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The advert is a snapshot.
The job keeps moving.
Why so many applications go nowhere, and where the roles worth having actually move.
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Founder, MCG Asia |
4 min read |
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The week in numbers
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+189
New subscribers
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+352
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When you apply to a job advert and the application goes nowhere, people reach for the usual suspects.
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The usual suspects
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The LinkedIn algorithm. |
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An AI screening tool binning your CV before a human sees it. |
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Or sheer volume of applicants, which across MENA is very real. |
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I think the root cause is much simpler.
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Most people look for new employment through job adverts. Adverts are unreliable because they are a fixed response to a question that never stops changing.
I see this so often. A company posts a role. You apply. A week later the circumstance behind the role has completely changed, and the ad stays live in its original form.
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A job advert is a fixed response to a question that never stops changing.
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It is nobody’s fault. But consider these scenarios
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How an advert goes stale
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Someone handed their notice in and the ad went up that afternoon. A week later they took the counteroffer and stayed. The ad stays live. |
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The responsibilities shifted, and the person they now want looks nothing like the JD. |
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The company changed direction after a first round of interviews, and the parameters are instantly outdated. |
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You end up applying to something that very quickly no longer exists.
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This is more common than you'd like to think.
Don't get me wrong, there are scenarios from the agency side where job ads are useful. If I need quick access to a moving market, usually at a lower-mid level, a job advert is great. Anything above that at a more senior end, it's just not how those hires are made.
Nine of our past ten senior hires were sourced through headhunt or referral.
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Think about why a company pays recruiters at all
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If they could find the right person by posting an ad and reading the replies, they'd do it themselves. It's free. They don't need me for that.
My point is not that job adverts don't work. They do, for the one person who gets hired. They don't for the other 999 people sitting around waiting for a response.
They're inefficient to the extreme. Spreading applications across twenty openings feels like progress. But it's playing the lottery in six countries at once.
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The real search is happening somewhere you can’t refresh
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The roles worth having move through people. Someone knew someone. A recruiter made a call. A name came up in a room you were not in.
Or, go direct. Identify job adverts at source and reach out to the line manager. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is when talent walks its way into my inbox with a clear value proposition, versus having to sift through page after page on LinkedIn.
That's where I'd put my energy. Get known in your market before the role exists. Be reachable. Be the name that comes up when someone like me goes looking, and tell your peers to mention you if they see someone hiring.
That's the door most people never think to use, and it's wide open.
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P.S. Whenever you're ready.
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