Episode Transcript

EChris Villanueva 0:04
I’m not getting any callbacks. I’ve applied for over 300 positions and perfectly qualified for this position. Why did I get rejected, my job search has been going on way too long. If any of these three statements come to mind if you’ve said any of these three statements in the last week or two, you are not alone here. And these are common cries of job seekers, you may have even said verbatim.

Chris Villanueva 0:30
Today I’m going to discuss the common and difficult part of the job search process, probably the most difficult part for many job seekers and not getting any callbacks. So we’ll discuss how to troubleshoot the lack of callbacks. And I want to get your wheels turning with this episode, and hopefully add some more extra oomph to your day is a side benefit. I want you to feel encouraged, as well as educated on some things that you can do to get more out of your job search.

Chris Villanueva 0:59
Spoiler alert, the resume is just one part of this episode. Today, we’re going to be focusing on some other parts of the no callbacks problem that I think a lot of job seekers are facing. And the resume is going to be just one part of that. And there are some other elements that I would like to bring into this discussion today.

Chris Villanueva 1:24
So I am Chris, and this is the career warrior podcast. This is part of let’s eat grandma, the resume service I co founded in 2014. We are focused on helping mid to senior level professionals get noticed and land more interviews, head on over to letseatgrandmagrandma.com To get your free resume critique today. All right, so let’s talk about no callbacks, troubleshooting, no callbacks, broken this out into four different reasons why you may not be getting the callbacks, or you may be one of the people who say, Hey, I’ve applied for X amount of positions and not getting the feedback that I deserve here.

Chris Villanueva 2:01
Reason number one, you may not be getting callbacks, this is a tougher one to swallow. And I almost thought about not opening up with it. But I think that this is actually a good one to open up with, you may not be qualified for the position, you may be wasting your time because you’re just not qualified.

Chris Villanueva 2:19
Now, listen, there are applicants out there who most certainly will not meet all the qualifications and still get the job. Just think about every entrepreneur out there who has started their own business. I like to think about Donald Fisher, who was 40 years old, and he had no experience in retail whatsoever. He and his wife, Doris opened the very first gap store in San Francisco in 1969.

Chris Villanueva 2:42
So just great counter example to what I’m talking about here today. But there is an element of realism that comes from the fact that when you’re sending your resume out online, and your people don’t see that lovely enthusiasm, and they don’t want to give you a shot, just because you are getting beaten out by a bunch of other applicants who are just meeting those requirements.

Chris Villanueva 3:05
So especially if you are applying online, I would say a good rule of thumb is to check at least 60% of the requirements. Again, you’re going to have higher odds if you’re knocking off every single one of those things. And I know it’s kind of like a laundry list of times. But the biggest complaint from recruiters is a massive influx of unqualified candidates. And I know that this is a reason why a lot of job seekers are just wasting their time and not having like this focused job search applying for positions that look great that they feel like they could do a great job. But you’re just they’re not really reading it carefully and understanding that they’re not meeting a good amount the majority of these qualifications here.

Chris Villanueva 3:47
So I’m opening up with that because everything else that I say after this kind of revolves around making it work for you and persisting and things like that. But really get real with yourself and understand are you qualified? Are you meeting at least 60% of the requirements. And of course, like the knockout questions, you have to make sure that you you’re getting the things that are absolutely mandatory for the position. But don’t waste your time and applying for roles, especially online, you’re going to you’re going to get met by even more friction than is going to be good for you.

Chris Villanueva 4:25
Now that we got that one out of the way. Second reason why you may be getting no callbacks is your resume isn’t properly targeted for the position. So I think that is the best way I could categorize this your resume isn’t targeted for the role properly. You want to make sure that you’re hitting the right types of keywords. Even if you’ve you know think you’ve looked great on paper and you have all the right things going on. You may not be hitting all the right types of keywords again in Episodes past, focus on position titles and making sure from top to bottom to try to integrate this position titles version out Your resume if needed.

Chris Villanueva 5:01
I’m hearing from a lot of job seekers out there, who, for example, one person to me yesterday said, Okay, I’m applying, I’m transitioning to a position in project management, and also information security management. And I was thinking to myself, like, how could this person possibly get noticed if they’re sending out the same resume for both of those different types of job postings out there.

