#013 - The Only Silver Lining Of This Brutal 2023 Job Market

1) The Only Silver Lining Of This Brutal 2023 Job Market

2) Q&A (cold outreach to recruiters and hiring managers, a day in the life of a recruiter)

3) In Conclusion

The Only Silver Lining Of This Brutal 2023 Job Market

Did you know the phrase ‘silver lining’ was coined in 1634, by the poet John Milton?

But the concept of ‘Yin Yang’ - there’s good, there’s bad, there’s bad in the good, there’s good in the bad, and they’re all interrelated - was first spoken about almost 3,000 years ago in the ancient East.

It’s not a new concept, in other words. That doesn’t mean we don’t struggle with it. After all, if you’re looking for a silver lining, you’ve obviously had an experience you didn’t want to have.

And if we’re talking about experiences we didn’t want to have, let’s take Victor Frankl. He’s the author of Man’s Search For Meaning, a book I’d recommend everyone read. He’s also a holocaust survivor of three different concentration camps. He went through the worst a person can go through. To say I can’t even imagine it is a gross understatement.

I have no right to say there was a silver lining to his experiences. Not even close. But he has that right. And he said the silver lining was that while he saw the worst of humanity, he also saw the best.

Some of these men he was with, while living in the worst conditions, living in unimaginable horror, they looked after the other men. They consoled them. They listened to them. They held them. They even gave them their food. When they themselves needed help more than ever, more than they could’ve ever imagined, they chose to help others. And he got to see that.

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Another example is Michael Singer, author of the New York Times #1 best-seller The Untethered Soul. He was a billionaire business owner (by accident, but that’s another story), yogi, and spiritual teacher. One day, his business was raided by the FBI. Singer was accused of fraud and faced years in prison, not to mention losing everything he’d worked for and built over his whole life.

There doesn’t seem like much of a silver lining here. But as Singer says, this was actually the ultimate chance to practice everything he’d ever preached: being aware of his thoughts and emotions rather than letting them make all his decisions. Not taking things personally. Finding a way to grow through what you go through. Remaining calm in chaos. All easy to say, all hard to do - even with decades of practice. But if he couldn’t do it now, when it mattered the most, what was the point of it all?

About 5 years ago, I didn’t have a job. I was helping my friend with his startup. I was doing sales, social media, marketing, admin, events. I was being paid very, very little while living in LA. I’d maxed out not one, but two credit cards. I remember I had to call up my credit card company and ask for an extension on my credit limit just so I could pay for my flight to LA.

I was broke. Worse than broke, seeing as I had barely any income as well as a lot of debt. There were at least two times where if I hadn’t made a sale that week, I wouldn’t have been able to eat, let alone pay my rent.

Not a situation I would’ve chosen, in case that wasn’t clear.

The silver lining?

I had to get really good at what I did. Especially with sales, given that’s how I earned my money. I was forced to focus like never before. I had to learn how to remain calm in the chaos. I got to prove to myself that when the odds are against me, I can find a solution.

Again, I’m not saying I would’ve chosen this situation. Who in their right mind would choose that? And don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t exactly feeling ecstatic that I was constantly ‘getting’ the chance to prove myself.

I’m saying that looking back on it, the silver lining was clear.

The silver lining of this job market - one none of us would’ve chosen - is that the job-searching skills you develop now will serve you well in the years beyond.

Let’s take the networking aspect. Most of us don’t network until we need something. A job, an intro, a favour. This becomes apparent when you’re looking for a new job and people don’t reply to your outreach. But now, you know that. If you wanted, you could check in with people in your network every few months, even every 6 months, just to see how they’re doing and what’s new with them. No agenda except genuine curiosity. (Doing this with my network has got me trips to LA, client introductions, money (in exchange for my services) (get your mind out the gutter), interesting contacts, and friends.)

Same with using LinkedIn. Just because you have a job, are you going to stop being active? I’m not saying you have to be a maniac like me and be on it 23/7 (an hour for sleep), but is there any reason to stop demonstrating your expertise, your knowledge, your hard-won wisdom? Who knows what opportunities might come from that? Who knows who else you might end up having in your network? Who knows what jobs you might be offered when the job market normalises?

Same with tailoring your applications. Instead of getting, “I guess this person might be a good fit,” you’ll start to get, “Wow, this person is what we’re looking for.”

Same with interview prep. Instead of getting, “Yeah, it was a decent interview,” you’ll start to get, “They absolutely crushed it. I think they’d be great here. Let’s move quickly.”

