Long term recruiters - is the job market truly more brutal now?

[NewRedHot]

Hi,

I have lost my relatively senior, over £80k basic salary job 2 weeks ago, unexpectedly. I have cracked on with sorting out my CV and learnt a lot about job hunting, which I have not done since 2010 as I moved companies once only since then, on recommendation.

I maybe overexposed to job hunting doom, when it feels like you see posts about people losing jobs and send out dozens of applications to get one at least acknowledged.

Please can you give me a reality check - is the current situation worse than ever indeed, or is it like every generation thinks things were better in their childhood (they certainly weren’t in mine, so maybe I am a bit more optimistic about job search than I should be)?

Yes it really is that bad. Sorry to be blunt but it absolutely is.

I was jin hunting from Aug - Nov (made redundant). It was dehumanising and depressing. I am now working but on a 12 month fixed term contract (so will need to start looking again end of June) with a salary 1/2 of what I was on before.
I am in academia (science) and funding has been decimated.

It’s pretty bad. One thing I have always, always done is keep an eye on job listings in my area. Not because I’m looking for a new job, I’m quite happy in my current job, but just to keep up with what is going on. Normally if I search by industry, what comes up is a combination of jobs that I’d be interested in, jobs that I wouldn’t love but could do if I was desperate (e.g. made redundant), and jobs that don’t seem to be relevant. But for the last six months, all it’s been is a few of the irrelevant ones.

Apologies I should add I'm not a recruiter but am adjacent to job searching in a particular field that is usually highly active and highly lucrative and has absolutely died a death.

Have you been networking? Need to get on LinkedIn (depending on role I guess) and start networking on there! Look out for ads for agencies etc who perhaps deal with your sector/ role and follow them, and get on Glassdoor.

My current job is coming to an end of a fixed term contract ( charity sector). Obviously earnings nothing like yours. I was hoping I would be kept on but there is literally no funding available for charities to bid for at the moment. Things are really dire. I have secured a part time job on to but for little more than NMW now that NMW has gone up so I feel like a bit of a mug accepting it but needs must. Good luck with your job hunt.

Not a recruiter but last year I applied for approx 60 jobs, only ever heard back from two. One I got a pre-interview chat which they never even had to decency to give feedback on, the other I got the job.

Ive never seen it so bad. I’m sorry you’re at the start of the process, I hope you stumble into something wonderful.

What I cannot get my head around is that people/companies who are recruiting are not reporting a surplus of good candidates. There seems to be a massive mis match between companies that are recruiting and people looking for jobs.

@HermioneWeasley This is what I do not get either. I had two great vacancies in my team over last 6 months and could not hire, neither through internal recruitment team nor two agencies. One was filled via a personal referral, another still vacant. Both over £50k roles.

Did it need heavy experience of very specific skills, very specific sector, very specific technology ?

The market is different now than it was 2 years ago mainly because of AI. I have had several positions recently that were an absolute nightmare to fill, it was damn near impossible to find a good candidate not because of lack of options but because almost every CV was a perfect match to the job description and we had hundreds of them.

Previously I’d look at application/CV and short list based on relevant experience, then interview those candidates.

Now every CV/application is a hyperbolic, exaggeration written by chatGPT to match the JD key points and when I interview it becomes evident that it was all a load of crap becuse they can’t answer the questions.

I think applicants have an additional barrier now with having to get through ATS filters. They're using ChatGPT not just to write the CV but to align it as far as possible to the JD to try and make sure it actually gets in front of a human.

I've been applying for jobs recently after a break. I've heard back from a grand total of five out of maybe thirty (every single one including a CV tailored to the role/JD). The first one I applied for is the one I actually got. Two were declines, one was an FTC that I decided not to pursue after accepting a permanent role, and one was civil service to go forward to next stage of the process. The rest provided no response at all, which I think is a poor reflection of the culture at that organisation and would make me reconsider wanting to work there.

This was my experience. Completely ghosted by jobs where I matched the experience and qualifications exactly but once I got an interview I was quickly successful.

So would the non AI ones get through the initial sift? Or do you read them all? I’ve never used AI to fill in an application.

Maybe the rumour was already out thay the co lang was struggling and going to be letting people go. It's always amazing how friends of those on the know learn kf these things before actual employees affected

Are you able to share which field this is out of interest please?

means nothing to me when people don’t put the jobs and sectors that they’re in.

@Crikeyalmighty These were Technical Sales Managers, with manufacturing background, so should be plenty of suitable candidates. Company is a market leader and my exit was not connected to business performance, if anything our Q1 was over target.

I get this too. So many perfect CVs and letters, but on interview they don't even seem to have read the job ad.
We don't use AI to screen applications, but most applicants are using it for applications and that overwhelms application portals. Thats why you don't get past screening or a response. Network hard, word of mouth will help.

So is the consensus is that AI has made it impossible for suitable candidates and recruiters to find each other? Not exactly a huge leap forward in productivity.

I don’t know anyone in my (small, specialist) industry who has either got a job or recruited for a position through job applications. It’s all word of mouth and networking.

Agree that AI has ruined the job vacancy process.

If your CV isn't rewritten with all the job description key words then you are automatically rejected. Sometimes the rejection comes back within 1 minute of submitting your application because the bot skims your application and auto rejects. Others clearly built some slack into their AI job sifting bot and told it to wait a few days before rejecting candidates; to give candidates the impression they've read and considered each application. Or at least, that's what I assumed was happening when I received a rejection email on Christmas morning...

A human will never see your application if you dont use AI. But by using AI you are ruining your individuality and just becoming one in a sea of identical applications. I don't know the answer to it really. I've only had success by building a good relationship with a recruiter who then puts me forward for roles.

We don’t use AI to sift, partly because it’s against the EU-AI act to use AI to make hiring decisions without human decision making. This means having to read all CVs, it is relatively quick on an individual basis about 1-2 mins per CV for an initial skim but when you have 500 like I did for the last role I recruited….

I can now spot the signs of AI most of the time because most people aren’t great at using it, so those go straight onto my ‘can’t be trusted bottom of the pile’ collection, but it’s impossible to pick out every CV that’s fake until you speak to the person, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that a lot of the CVs are full on lies. I’ve had roles where the JD clearly states that the candidate needs 1-2 years experience of leading external audits conducted by an accredited certification body. The CV says they have that exact experience. I ask them what certification body, what audit, what they specifically did to facilitate that audit and they tell me that they never actually took part in an audit.

Recruiters/Head hunters are struggling. Too many of them and not enough companies hiring or willing to pay the fees. It's a really tough time and not confined to the UK.

I do a fair bit of recruitment, public sector.

Certainly once you get beyond the AI applications, candidate quality at interview is noticably higher. Presumably that shows many good people are on the market. I don't know how this translates to the private sector.

I mean realistically as someone who just got sacked, you’re not a desirable candidate

the most desirable candidates are those currently working in a juicy position that a recruitment team can draw them
away from, they hold all the power and leverage as they can turn down shitty offers and negotiate to their benefit

whereas you would just be offered the bare minimum and that may be unfavourable, as you have no fall back plan