7 cold hard facts that should change the way you look for work

One of the things that I find consistently annoying is how fixated people seem to be on applying for a job online.

To be honest though, I am not that surprised.

Over the last 10 years, online job boards have spent big bucks getting you to think that it’s the fastest and easiest to find work.

The truth however is really really different.

Applying for a job and relying on online boards as your main marketing channel, can be one of the loneliest and most frustrating paths to take.

So for my own grey hairs and sanity, I’d like to change the way people look for work starting with some solid facts about what’s going on behind the scenes that makes it so difficult to find a job this way.

Along the way I’ll give you some ideas about how to do things differently.

FACT #1 There are fewer full time jobs than ever before.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the proportion of part time jobs has steadily increased from 10% in 1966 to almost 30% in 2012.

So, what does this mean for your job search?

Essentially, you are competing against more people in an ever diminishing pool of full time jobs.

If you want to stand out you’ll need to work a lot harder or do something better or different.

FACT #2 You may not realise it, but you are probably competing in a global market place.

While big corporations have outsourced for years, online freelance hiring sites such as upwork have now boomed in popularity. This makes it easier for even the smallest of businesses to find staff offshore.

It is very easy to find someone professional and cheaper at a click of a button.

I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Swart (the then CEO) Jaleh Bisharet (the Senior Vice President, Marketing) and Matt Cooper (the Vice President, Enterprise Services) of the o-desk (now upwork) team last year.

They told me that their second biggest market is actually Australia one of the biggest drivers of that being, the huge cost of labour here.

This has big implications for your job search.

One idea I heard that really resonated with me was the idea that you’ll be successful if you can think of yourself as a consultant in your own career.

This is beyond expressing your skills in a way that shows you add value.

It’s about marketing yourself as someone who can come in at particular points of pain an organisation has in the area that falls under your realm of responsibility and solve that problem to enable the organisation to function more efficiently.

Skills such as the ability to manage a global team, to think strategically, and to think ahead of your organisation, are all the skills that will be in demand in the future.

If you want to stand out, you might want to think deeply about how could you highlight or develop these skills.

FACT #3 You are more likely to get a role through networking than you are applying to a job board.

The largest study in terms of numbers I have found references to is research by Right Management.

They surveyed over 59,000 of their outplacement clients and found that in 2010 only 25% found roles through job boards. See here for more detail.

So, if you are hiding behind your device or screen thinking that’s the only way to find work, you’re not playing the numbers properly.

A good rule of thumb is to devote your time to each method according to your chances of success using that path.

FACT #4 Despite your best efforts, chances are you won’t hear back from the employer.

Research from Career Builder of 3900 US job seekers in 2013 showed that 75% of people did not hear back from an employer after they applied for a role.

I think this is a terrible statistic. I hate giving this next piece of advice, because it puts the responsibility back on you.

My advice is to be careful about of falling in a heap. You are actually very vulnerable at this point.

I know from my experience that change is difficult for people.

I also know that people are more motivated by minimising pain that moving towards pleasure. Typically people who reach out for my help have come from a job situation that’s not working for them, or they’re forced for some reason to change.

Review FACT #1 and FACT #2. Try to get a handle on which bits of your job search are not working, and which bits you can blame the system for.

FACT #5 We’re not very good at understanding the written word.

According to ABS data, 46% of Australians are functionally illiterate. This means that many of us have trouble reading and following instructions. Read more about this here.

Knowing this, it’s important to keep in mind that the person reading your carefully crafted resume or selection criteria, may not be able to read very well at all.

So, keep everything as simple as you can. Make it much more about what’s in it for the other person, compared to what’s in it for you.

As an aside it also means that if you can communicate complicated ideas in a way that people can understand – you’re really going to stand out in a global job market

Trust me on this.

FACT # 6. Numeracy rates among Australians are lower than the literacy rates.

Read the advice under Fact # 5. for what to do about this.

FACT #7 Our attention spans have shrunk.

According to social researcher Sally Hogshead, we have a 9 second window of opportunity to capture people’s attention.

Social media appears to be turning us into dead-headed creatures who need to be instantly engaged or we will switch off. (My words not Sally’s)

She spoke about this in an amazing Ted talk here.

Sally talks about our fascination triggers and how you can play to your strengths when communicating.

While I completely agree with her ideas on this, I do find it all a bit depressing really.

I’m sure the tide will turn at some point as people switch off social media and switch into listening mode again. I also think you that if you give people the gift of your full unfiltered attention, you’ll stand out in this weird wired world.

That’s the end of my rant.