Before I dive into some context about what’s happening on the other side of the hiring process, I want you know this:⁠

The pace of the hiring process moves at the speed of the employer, not the candidate. ⁠

Like I tell clients all of the time, you’ll never be able to job search faster than the hiring process.

⁠When you’re a job seeker, your search is all you can think about.⁠

You probably reload your inbox and job search sites frequently.⁠

But when you’re hiring, there’s a lot of other stuff going on!⁠

They could be reviewing applicants 

And sometimes there are A LOT of applicants.

Combing through dozens and dozens of applicants, ensuring that they meet the requirements, liaising with hiring managers, all take up a tremendous amount of time.

It’s hard to be patient, but it’s essential.

(This is also why it’s absolutely essential to make sure your resume clearly highlights your qualifications. This is what helps you STAND OUT quickly. You can make the recruiter’s job so much easier if you can make it easy for them to see why you’re a fit for the role. Most applicants do not do this at all or don’t do it well. Learn more here.)

They are hiring for more than one role and other positions have been prioritized.⁠

Chances are good that they aren’t just hiring for the role you’ve applied for. 

Recruiters are typically responsible for multiple openings.

If you haven’t heard back, it’s possible that the role you’re interested in just isn’t the priority right now…so hang in there!

There is other, time-sensitive work going on.⁠

Even though nobody likes to be short-staffed, you’re applying to an organizations and there is still work to be done. 

While recruiters are able to work full time on hiring, most hiring managers are not.

When a hiring manager or other stakeholder is bogged down with other priorities and unable to move quickly to move the process forward, the timeline for a search can grind to a halt.

I know how frustrating this can be - but it’s not personal!

A critical stakeholder is on vacation or out sick so nothing can move forward.⁠

Less common but still relevant is remembering that everyone involved is human, too.

Add in that we’re all now working through a pandemic and many teams have new people joining as well as people leaving and you can imagine that things are not moving at an ideal pace!

There are internal issues holding up the process (i.e. budget, re-orgs, etc.).⁠

Sometimes a job gets posted…and things change. 

Or a mistake was made in the original job posting.

Or a new re-organization was just announced.

You often have no way of knowing what’s going on inside another organization - but these sorts of internal issues can often lead to delays in the hiring process.

They are moving forward with other candidates.⁠

Of course, it’s always possible that they have moved the search forward with other candidates in mind. 

You probably knew about this reason already, but hopefully, this list gives you some context about why I never assume this for my clients, unless we get an actual rejection email. 

There’s a lot of other stuff going on for a lot of people in this process – especially in these strange times!

⁠It’s hard to know exactly  WHY you haven’t heard back, but because I’ve seen these environments, I know it isn’t necessarily because you haven’t been selected.⁠

⁠I encourage my clients to think of applying for jobs as planting seeds. Not everything will come to fruition so your job is to stay focused on creating opportunities for yourself.

Now that you know what the environment is like on the other end of the process, how will it change your approach as a job seeker?