You WILL Fail - deal with it.

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
― Thomas A. Edison

Just a quick word to every job seeker, recruiter, or person that ever thought about just quitting….DON’T.  Life unfortunately is as much about failures as it is about successes…you should embrace both and figure out how best to react…that is where the real growth occurs.

I work with job seekers every day.  They all want to find a great company with a great position and great compensation.  In fact…don’t we all want that?  Sometimes I wish we could redefine the vernacular that we are all accustomed to.  I wish we could show that success is actually defined by effort…not by achievement.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m not a big proponent of the “everybody gets a trophy” mentality…what I am saying though is “Don’t give up….keep pushing and you’ll get it”.

Let me share some numbers from my own experience.  Most companies that use a recruiter have already exhausted their own “internal pipeline” of referrals and have also made some sort of an effort to advertise the opening (job boards, company website, social media, workforce services, etc.).  By the time I see an opening as a recruiter that a company wants me to fill, they have seen 10-50 resumes already on average.  Let’s just go with 30 as an average.  That is 30 people that have already failed (to obtain this job)!  Most companies will engage 2-3 recruiting agencies on a contingency basis.  Common rule of thumb in recruiting is to send over 3-5 candidates for each opening a company has engaged you to search on.  3 agencies x 5 candidates each = 15 more candidates (if you are keeping track, that is 45 candidates so far for the opening).  In order for a recruiter to find 3 qualified candidates to send to a company, industry average dictates that you will speak with 10 people to find one who is both qualified and interested in the position.  More math you ask???  …An additional 30 more conversations with people.  But….not so fast….not everyone picks up the phone or responds to a recruiter’s email.  On average…it takes 100 calls/emails to speak to 10 people as a recruiter.

Let’s summarize:

·         One job = 30 failed internally generated candidates

·         3 recruiting agencies = 15 candidates presented

·         15 candidates presented = 15x10 conversations or 150 conversations

·         150 conversations = 1500 calls/emails

What does this all mean?  On average, for one person to “succeed” or “accomplish” landing the job….1529 other people failed.

1529 failures

Obviously there are many factors that make this number move up and down for each open position that I see, but the point is simple.  YOU WILL FAIL.  Everybody does.  One of the first things I tell a new candidate is – rarely do I place someone on a first contact…but we’ll work together to find the right fit…it might be now – it might be a year from now. 

The best advice I can give a job seeker (or a new recruiter that keeps hearing people say “no thanks..not interested in a change right now”) is:  Get used to it, embrace it, learn and grow from it.  You will fail…we all do.  Just don’t quit.  You might be the next person on the list a recruiter is about to call for a position that is a perfect fit for you.