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Scott Anthony Barlow 00:00: How many times have you heard someone say just how difficult it is to find jobs in this market? The only problem is, the job market is not actually that bad. Data shows that the perception doesn't match reality. For example, in 2023, unemployment rate was at its lowest in nearly 45 years.

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Recent increases in unemployment have been marginal, very minimal, with rates hovering mostly around the mid 4%, which, for context, is relatively low unemployment when compared to the last 40 years. Historically, except for a brief spike during COVID, unemployment hasn't exceeded 10% since 1982. The current job market conditions are relatively favorable when viewed in historical context.

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So the gap between public perception and statistical reality it's staggering. So why then does it feel like we're in such a terrible job market?

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This is Happen To Your Career, the podcast that brings you real people, real transformations, and the courage to do work that truly fits. And if you haven't already subscribed, I want you to click follow right now so that you don't miss any new episodes.

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On this particular episode, we're going to cover how to understand what's actually going on in the job market and how it actually impacts your personal job search.

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That's what really matters, right? And a few specific things that you can do right now to avoid competing with hundreds of other people for a single opening.

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I wanna go back to that question though. Why does it feel like we're in such a terrible market when the data doesn't match up? Well, of course, there's the echo chamber of news and media. It's operating in full swing because scary news and scary headlines actually sell quite a bit. Too much, in fact. This is, of course, why I insulate myself inside a protective bubble so that all negatives are kept out.

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I'm only half joking about this. But seriously, I don't need that in my life. And you don't either. It's actually not something that is helping you. It's actually causing more damage in many different ways. There's a second hidden reason, though, why it feels like there's a global Armageddon in the job market, complete with asteroids falling from the sky and cars being lit on fire.

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And this reason isn't as obvious as it has to do with technology and innovation, and improvements. And, no, not like the robots are taking over technology. That's not what I'm talking about here. It's far more subtle than that. Here's what's actually happening. The job boards that you likely regularly visit to apply have done a fantastic job with user experience.

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Now this sounds great, but it's actually not. Here's why. They make it so easy to apply that everybody does.

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Prior to these innovations and making it easier to apply, way back when I used to work in HR and recruiting and talent acquisition, it was already challenging, already incredibly difficult to go through, you know, just a couple hundred people who are applying into one job. Now, there's thousands for the same opening.

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This means that when you go to LinkedIn, in three minutes after a job is posted, you might see that there is 1,204 people already applied. And that, at best, is going to feel disheartening. And this feeds into the belief that the job market must be impossible right now. Of course, you know that that's not actually what's happening.

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It's actually just that collectively, as a society, we're throwing our resumes everywhere.

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The truth here is that most of us we're just not that great. All of the skill sets that are involved in making a job transition, making a career transition, making a career change, a pivot of any kind. So in some ways it's not your fault. It's not like this education is a part of your schooling.

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It's not like it is something that you learned along the way. But the nice thing is you can learn it. The nice thing is that it is possible to make this change.

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This is great news because it's something that you can do about it. You can control becoming more skilled and knowledgeable about career transition and job search. For example, most open roles on LinkedIn are a terrible place to apply. It's too cluttered, and depending on which applicant tracking system that the company uses, for the recruiter, it can be incredibly challenging to wade through all of those people who are clicking the easy apply button. And often, they don't.

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I mean, think about this for a second. If you have a thousand plus applications, are you going to go through and look at every single one, reading intimately through? No, probably not. Now, times that by 10 or 25 jobs that you might be responsible for.

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Okay, quick tip, if you're going to apply, instead, go to the company website. It's gonna be your best chance of making sure that they actually see your application. It's going to link you directly to the ATS system that they use and up your chances. But honestly, here's something else to consider.

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Many of the clients that we work with and get to support every single day they don't apply at all. Or what happens is they apply after they have already accepted an offer. Here's how that looks. They go through, and they may have already gone through the back door and built those relationships, maybe even creating an opportunity from the backside, through those existing or newly built relationships.

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And then afterwards they're told, "Hey, we should probably have you fill out an application so we can get you into our system." But they've already been offered a job.

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Okay. If you're interested in using a more unconventional approach as opposed to the apply and then wait system that doesn't really work that effectively, then I would encourage you to check out other episodes of the Happen To Your Career podcast. Many of them are stories of clients that we've had the pleasure of working with, and they are so graciously willing to come on and share exactly what they did, so it can benefit so many other people.

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And I think what you'll find is that you are far more effective if you are adapting your job search strategy and modifying it to specifically fit where you're trying to get to, then you'll have a much, much better approach.

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Okay. So feel free to, you know, subscribe to the Happen To Your Career podcast. We've dropped a couple specific episodes that you can check out in the show notes and description here. Just go ahead and click on them, and then it'll take you right to some of those examples.

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I wanna talk about one other thing that is counterintuitive here that can help you as you are going through any kind of a job transition, career transition of any kind. When people think about the job market, they place a lot of weight on how the job market is doing, and that impacts their decision to start their search.

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It impacts their decision to continue their search. It impacts how they feel about the search as well. Now, what I want to share with you is that it's actually not relevant. What the entire market is doing seems like, logically, it should impact your search. What we found is that it doesn't.

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The single reason why is there are always people who, behind the scenes, you know, whether you know it or not, who are changing opportunities, who are getting better opportunities, who are often, you know, able to maneuver in and out and it doesn't have anything to do with the market as a whole, because you're only looking for one opportunity. I don't know. Maybe you're looking for a job and a part-time job, but then you're only looking for two opportunities. Either way, we're not talking about millions and millions and millions of opportunities, and we're only focused on one.

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Those opportunities are always able to be had. Sure, there's a couple of exceptions. Those exceptions would be jobs or types of opportunities where there's only one or two or three or five of them in the entire world. But for most people, if you're listening to this right now, you are not just looking for the type of opening where it is a single opening available in the entire world.

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Instead, there are many, many, many opportunities out there for you. And it becomes a case of "Am I strategically moving towards those opportunities in a way that is useful for me and useful for the organizations and people that I'm attempting to work with and create that opportunity for?" So, it's just not a very useful way to think about it.

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If we're saying I'm going to move forward or not, based on what I believe about the job market. You know, same thing is true for any other market too. If you're buying a house, there are always deals to be had, even if the market is up or down. If it's a buyer's market or a seller's market, there's always deals to had. Proof positive?

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My wife and I just bought a lake cabin to be able to utilize for Airbnb. We bought it at the worst possible time at the market, and we bought it at a stellar deal. And that's always the case in all markets. So the question isn't, “Is the market up or down?” The question is, in your particular situation, “What can you do to have a significant competitive advantage?”

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That's the question I'm going to leave you with, but if you want some of the answers, then definitely check out those episodes that are in the description and that we're recommending. They'll give you specific tips and tricks and things that other people that have actually done to be able to make their maneuvers.

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If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask. If you're interested in having help and support in maneuvering through this, you can always send me an email directly, Scott@happentoyourcareer.com, and what I'll do is I'll connect you with my team. We'll figure out the very best way that we can support you in developing a custom plan and figuring out where you actually want to go, not just for job search, but building the type of life that you want and figuring out how your work fits within it. All right, I'll see you later. Adios. I'm out.