Chris Villanueva 5:25
So definitely make sure to version out your resume if needed. And you have to hit the right types of keywords that may take some tweaking over time, you may not get it right in the beginning, get the traction you deserve just yet, but you gotta keep trying and keep tweaking your resume. I once worked with somebody who took several iterations of resume improvements. And it was only until think like multiple iterations of the resume, they ended up applying for a job and getting their dream job, or a position that previously rejected them.

Chris Villanueva 5:57
So just point simple just to put that simply, they applied for one position in September, got an auto rejection. And a few months later, he they applied for the same exact position and got the role mind blowing to me, because the recruiter, or the hiring manager said they’d never saw their resume come through in the first place. So just a little bit of tweaking can be your answer.

Chris Villanueva 6:22
Now, I will add a second thing here, make sure to differentiate by demonstrating your unique value proposition. Of course, in the business world and entrepreneurship, we always talk about, you know, what’s your, your UVP? What’s your unique value proposition? What’s the thing that makes you different, it’s the same exact thing for your resume. Because if you’re hitting all the right types of keywords, and you know, it looks like a good match, but you’re not talking about the things that would make you beat out another candidate. I mean, those unique stories and the things that you’ve done, then you’re just not going to stand out above all the other people who are submitting the same thing.

Chris Villanueva 7:03
If you’re a career warrior, you know, that you need to be different here, you need to make that effort and beat out the other 99% of folks who aren’t a hitting the right keywords and be not demonstrating their value proposition there. Now, we’re going to move on to three and four reasons three, and four, why you may be getting no callbacks and how to troubleshoot those, here’s where things get interesting.

Chris Villanueva 7:28
Reason number three is the job market sucks. The job market just totally might suck right now, especially for you and your industry. It is a tough time right now. I know that unemployment and I don’t even talk politics or economy or stuff like that. But from what I’ve heard, just from a bunch of different job seekers that although you know, unemployment is not skyrocketing, we’re not you know, seeing these obvious are huge problems in the economy that we can point to, we know that things are different than they were in 2021, where 47 million Americans quit their positions. And many workers, you know, for the last few years have been returning, you know, back to the workforce or changing positions. And a lot of folks want those coveted remote only positions. And, you know, people are applying online. And so things are really, really just tough out there. Right now, there’s a lot more people getting rejected, not getting what they want.

Chris Villanueva 8:29
Now, compared to the past, that doesn’t mean that oh, gosh, it sucks. Now, it’s a terrible time to be a job secret.

Chris Villanueva 8:35
Now, when I’m saying, I don’t want you to have that attitude, but the process is really inefficient right now. And people are hiring managers are flooded right now with applicants. So to that, I would say don’t overthink it right now. Things are just tougher right now. And you just got to keep moving forward. It may not be you that may not be the resume, it may not be that you are not qualified. But you may have to deal with more friction right now. And you may have to understand, and this is insulting for some people, I apologize. But you may have to understand that this is a bit of a numbers game right now. And you have to understand that if you’re not playing those numbers, and you’re not continuing to persist, even though you haven’t had the results, then you’re not doing yourself a good service here.

Chris Villanueva 9:22
So remember, look yourself every single day, every single morning in the mirror, do whatever you have to do right and write it out on a sticky note. I have little things that I put throughout my own life to remind myself kind of like what I’m focused on when I forget but just get really centered and do whatever you can for your own mental health and your own spirit to keep yourself moving forward. That’s a huge part of the job search process that I think a lot of folks that might be their number one problem.

Chris Villanueva 9:50
So number three, the job market sucks. You got to just keep moving forward. Thing Number two was your resume isn’t properly targeted for the role. And number one, you may not be meeting 60% or more of the requirements. And reason number four, why you may be getting no callbacks is similar to the last reason. But there’s a bit more nuance here, your industry may be extremely competitive, and other candidates are just beating you out.

Chris Villanueva 10:18
Now, I will add a variation to that statement, which is your level might be extremely competitive. So for example, if you are applying for CFO positions, can you imagine that there is just way less CFO positions out there than financial analyst positions, obviously. So it’s just that, statistically speaking, you’re going to have a longer job search, and it’s going to be more competitive, other people are going to beat you out, things get tougher.

Chris Villanueva 10:44
So what I would say to that is, it becomes more and more important to diversify your job search strategy, I have to tell you that it is so important, it becomes more important than ever to apply for positions that are not publicly advertised.

