Why aren’t you getting an interview, or even a response, to your application?
To begin, we need to recognize this is a big question with many variables. A multitude of factors in a fluid, ever-changing job market can influence the answer to this question. In this brief overview, I’ll paint some broad strokes around reasons that apply to the average job seeker - remember each situation is unique!
The following constraints are common areas that present a challenge for many job seekers, yet there isn’t necessarily a single solution. It’s simply the nature of job seeking in a competitive market with millions of applicants.
Volume
If you’re in a sales, marketing, customer service, retail, call center, or similar type of role, the first thing you should understand is the immense volume dealt within these categories. If a company needs to hire a class of 50 call center representatives and they post a sponsored job on Indeed (the type that gets featured more prominently), they can end up with 300-400 applicants in a matter of just 2 or 3 days. It’s very likely that one recruiter is responsible for reviewing those resumes for 50 qualified candidates to staff that call center, with a deadline of 3-4 weeks. So, if you were the last person to apply to that role, and the recruiter is doing their best to go through all applications in order, they simply may not make it to application 400 before extending 50 offers and/or reaching the cut-off day. The volume of applications and the timing of the search is simply not in your favor.
Applying to the Wrong Job
There may be certain skills or parts of your experience that align with a certain job description - could be worth taking a shot and applying! But do keep in mind: if that is the extent to which your current experience matches the needs of the job - tangential at best - then there’s a realistic likelihood that you may not be the first candidate with a callback.
For example, if you’re a public accountant who specializes in tax preparation and review, a role titled “Senior Tax Accountant” may seem like a good fit at first. However, you might still not be considered as a fit from the hiring manager’s perspective. Let’s elaborate…
In this case, let’s say the CPA firm is looking for someone who specialized in Corporate/Business tax preparation and you happen to have a background in Individual High Net Worth clients. The CPA firm may need to hire a Business Tax Specialist they can be confident they can plug into a team with no new training on Day One. This is a jump one could reasonably make in some cases. However, what I suspect leads to most unanswered applications is a far more drastic misalignment in experience, coupled with the previously cited volume of applicants. Which brings me to my next constraint…
Risk Aversion and Immediate Needs
Companies tend to be risk averse and conservative in their decision making. In other words, leadership is charged with fiscal stewardship of a company and has a fiduciary responsibility to steer the company in a reasonable and responsible manner.
While we all appreciate the popular LinkedIn posts that tell you “I’m the CEO and I took a chance on a candidate lacking certain hard skills and now they’re my top performer” - who doesn’t love a good growth story? - this isn’t always reality. Many companies are comprised of different job functions requiring unique, specialized skills, and the hiring managers are going to look for the closest possible background to fulfill their immediate needs. This means applicants with a few transferable soft skills aren’t as attractive as applicants whose background precisely matches the description.
A major career pivot doesn’t happen overnight and not without considerable effort to reskill. New education and certifications are likely necessary, and you may not find compensation at your current range, as your experience may be similar to an entry level employee (though total years of professional experience will likely be considered).
So, what’s your next step?
Take a look at your resume and be honest about your experience up until this point; consider if the roles you’re applying to are as closely aligned as you first thought. Then consider these three tips to help improve your chances of getting that interview:
Leverage your network.
The best connection into a new job you’re going to have is an existing connection, some kind of former coworker or manager who is willing to tell someone else, “this person is someone you want on your team” - if not their own team.Talk to the right recruiter.
There are recruiters (nearly all of us) who will offer a variety of free services like resume writing, interview prep, salary negotiation advice, mock interviews, job search pointers, and more. Use us recruiters as resources! The more connections you have, the better.Reskill, reskill, reskill.
This is the most labor intensive, but if you truly want to make a major career pivot, it will need to happen. If you don’t have the degree or certifications required for a certain entry level role, your resume will likely be dismissed out of hand every time. Companies hire for a specific set of hard, technical skills, not just those who have a “work hard” attitude. The soft skills will help differentiate between viable candidates (but you’ll rarely be a viable candidate if all you can say is “sometimes part of what I do is similar to this”).
Meet the Author
Jeff Seidl
Senior Talent Consultant, Talent Solutions
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