Should I Apply To That Really, Really Old Job Posting?

iStockphoto.com | Vladimir_Timofeev

When candidates search for jobs, they become familiar with the job postings as if they were their own neighborhood. Like the house on the block with the "For Sale" sign in the yard for what seems an eternity, you may notice job postings that have been up forever too. You may ask, "They haven't filled that yet?" or "Why is that still up?" or "Should I apply?" but the more you see the same thing, the more likely you will skip over it.

There are many reasons a job post may appear "old" to the job seeker, but the reality is more nuanced. Below are just a few scenarios that more than explain why a job listing is "old."

Scenario #1 – The post is for an "evergreen" job. There are many postings online for "evergreen" jobs, positions for which companies recruit twenty-four-seven, 365 days a year. A typical recruiting set-up encourages a steady stream of applications monitored and managed by a dedicated recruiter or Human Resources professional. These exist across fields and pay scales and may have more of a rolling hiring process than other jobs – all advantages to the job seeker. Some examples of high demand jobs for which employers may continuously post:

• Accountants/Auditors – An accounting firm (e.g., PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young) always needs accountants and auditors.

• Retail – Large retail operations (e.g., Nordstrom, Macy’s) recruit sales associates year-round and ramp up hiring during the holidays.

• Delivery Drivers – the Gig Economy employs lots of drivers with different employment arrangements. Whether independent contractors or employees, gig economy workers are always in demand.

• Nurses – Nurses are the most extreme example, but this category could include other healthcare roles. In fields where there are shortages of qualified people, the jobs become evergreen by default.

Scenario #2 – The position is still open. Recruiting employees is expensive. To run a job ad on multiple digital and traditional platforms costs money every day. Job ads are not on auto-pilot. The moment job ads are no longer needed, they are pulled. Life is unpredictable, so many reasons may exist for why a position is open for a long time, and the job seeker can't know any of them. Here are just a few examples:

• The hiring manager may be searching for a unique candidate profile and is willing to wait until he/she meets the perfect individual.

• A candidate accepted a job offer and then backed out at the last moment.

• Salary negotiations fell apart.

• Background check/drug test fails.

• The last candidate’s references came back "Buyer beware!" and they decided to keep looking.

• Family matters made the candidate turn down an offer.

As you can see, the multitude of potential reasons a job listing may be old is reasonable and neither indicate a dark cloud over the position, company, or recruiting process nor preclude consideration by people searching for employment.

Scenario #3: Some jobs are more difficult to fill than others. Step over to the other side and consider the two most probable environments in which recruiters operate. Environment #1: cities. Advantage: lots of jobs and lots of candidates. Disadvantage: lots of jobs and lots of candidates. It's very competitive. Environment #2: small labor markets. Advantage: Less competition. Disadvantage: Fewer jobs and recruitment challenges. Each environment contributes to employment that may go unfilled for longer than anyone wants.

• In big cities, companies may have the luxury to take their time because the pool of candidates is so large. There may be many qualified candidates, so the recruitment, interview, and hiring process expand in scope and timeframe. The longer the hiring process, the more likely you will lose potential candidates to other jobs.

• In smaller labor markets, jobs may go unfilled because deeper pools of qualified professionals more likely live and work in larger cities such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Miami. Recruiters in remote or smaller markets may face more issues in needing to identify and relocate potential employees, which costs time and money.  

The final takeaway is this: stop skipping over old job listings and consider applying for roles for which you are qualified. Forget about the age of the job listing. Lightning can strike anywhere, anytime. If you don't apply, you definitely won't get the job.

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

I Submitted My Application to the Company and Never Heard Back – Should I Be Offended?

Credit: iStockphoto.com

When you contact someone it’s human nature to expect a response – any response – and that extends into our professional lives. It’s bad for business to leave colleagues and clients hanging in silence.

To go a step further, when you spend a great deal of time creating accounts, filling out multiple online forms, uploading documents, and any other job application requirements, it feels that common human decency would dictate the expected response in this situation more than any other. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

Should you be offended? Probably. The process is broken. And while this is not an apology for employers who don’t get back to you, it’s fair to offer an explanation for what may be going on behind the curtain. Let’s agree on this – the process is not great, but to understand why involves basic math. 

Corporate recruiters get that they have extremely limited time and resources to fill a job with a good candidate – and are under intense pressure to do so. 

An in-house corporate recruiter at a mid-sized company may have 20-50 jobs to fill at once, so for the math let’s say 35. The same technology that allows you to submit a job application online allows thousands of other people to do the same thing at the exact same time and suddenly there are 5,000 applications per job. 35 x 5,000 = 175,000 applications and resumes to wade through. That’s inhumane to the recruiter and the candidate, and simultaneously results in nearly impossible odds of being found.

Additionally, companies measure the performance of their recruiters by several metrics, which can often be at odds. These include “Days to Fill” (emphasizing speed), “Quality of Hire” (emphasizing candidate credentials), and “Cost per Hire” (emphasizing filling jobs without outside help from agency recruiters or expensive sourcing tools). What you end up with is a frazzled recruiter who is frequently under-resourced and saddled with unrealistic expectations.