Chris Villanueva 11:05
It’s like wait, what, what does that mean apply for positions that are not publicly advertised, I have seen studies that estimate that between 70 to 80% of open positions are accounted for through the hidden job market, the hidden job market is a phrase I’m starting to like less and less, because hidden job market almost makes it seem that to you the job seeker, these are positions that are out of reach, that’s not at all the case, you can absolutely find positions out there that are in many cases going to be your dream position better than the ones that were not publicly advertised, because these positions may be to backfill a role that accompany know that they’re about to lose, and they just don’t want to put it online, they want to be more cost effective, or for whatever reason, there are so many companies out there that are not publicly advertising these positions, which is a good thing for you.

Chris Villanueva 11:59
Because you know that if you’re just applying to an online job posting on indeed zip recruiter LinkedIn easy apply. So are 500 or 600 other people. And so when you go this route, you are going to really find out quickly how much more you should be spending your time doing this rather than applying online.

Chris Villanueva 12:21
We know that employee referrals are still a top source of hiring. And I’ve seen stats saying that people are four times more likely to get hired through an employee referral, if you have that sort of in, but this is exactly what I mean. So if you’re kind of rolling your eyes, or you’ve always kind of rolled your eyes at the idea of okay, I need to network networking is is the way in, I have to just say I have to go along with that in still knowing that a lot of you just want to apply online through LinkedIn.

Chris Villanueva 12:54
I’m not saying these are bad things, but apply online through these job postings. Like the best way, the superior way is always always always to find those people networking opportunities. We’ve done other episodes on this before, and I’ve spoken with people who know far more in this realm than I do. So I would recommend checking out some of those episodes. I’ll leave you with one more bonus thing here.

Chris Villanueva 13:19
This is another reason why I know some folks out there are not getting the job search that they deserve. And I have to say like I just hopped off a group career coaching session with Clara Charlie, she’s an absolute legend and the career coaching world just to watch her speak is absolute magic. And she said something and I’ll quote her here she says if your heart is not in it, it’s really difficult to have a good job search meaning do you feel like you know, what positions you’re going for? How excited are you about your job search? How excited are you to get that position to take the next steps and people just emotionally are not ready and they haven’t maybe done the processing or they just may not physically have the time because they haven’t made the time yet or the mental space yet for their job search.

Chris Villanueva 14:11
So I’m just kind of speaking from experience here, I know that if there’s something that I know I need to do, and I know it’s going to take a lot of effort and time, and I kind of just like added on without kind of making that mental space or clarity or things like that, then then I you know, I’m not going to be able to succeed doing it.

Chris Villanueva 14:30
So make sure that your heart is truly in it. And you’ve kind of taken care of those prerequisites, whether it be you know, making time to understand what position you’re going for next, or maybe it’s I need to have get over this conflict that I have with my boss this month and then after that I’m going to really move forward on this job search or just taking like 30 minutes a week to really meditate or pray on the way where you’re headed next?

Chris Villanueva 15:00
Whatever it is, I can’t finish this episode without mentioning that and just get make sure your heart is in it. And you do that by spending time in solitude and understanding where it is that you are now and where you really want to go. So probably covered 80% of you out there with the tips one through four, but for the 20% who needed to hear that last Park not leave that out again.

Chris Villanueva 15:25
So thank you so much for tuning into today’s career warrior podcast episode, I do these episodes to serve you as the job seeker. So let me know if there’s anything I can answer out there, you’re more than welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m Chris Villanueva CPR w. And again, if you are looking for resume help and looking for somebody to work on your resume one on one to do the thing for you. We are available at letseatgrandma.com. And we just released a transform package.

Chris Villanueva 15:55
This is our newest invention, our newest Package, which includes not only the resume LinkedIn cover letter writing, but it also includes these one on one, job search strategy sessions also group career coaching, a guide to help you tailor your resume to optimize it to get the most results possible. So we really are over here thinking and cooking up ways to serve you as the job seeker to make sure you get what you need at every stage.

Chris Villanueva 16:24
So thank you so much for tuning in to today’s career warrior podcast.

Chris Villanueva 16:28
I can’t wait to see you next time a live career warrior podcast and before you go remember, if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job search our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages.

Chris Villanueva 16:50
We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention. You’ll get a resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster. Again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com forward slash podcast. Thanks, I’ll see you next time.