How to get past the “computer says no” in job-searching

Job seekers often spend hours online researching employers and polishing their applications and résumés. Then they hit send. And they hear nothing. Ever.

Published on:

17 Dec 2019, 3:06 pm

New job seekers or sometimes even older ones are increasingly facing the problem that they have to clear a number of hurdles before they can even speak to a human being in a Human Resources department. Often they have to sit through verbal, non-verbal and critical thinking skills tests and load their résumés onto platforms that are run by independent companies and most importantly by Artificial Intelligence (AI) that sift through thousands of CVs and come up with a shortlist that ticked the right boxes. What is clear from speaking to graduates overseas and in South Africa looking for jobs, is that it is difficult to come up with the right recipe for applications. A prominent law firm in London looks at the median profile of their last year's intake to determine what that ideal candidate should look like; so you may think you have found the right formula, but it evolves from year to year. There are very able candidates with Oxbridge degrees who still battle to get the top jobs because they lack a certain ingredient, but to determine what that is, is difficult. The other problem with AI choosing candidates according to set criteria, is that those without the Oxbridge or a good degree from a South African university that may be better suited for the job, often get overlooked. Sue Shellenbarger has useful tips in the Wall Street Journal on how to get past the robots and it seems nothing beats good old networking and may I add a skin as thick as a rhino for those rejections that you should not take personally. – Linda van Tilburg