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With UK youth unemployment dominating headlines, it’s easy for young people to feel like entry level work has become impossible to break into. But while the market is tough, the bigger problem may be that the way we’re taught to job hunt no longer works.
Firstly, if you get your information about the job market from mainstream news, social media, or friends and family, my guess is that you think we’re in the middle of a jobs-apocalypse.
However, while it’s true that we are in a difficult jobs market, it’s important to ignore the hype and interrogate the data. University career development folks follow sources like Charlie Ball or the Institute of Student Employers. Their work is showing that the real picture is not that bad, especially for graduates and apprentices.
This is important, because if you think there’s no hope, then there’s no point in trying, and that’s very disempowering. The reality is that there is hope, it just takes more time and effort to find work than previously.
Secondly, if your job search strategy is using LinkedIn easy apply, or making lots of online applications (perhaps using AI to help), it’s likely you are getting a lot of rejections.
This has a similar impact. It creates the impression that there are no jobs out there, there’s no hope, there’s no point in trying… again, that’s disempowering. But the reality is, for most job-seekers, this is a bad job-search strategy. Recruiters are overwhelmed with application volumes and simply ignore most of them, especially if they are low quality.
So, what does work?
I think you’ve got to make connections with potential employers, and demonstrate your value. For example, let’s say I liked the property sector and wanted to get a start as an estate agent. Estate agents differentiate themselves on local knowledge and customer service, and it’s a really competitive industry, so they like people with drive.
