Punching a brick wall will fracture your hand. Yelling at the rainstorm you got caught in won't keep you from getting soaked. Fighting realities you can't change isn't a how-to-live-life strategy or a job-search strategy; it's self-sabotage. Yet many job seekers waste time and energy raging against ingrained hiring realities, growing bitter and angry when their expectations aren't met, which prolongs their job search.
Job seekers who refrain from complaining about how employers hire and adopt the AAA approach land jobs faster than those who complain about hiring practices.
Acknowledge the unyielding realities of hiring and the wisdom to know what you can't control.
Accept that you can't change them and find serenity in letting go of what's beyond your control.
Adapt your strategy and have the courage to change what's entirely within your control: your actions.
AAA mirrors Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference," and acknowledges the fundamental truth that employers control their capital, workplace, and hiring process.
Succeeding in today's job market requires letting go of misconceptions about "fairness" and any sense of entitlement you may have, and embracing the following five truisms:
The Law of Supply and Demand
As a job seeker, you're offering labour, a commodity governed by supply and demand. When hundreds of job seekers have qualifications similar to yours, your market value declines. Expecting top-dollar compensation when employers are flooded with applications is like selling sand at the beach; no amount of self-importance can change the law of supply and demand.
Positioning yourself as a rare commodity is how you overcome supply and demand. Generic qualifications in a job market full of them don't show what every employer wants: measurable results that boost profitability. Present yourself as a value proposition by quantifying past achievements in dollars, percentages, or time saved.
2. Job Searching Is a Winner-Take-All Competition
A job search is a winner-take-all contest with one trophy: a job. Finishing second is no better than finishing last: no job. You don't win by regurgitating job descriptions; you win by treating every application like a title fight. Find where the company's bleeding, show performance metrics proving you've stopped that bleeding elsewhere, and make the hiring manager say, "I've got to meet this person!"
3. Hiring Is a Process of Elimination
Recruiters and hiring managers don't scan resumes for reasons to hire you; they look for reasons to rule you out. Consider the math: 500 people apply, and only one gets the job. That means 499 were eliminated at some point in the hiring process.
While there are countless reasons you could be eliminated, the four main ones are:
Mistakes and Errors: Typos, spelling and grammar errors, or a chaotic layout suggest you'll deliver low-quality work.
Lack of Alignment: Your resume and LinkedIn profile don't explicitly reflect the core skills the job posting requests.
Unexplained Employment Gaps: Employers view employment gaps as a red flag and can easily avoid candidates with gaps by not interviewing them.
Overqualification: Many employers see overqualified candidates as flight risks, expect higher compensation, and are harder to manage.
You significantly increase your odds of avoiding elimination by ensuring your resume and LinkedIn profile are error-free, skimmable, and laser-focused on the position's required qualifications and experience, and by explaining any employment gaps.
4. Perception Is Reality
In hiring, perception is the deciding factor.
While your resume and LinkedIn profile create the initial impression that either compels the recruiter or hiring manager to reach out to you or eliminates you, the vetting phone call, video interview, and face-to-face interview are all important for shaping perceptions and, fingers crossed, preventing elimination. Every word you say, every shift in your tone, and every visual cue contribute to your interviewer's impression of you. For example, saying you want a "stable" environment often comes across as "can't handle change." (What workplace is stable these days?)
How you dress, read the room, project confidence, and handle tough questions trumps your qualifications and experience. Show up underdressed or overdressed for their culture, and you signal that you don't fit in. If you get defensive or deflect blame when asked about a past failure, you'll be labelled arrogant and unmanageable. At the risk of sounding philosophical: you don't own how others interpret your actions; you only own the evidence of your choices.
5. Your Lifestyle Overhead Is Your Responsibility, Not the Employer's
I've never known an employer who hires candidates to help fund the lifestyle they created. Your mortgage, car payments, and debts are irrelevant when a company sets a role's pay baseline. Employers determine your value by what you contribute to the bottom line. Show that contribution while taking personal responsibility: either shrink your lifestyle or expand your skill set.
Getting angry at hiring realities won't change them; you'll only deplete your stamina and prolong your unemployment. You can't force employers to change how they hire. Accept what you can't change, use the AAA approach, and land your next job.
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Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned corporate veteran, offers "unsweetened" job search advice. Send Nick your job search questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.