Stop applying like this

Hi Reader,

I’ve got a backlog of hiring updates sitting on my desk.

Which sounds thrilling.

Nothing gets the heart racing like labour market data and recruiter sentiment reports.

But stay with me, because there’s a pattern emerging.

The polite phrase is this: The ANZ talent market is recalibrating.

The less polite version?

Fewer jobs. More applicants. Everyone exhausted.

This week I sat in on JobAdder’s Talent Acquisition webinar, covering their view of the hiring circus across Australia and New Zealand.

The message:

Recruitment teams are under pressure.

Hiring is cautious. Candidate numbers are high. And too many employers are still relying on the old “post and pray” method.

Also, in Australia, job creation fell by 10% year-on-year.

Yet, applications rose by 17%.

That’s a nasty little combination.

Fewer roles. More people applying. More overwhelmed recruiters. More candidates wondering if their resume has been sucked into a digital sewer.

And then AI wandered in wearing a lanyard.

Allowing people to apply faster, more often, and for roles they are only vaguely suitable for if you squint and ignore half the job ad.

To be clear, AI is not the problem. Lazy use of AI is the problem.

Using it to understand a role, sharpen your evidence or prepare for an interview? Useful. Using it to fire off 47 polished-but-average applications before lunch?

Congratulations.

You have successfully become part of the problem.

A better-written average application is still an average application.

It just has cleaner punctuation.

Employers are hedging their bets too.

Temporary and contract roles increased by 30% in Australia. Permanent hiring declined, with Australian permanent roles falling by 23%.

So yes, employers still need workers. They just don’t want to commit to a long-term relationship. But contract work is not automatically a failure. In a cautious market, it can be a bridge, not a consolation prize.

With all that said, not every industry or job type is drowning in applications.

Looking at Jobs and Skills Atlas, employers advertising for Audiologists or Speech Pathologists are receiving just over 2.5 applications per ad, with a filled rate of 60%.

Accountants are in a very different boat.

Employers are receiving just over 51 applications per job. Only 43% of applications are qualified, and only 13% are suitable. However, there is enough application volume to fill 85% of vacancies.

So where does this leave you?

First up. Don’t contribute to the application glut problem.

Applying just because AI makes it easy or spraying your resume across the internet is not called a strategy.

But if you are a qualified and suitable candidate?

Make yourself easy to understand, easy to shortlist, and easy to trust.

That’s less sexy than “hack the algorithm”.

But it is much more likely to work.

~ Lisa

Your Q&A

Why is my resume not working?

Hi Lisa,

I’m trying to work out why some resumes seem to get interviews and others don’t.

I’ve seen people with almost the same background apply for similar roles and get completely different results. One person gets called. The other hears nothing.

I’ve been reading about ATS systems, keywords, formatting, and resume builders, and I understand that structure matters. But I’m starting to think there’s more to it than just using the right template or adding the right words.

Is there something else going on in how resumes are read or interpreted? What actually separates a standard resume from one that gets noticed?

Eugene

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Hi Eugene,

You’re doing the thing most professionals do. You’ve narrowed in on the resume so hard that you’ve stopped looking at the actual problem.

Your job search problem is not someone else’s.

Comparing your resume to another person’s resume isn’t useful. You are not applying with their exact work history, their timing, their network, their salary expectations, their location, their interview skills, or their mildly suspicious ability to charm recruiters on the phone.

Your job search is its own little ecosystem. A resume is part of that ecosystem. But it is not the whole thing.

When someone comes to me for resume help, my first questions are usually not about fonts, keywords or ATS optimisation.

They are: What roles have you applied for? How many? Over what period? What happened after each application?

Sadly, most can’t answer those questions properly.

So the question isn’t: “Why do some resumes get interviews?”

The better question is: “Where is my job search breaking?”

Track that properly, and you’ll stop guessing.

Thanks for writing in.

~Lisa​