Why aren't you receiving job offers? 

Professional life varies, and even those who are very aware of their competencies and try to effectively manage their career "sometimes fall overboard" (it happens to the best).

Some quickly move on from this situation, trying to find interesting work, while others need a bit more time to "get back on their feet." This is understandable, as losing a job is one of the most stressful situations in adult life. Regardless of the group, sooner or later, both become participants in selection/recruitment processes. These processes are usually more painful for unemployed individuals, so I recommend the rule – "look for a job while you're employed." However, not everything in life is perfect.

The longer, the worse...

The longer we look for a job while being effectively unemployed, the quicker the level of stress and our frustration rises. For us, finding a new job is a priority, and at the same time, we forget that our "whole world" is not "the whole world for others." We seem to overlook the fact that for potential employers, finding a new employee is important. However, this may not be their priority, or they may assume from the start that the process could take several weeks or months. Recruitment processes seem to "drag on forever," and the feedback we receive is virtually none. Long-term unsuccessful job searching can damage our nervous system, and after some time, we simply stop believing in ourselves and our abilities.

I often hear from individual clients who have been out of work for a long time that they do not receive job offers because: someone else was hired "through connections," they are too young/old, have the wrong gender, an inappropriate photo in their CV, inappropriate appearance, there was no so-called "chemistry" during the recruitment interview.

What can you influence, and what can't you?

Before you completely succumb to sadness and helplessness, analyze the reasons why you are not receiving job proposals. Your candidacy can be rejected at several stages – before and after the recruitment interview, but there may also be several other reasons, of which you may not be aware.

I encourage you to read the following points.

Internal factors – those you can influence:

You don't receive a job offer because:

• You do not possess the competencies sought by the employer, or you did not highlight them sufficiently in your application documents.
• Your competencies are too high for the offered position (e.g., you are a manager applying for a specialist position). The potential employer/recruiter deemed that, in their opinion, this will not be a position where you would want to spend a longer period, it will merely be a "stopover" for you, and you will simply start looking for another job soon.
• A potential employer or headhunter checked you online and noticed, for example, disturbing comments, photos, or a significant inconsistency between your profile and CV.
• You did not perform well during the recruitment interview (e.g., you did not prepare well enough, you were late, you did not answer the questions skillfully, you did not show motivation to take on the new position, you spoke negatively about your former employer, etc.).
• The headhunter/potential employer checked your references, and they were not satisfactory.
• People from your environment/network (e.g., former subordinates, suppliers, business partners, colleagues) do not speak positively about the quality of your work.
• You did not show motivation/enthusiasm to take the proposed position – you did not demonstrate this during the recruitment process.

External factors – those you can't influence:

You don't receive a job offer because:

• Your candidacy was not presented by the headhunter (e.g., they had other candidates whose skills corresponded more closely with the client's expectations).
• Another candidate was chosen for the position.
• Your financial expectations were higher than those of a counter-candidate with comparable skills or exceeded the employer's budget.
• The recruitment process was suspended by the company (there are so-called "hiring freezes").
• The potential employer offered the position to an internal candidate (internal promotion).
• The company changed its strategy and closed the recruitment process, or internal changes in the company led to the end of the recruitment process.
• The scope of the position changed, e.g., instead of a manager/supervisor position, the company wants to hire a coordinator (lower level of position/lower salary) or the scope of the position was changed because the candidates who applied do not meet the company's expectations.
• There was a break in the recruitment process due to, for example, vacations, holidays, the absence of a decision-maker, etc.
• This process did not exist at all, and the company collects applications because it believes that in the near future it will be looking for such candidates (special note towards headhunters – yes, such unpleasant situations occur, but they are not the norm).
• The values you espouse are not aligned with those preferred by the potential employer, or it was assumed you would not fit into the organizational culture.

The points above clearly show that you do not have control over everything. However, I do not want to encourage readers to play the so-called "wooden leg," attributing their failures exclusively to external factors. I want to highlight the complexity of recruitment processes and, consequently, note that they consume a lot of time (sometimes unimaginably so). Therefore, it is worth increasing your chances and not ceasing in efforts to find a new position, even if you are participating in several recruitment processes simultaneously.