In my last post, I started exploring things I’ve heard from job-seekers that arise more from anxiety and lack of experience than fact. In this essay I wanted to continue that line of thinking, but focus on the possibilities that might be happening to job seekers, but it’s highly dependent, on specific circumstances. So I caution readers to hold back on immediately presuming these are the reasons you didn’t get an interview, callback, or job. It’s possible that one of these things is at play, but you should think carefully about the entire situation.
Wasting my time, part 1: “This job was published but the company already knew they would be hiring internally.”
It’s rare (but not exceptionally so) that a company publishes a job purely as a formality, with no intention of considering outside candidates. More often the job is opened with the knowledge that there are internal candidates, and that internal candidates will be given preference.
But experienced recruiters and HR professionals also know that life happens. That perfect internal candidate decides at the last minute that they really like their current role. Or they hear about the new job and it’s not what they imagined. Or even that they had been looking both internally and externally and took a job at another company.
My point is that even if companies DO list jobs with an internal candidate in mind, that doesn’t automatically make applying a waste of your time. Why?
First, I’ve lost count of the times I showed up to interview for one job, only to discover during our conversation that
- I’m not at all the right fit for it, but
- There’s another job that I’d be perfect for.
(spoiler: more than once, I got that job and it changed my career)
Second, as I described above, even if they do have an internal candidate in mind, things don’t always work out.
You really have nothing to lose by submitting your resume and taking the time to discuss your qualifications.
Wasting my time, part 2: “Companies put out “ghost req’s” to meet a quota, gauge interest in the company, or some other pointless reason.”
With the last quarter of 2024 on the horizon, and after a few lean years for job hunters, it would be naive of me to say this never happens. It would be naive even to say this happens rarely. However, it would also be unnecessarily pessimistic to say it is happening “always” or even “most of the time”.
Companies and recruiting firms publish ghost job postings – reqs for jobs that don’t exist – either to meet an SLA to publish a certain number of jobs each week; or to fill quota of a certain number of candidate resumes reviewed, or some other equally murky metric. Maybe it’s happening occasionally, and maybe it’s happening a bunch.
But here’s the thing: I don’t care. (And neither should you).
Your job is to apply for jobs that seem like a good fit for your skills, experiences, and interests. Period. “But what if they’re fake?” you say. “But what if they’re not?” I reply. More to the point, even if they ARE fake, they’re good practice. Every application you fill out builds muscle memory, adds to your catalog of interview responses, and lets you wrestle with questions you will get for the real job application that ultimately leads to your next job.
Saying “What if this job posting isn’t real” is as helpful as a football player saying “what if the yards I run during this practice don’t count toward my stats for the season.
I won’t get the job because of a gap on my resume.
Once again, I have to acknowledge the reality that some people ARE, in fact, getting feedback about missing blocks of time on their resume. But it’s fewer than you’d think, and FAR fewer times this happens than even a few years ago.
Once again, HR manager Aimee Reyes has some thoughts on this:
“I don’t think it’s an issue at this point. Maybe a couple decades ago, but not now. Ultimately, it comes down to a change in society and the shift from “you must work 9 to 5 in an office for the rest of your life” to “hey, family and mental health are important and you don’t owe your life to a corporation.”
Also, we know what tech layoffs have been like in the last couple of years and we know a lot of folks are taking breaks before they start looking for jobs again. Parental leave is another one – more people are taking longer breaks to raise kiddos then get back to work (I took off 2 years and then did a career change).
Last, we see people taking time to spend with aging/dying parents or spouses/significant others with serious medical conditions.
I’m not saying NO ONE looks at gaps, but there’s been a major shift away from it and reasonable recruiters/hiring managers understand this.”
I applied to the company for one job (and didn’t get it), and now I want to apply for a different job. If I change my resume, HR will automatically reject it.
So this one needs some context. Let’s say you apply to job #1 with resume #1 (and don’t get it) and then – weeks or months later – apply for job #2 with resume #2. Will that get you immediately rejected?
No. But also maybe.
First, HR is definitely (probably) going to notice. I asked Sr. Director Will Lebherz about it, and this was his response:
“Generally the HR folks will work on the most recent version, but you are correct in suggesting a hiring manager or recruiter who remembers a candidate from an earlier time may go into the recruiting system and pluck out an earlier version to see if material changes have been made. This is rare though, and requires additional time and mental energy when there are other priorities. An easier check is comparing the resume to their LinkedIn profile and making sure the two biographies are aligned – LI isn’t constrained by length or details, so some good information might be found there that otherwise would have been edited out of the resume.”
In the words of HR manager Aimee Reyes,
“It would depend on how different the information is. Tailoring the details about your previous roles is one thing—we’ve all done that! But if suddenly you have 5+ years of experience that you didn’t have on the resume from 6 months ago, well, that would be a red flag. We’ve all been job seekers, so we know what the resume game is like. Ultimately it comes down to, does this seem like the candidate flat out lied or did they just revamp their resume to get a better shot?”
Next Up: Oh, this is 100% happening
Having discussed the things that aren’t happening and things that might be happening, the last area to explore are things that I’m fairly sure are happening. In the meanwhile, if you have questions, corrections, or concerns, feel free to post them in the comments below.