in this endeavor.
• Keep job skills current. People who were exploring alternate career options or testing their entrepreneurial spirit during their unemployment often wrote “freelancer,” “contract worker,” or “self-employed” on their résumés but companies, increasingly distrustful of employment gaps, now see these references as code for “not working.” To offset this criticism, job hunters have been turning to volunteer work to gain new experiences, maintain marketable soft skills, and create a paper trail for where they’ve been spending their time. While such efforts are satisfactory to some employers or positions, they are insufficient for others—bewildering or even angering some applicants. The problem, however, isn’t that people aren’t engaged in worthwhile work, but that they may be doing work employers don’t consider directly relevant to the tasks they need done.
The comments overwhelming online discussion forums suggest that many people looking for jobs assume that professional and trade skills remain constant, even when they aren’t doing that work on a daily basis. Most skills, however, do not remain as strong, as sharp, as smooth, or as efficient without on-going use. And even if the skills themselves were to remain static, employers could consider them dated or obsolete simply by virtue of someone not keeping pace with people who are actively working in the profession and, perhaps, learning different or more efficient applications of various programs, strategies, technologies, regulations, and so on. As such, employers develop the perception that people who are out of work are less engaged with and, in turn, less proficient in general workplace and specific industry protocols that continue to evolve.
Companies look to hire people who can meet their needs with minimal lag time, and they don’t want the responsibility of bringing employees up to speed—especially if they believe (correctly or otherwise) that qualified candidates do exist, even if they’re poached from other companies. Therefore, if you’re wanting to continue doing particular work for your new employer, look for places to apply those specific skills in industry-valued ways during unemployment, even in informal or pro bono contexts. For example, accountants might find ways to offer financial services to a small business; software developers could see if a private office or non-profit organization would be able to use their skills; and teachers might find forums to tutor others in their areas of expertise.
Granted, workers may argue that they don’t want to volunteer to use their professional and trade skills; they want to be paid to use them. Payment for your talents is the ultimate goal, but in the interim, know that it will be easier to talk with prospective employers about the ways you’ve been using position-specific skills in less formal contexts than it would be to convince those same employers that you’ve retained those skills, even though you’ve been doing other things. As importantly, by applying your professional and trade skills in different forums and to other projects, you may be able to work with alternative programs or systems, learn novel approaches to problems, or discover new ways to understand employer or client concerns. Such developments and lessons can make you more appealing to prospective employers.
• Remain active in the profession. When leaving formal employment or moving beyond conventional office settings, it can be more difficult to stay in the loop on industry matters, especially when splitting time between job hunting and other demands. Therefore, you should develop a plan for remaining consistently and purposefully active in the profession, even during times of un(der)employment. For instance, you might join professional organizations; attend trade shows, conventions, and conferences; research companies of interest; follow industry trends; participate in field-specific discussions online; and read industry reports, publications, and blogs.
Social media is becoming the primary forum for many of these activities, so as you engage in industry-related discussions through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and so forth, remain attentive to the professional image you can project and foster in these forums. By (re)assessing your online profiles and contributions, you can ensure that the things companies and recruiters learn about you in myriad online forums serve to enhance your prospects as a job applicant and employee.
• Network. While staying apprised of what’s happening in your industry is critical, so is connecting with people who are actively engaged in the profession. Online forums can help in this effort, especially when participants are located in different areas, but they should not take the place of face-to-face interactions. By attending and participating in trade shows, conferences, and other professional events, you can meet and talk with individuals working directly in the field and, depending on your professional, with those who may have other connections to the industry (e.g., developers, suppliers, customers, clients). In the process, you might begin to identify people with whom you can set up informational interviews to discuss where companies and, by extension, the industry at large, may be heading. This information might help you find additional or alternative forums to apply your talents.
As you meet individuals with similar interests, you also might find people who’d be willing to serve as formal and informal mentors. These individuals may be willing to talk with you about specific aspects of the industry, answer questions, introduce you to people you should meet, or offer suggestions on how you could present yourself in ways that appeal to prospective employers.
Networking may sound like “one more thing to do,” but staying connected to those who “do” the profession in various ways can help you identify where to market your skills or ways to supplement your experiences to be more competitive. Networking can also help you tap into the so-called “hidden” job market, alerting you to positions and opportunities that are not widely, or publicly advertised. And, as companies increasingly use employee referral programs as their most powerful recruiting tool, you may find that your conversations open doors you never knew existed.
• Be realistic. Many employers say that even appealing job applicants are being rejected because of unrealistic expectations concerning responsibilities, salaries, benefits, or any combination thereof. While candidates might argue they deserve certain things because of their education, experience, former titles, previous salaries, and so on, the market still favors employers. Certainly employees should be fairly compensated, but the best way to ensure fair compensation is to remain realistic in both expectations and demands. Realistic will vary according to industry and position, making it all the more critical to stay active in the industry and to develop and sustain your professional network: you can gain insider information on the trends shaping employment decisions.
These strategies—in isolation or in combination—will not guarantee an interview or a job offer, but they can help job applicants find ways to present themselves as more competitive candidates.
These strategies can also be of use to those who have a job—especially one they like. After all, companies remain under pressure to reduce expenses, especially in tight economies. Sometimes a business can cut back on company functions, and at times it may need to scale back on employee benefits. Sometimes, however, organizations need to eliminate positions. Therefore, employees should always work to be a “top performer,” as their industry, company, or position defines it; keep their skills current; develop and maintain their professional networks; and continually look for ways to bring value to their team, supervisor, or company at large.
Again, there are no guarantees that such actions will save your job, especially in challenging economic environments, but such actions can help others see you as a valuable player and, sometimes, that can be enough.
Working toward Areté…
Share your experiences, observations, and suggestions about finding employment in today’s job market.