Again, I know you wouldn’t have chosen this job market. I know I wouldn’t have chosen this job market. If I could click my fingers and give you all jobs you loved and paid you handsomely and gave you the flexibility to go strawberry picking on a Tuesday afternoon, I would. Alas, I am not so powerful.

But I guess it’s like poker. You don’t get to choose the cards you’re dealt, but you can still play the hell out of the hand.

Q&A

1. “Based on your recommendations, I've been reaching out to many recruiters inside companies that are hiring for roles different from those I'm interested in. My success rate has been 0/14. No one has replied to me, and I haven't gotten an interview either. I'm questioning my approach and wondering how I should reach out to recruiters in a better and more effective way. I totally get that they receive hundreds of these messages daily, but replying with "Yes, I do recruit for [role]" or "No, I don't" should take no more than 5 sec.”

I hear you. While there are some signs the job market is very slowly normalising, it’s tough out there.

A few things come to mind here:

• Are you also applying to the roles? If not, make sure you’re doing that. Then you can say “I’ve also already applied to the role” and the recruiter can easily find you in their system.

• Is your LinkedIn profile fully filled out? I see this mistake quite often, unfortunately. People send a cold outreach message or post on LinkedIn that they’re looking for work, they tell me it’s not been effective, so I check their profile and it’s barely filled out. If it’s not filled out properly, a recruiter or hiring manager is unlikely to message you and ask you to name all of your relevant experience so they can decide whether or not you’re right for the role. Make it easy for them to choose to reply and want to interview you.

• Are you very qualified to do the role? Right now, companies are still getting a ton of highly qualified candidates applying for their roles. If you’re not highly qualified, you might not get a look-in. You can write the best networking message ever but if you’re not qualified, it can easily get ignored.

• 14 messages probably isn’t enough data. I just did some Googling about response rates to cold outreach and the percentages range from 1% to 8.5%. If applied to 14 people, that’s 0.14 responses to 1.19 responses. So, it’s time to get some more data, and don’t be afraid to throw some a/b testing in there.

2. “How does the hiring process work on your end? I’d love to learn more about recruiting and the day in the life from the perspective of a recruiter!”

Someone wants to know about the craft. I thought this day would never come.

As with most jobs, there’s not necessarily a ‘typical’ day. But a day in my life as as a recruiter might go something like this:

• I review the CVs for the 10 to 20 roles I’m working on. Even if there were 10 CVs to review for each role - and there's usually a lot more - well, you do the maths. (This is why you have to show us you’re qualified for the role pretty much right away.)

• I send the most qualified candidates to the hiring manager for their review. On one of the systems we use, they can give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down while adding a comment or two.

• I might have anywhere from 1 to 5 or 6 candidate screening calls. These last up to 30 minutes and in the calls we get to know each other a little bit, we talk about their experience, what they want in their next role, what stood out while applying for this specific role, what they know about the company, I answer their questions, and we also confirm salary expectations and notice period.

• I might have a hiring manager catch up - or two or three - to update them on our progress (although this is also regularly done over email or Slack).

• I’ll probably be liaising with the Candidate Experience team at various times so that we can schedule interviews. I can have anywhere from zero interviews to 5 or 6 interviews happening during the day.

• I’ll be calling or emailing candidates to give them updates.

• I’ll be asking interviewers for feedback.

• I’ll be contributing to other recruitment-related projects I’m part of (DE&I, personal branding, candidate experience, etc)

It’s quite varied but as you’ve probably noticed, ‘stakeholder management’ - both internally and externally - is crucial.

Also - and I appreciate nobody is going to cry us a river here - this is why a lot of recruiters won’t reply to their LinkedIn messages unless there’s a compelling reason. We’re already dealing with people all day long. People who want and need things from us. To then look through our LinkedIn DMs and see messages like “What roles do you have for me?” or a wall-of-text essay about every experience you’ve ever had feels draining.

This is why I talk about sending messages that are short, personal, kind, and to the point. In general, you’re much more likely to get what you want: a positive reply.

In Conclusion

Thanks for reading. I really do appreciate it.

If at any point this week you’re taking a break from your job search - and I’d recommend you do - feel free to engage in the Finnish art of Kalsarikännit. Wikipedia defines it as follows: “a form of drinking culture, originating in Finland, in which the drinker consumes alcoholic drinks at home dressed in very little clothing, usually underwear, with no intention of going out.”

Cheers!

PS If you missed last week’s Q&A edition, you can read it here.

PPS Next week we’ll be talking about LinkedIn hacks that actually work.

PPPS The heatwave has passed. Hallelujah.