Newbie job search power dynamics

Quote from Emily on January 12, 2023, 9:50 pm

Greetings TPM community and Lucio, glad to be back here and happy new year! I've been busy as I started working later last year, and I feel emotionally in a much better place.  I'm adapting to a more comfortable place and to accept less of the BS in socializing, and glad that we have this hub here where I feel supported and comfortable learning and focusing on self-improvement. I do reflect a lot about power dynamics, as time and time again I see it everywhere.

I greatly appreciate the post by Transitioned on Job hunting  - many good insights and suggestions. Wish I could have learnt all these earlier so I wouldn't stumble so much in my own journey trying to figure out career.

I would like to detail a few experiences of my own to illustrate the points in this post - like a case study as a junior employee who's just been getting on the market.

It's a market and job seekers are lower power 

Couldn't agree more. As a person who just graduated from graduate school, for some time I didn't understand that I was extremely disadvantaged in the job market - education is valued (and more so in some industries than others, although not a linear correlation), but not as much when you are starting out. New graduates are dime in a dozen, and nowadays it's a burden for employers to train new hires.  In the past couple years I've tried a lot of strategies, and I grew more and more frustrated, but I'm glad that I found place where I fit and feel happier now. Here are some of my approaches:

Apply through job boards/companies

This is the worst and most dis-empowering. You pose as a “taker” (I need a job!!) and you are going in blind. Needless to say, I had no luck in this.

Cold contact managers and team members for open positions

Still disempowering as you are asking for something. I found the experience with team members a bit better since they don't have the hiring power. But also precisely because they don't have the hiring power they are less relevant except the personality check/fitness for the team test.

Ask for a referral 

This increases the chances a lot (as compared to applying massively) of passing HR and getting real conversations with either the hiring manager, or team members to kick start the interview. But it depends on how the chat is, and if I feel it was a good conversation, I would ask for a referral - also depending on the person you talk to. I had people who flat out rejected me for my referral request.

Doing temporary contract/internship

The hope is to “get your foot in the door” so they realize your value and you might have chances for a permanent hire. I personally feel this doesn't work well with people with less experience (of course this really depends on the team and the set up) - because this requires less investment from employers and when shit hits the fan, you are the first one to fire (as your career value hasn't accrued much as compared to more experienced personnel) - happened to me a lot to the point that I would not consider those stints anymore. Or if the internship or coop ended - it was for your manager to gain their career capital (management experience, internship leadership etc.) while you are let go - they would simply say there is no head count or suitable open position for you. I did observe it happening successsully for other folks to get permanently hired, but I wasn't politically savvy at that point as this person, who had visibility with leadership and of course was promoted.

Training programs and bootcamps 

My experience tells me that they are a business, and they care about taking your money than taking you through this difficult process. For example, I applied for one bootcamp and was rejected because of some nonsense reason about me not having a graduation plan. I suspect that it was because my profile didn't fit into their algorithm for quick hires/successful candidates. One of my friends had succeeded in this and got hers for free (when this bootcamp was starting out and not charging). I later realized that her major gave her an advantage for the type of jobs that are targeted, whereas mine doesn't. Nowadays I have set up a boundary based on my belief that education should be open to all for low to no cost, and I will not fall for such traps.

Random recruiter contact 

What a waste of time. Unless the recruiter comes from a closer contact or teams you worked with, just ignore. They are most likely casting a wide net, and as a junior employee, you are definitely not prioritized on their list.  I was also asked to do assessments by a couple of them - as you can imagine, nothing panned out, and you lose power as you invest more of your time as the “chaser”.

Head hunter

I enjoyed reading the blogs for some head hunters - hired one for my purpose. Same as above, nothing beats the market. The head hunter quickly realized this is a dead end and ghosted me after a couple contacts asking me to write a testimonial.

 

The above may sound dire. My point is, hard to start out when you are not already “in the circle”. Eventually, I found my current position online and got attention from HR because it's a smallish nonprofit (big corporations don't pay attention to general applicants due to capacity) and my background fits them perfectly.  I have visibility from senior leadership and I'm technically part of management (although I don't feel so haha). I do feel it's a great starting point of my career. I also agree that focusing on your number 1 priority is very important. For me, I need recognition and inclusion at work - I have visibility and an office. Previously I was earning more in those super unstable remote temporary jobs and I hated it. Anyway, happy to share and would like to hear if you have any stories/thoughts of understanding power dynamics in job search as well.