It’s Not Your Fault: The Hidden Factors Behind Job Application Delays
Monday Morning Manager Series #37
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For most of us, applying for a job isn’t much fun.
Especially when your primary motivation is to get away from the job you’ve got rather than an appetite for a new one.
Add in the hours spent scouring the internet for opportunities and updating your CV & LinkedIn profile, and it’s all a bit like too much like hard work.
By this time, you’re ready for a cup of tea and a nice sit-down.
Finally, your CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letter, and the Job Description of the new role all match.
Well, after a bit of creative tweaking they do.
You’ve used words like challenge, strategy and stakeholder, and other strange businessy type words that no one in their right mind would say in real life.
You might even have a mission statement if you’ve really lost your head.
If you are anything like me, after hitting that send button on the magic online application machine, I’m only too happy to forget all about it and catch up on my Netflix.
But what if a few days morph into a week or two weeks?
Or if you see the job re-advertised or advertised again with a different job title.
What’s going on?
Did you miss a call or not see an email?
Are you invisible?
Not worth the bother of a polite rejection letter?
Are you so rubbish at your chosen profession that you are on some sort of universal job blacklist?
No, no, no, and no.
Here is a list of things that may have happened, and none of them are anything to do with you …
1) The line manager can’t make up their mind about the job
When we apply for a job, we study the position description intently.
We imagine ourselves in the new job, doing all the things.
And the mistake we make is thinking that the job is a done deal.