Therefore, rather than spend time lovingly going through all the resumes received to find the ideal candidate, the focus is on letting their computer systems rank the candidates based upon the match to the job description, and to as quickly as possible gather a stack of five to ten resumes of qualified candidates to present to the hiring manager.

Make no mistake, the process is broken from the applicant side, too – follow-up, responses, or other communications are rare – but this is the reality.

If you submitted an application and feel slighted you haven’t received a response, consider the following recommendations:

• Be focused with your follow-up. Find the right person, and send them a note just once.

• Research and find the name of  the hiring manager. If you are able to follow-up directly with the hiring manager you will ease pressure off the recruiter.

• Be respectful and empathetic in all of your interactions with whoever is involved, from the recruiter to the receptionist.

• Be prompt and be prepared. Do not spend considerable time and effort breaking down the door and then fumble around for something to say.

•  Know when to move on to pursuing the next job opportunity. It’s not a great idea to put all your hope into one posting with one company; apply to jobs at other employers, too, since there’s a possibility this one could fall through.

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

7 Steps Employers Can Take To Improve The Candidate Experience

I don't think the interview is going well. (iStockphoto.com | Nomadsoul1)

Job hunting is unquestionably difficult. Applicants can compete with tens of thousands of other job seekers, and they're placed under intense scrutiny. There are several points during the interview and salary negotiation process for things to go off the rails.

The process isn't any easier from the employer's side either, I'm sorry to say. As recruiters,  hiring managers, and interviewers inherit elevated expectations and responsibilities, the candidate experience often receives less attention than it should.

Here's the thing – job seekers remember bad interviews experiences. This isn't to say that employers should go easy during an interview to coddle the candidate's feelings; interviewers need to challenge the applicant's ability to answer difficult questions in order to evaluate their technical prowess and emotional intelligence.

Unfortunately, there's drama when employers fail to effectively manage the process, which leads to animosity, confusion, and a lousy reputation as an employer. Some employers do an amazing job of managing the customer experience. Others, not so much.

Here are 7 steps employers can take to improve the candidate experience.

1. View applicants as potential customers. Because they are. Each company has a brand for their products or services it works hard to protect. Just as job seekers need to mind their manners, so should anyone touching the employment process. A nasty candidate experience can poison the well for a company's employment brand, but it doesn't stop there. Why would a consumer want to spend their money with a company which treated them rudely? And dissatisfied customers tend to relay negative experiences. Don't believe me? Take a look at Glassdoor. Niceness counts.
    

2. Focus on the candidate's basic needs. Give them a bottle of water. Offer a bathroom break. Have snack bars or fruit available. Interviews can take a long time, being sensitive to these types of things support their comfort and well-being.
    

3. Invest time in applicant tracking and follow-up. This is a massive challenge for employers. Recruiters balance communications with vast numbers of job applicants, interviewees, hiring managers, and other stakeholders in the hiring process. This unwieldiness breeds the most frustrating aspect of the process – a lack of applicant feedback. Applicants often hear nothing after submitting a resume. They often hear nothing after interviewing. They often hear nothing after someone else is selected for the job. It's not malicious; it's usually due to a lack of staff and systems to support the process.
    

4. Be more transparent about salary ranges. Companies are understandably sensitive about sharing specific salary data. Publishing everyone's salary can cause a lot of discord, and can reduce a company's negotiation leverage. There's no need to be specific, most employers enter the process with a predetermined range to recruit against, ultimately negotiating a specific figure within that range. Let's be more sensitive to everyone's time – many people wouldn't bother to apply to jobs below their salary range, but instead find themselves engaged in a protracted process where the salary range isn't articulated until late in the game. A bit more transparency could potentially improve the quality of the applicant pool by enabling those whose expectations exceed the range to self-exclude.
    

5. Publish benefits information. Like salary data, many employers wait to share their benefits until late in the process. Perks can vary wildly between employers with major differences in health insurance cost, tuition reimbursement, vacation time, holidays, and other perks. Disclosing benefits information early can be great selling tool for employers, and better help applicants understand what receiving an offer would truly mean in terms of dollars, cents, and quality of life.
    

6. Teach everyone involved in the process how to interview. Making an effective hiring decision is a learned skill, but many employers give their interviewers little foundation to work with other than a job description. Here's a dirty little secret – most interviewers are "winging it," and are trying their best to make an effective decision based upon a gut feeling using inadequate data points. Any employee who interviews on behalf of a company should be required to demonstrate mastery of behavioral, competency-based interviewing, as well as a clear understanding of what kind of questions and considerations are legal or illegal.
    

7. Prioritize the interview over other work. Having a candidate wait unnecessarily past their appointed interview time can be rude. Having a candidate wait because you wanted to respond to an email, take a call, or stop by somebody's desk? It's time to reexamine your priorities. Then there's forgetting about the interview and leaving the candidate in a conference room with nothing to do... That's borderline sociopathic behavior. Don't be a sociopath. Respect the candidate's time as much as you respect your own. Even more so.

---

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.