We often romanticise the job search as a logical, linear process: tailor your CV, apply for roles, impress in interviews, and start your next chapter. In reality, it’s rarely that straightforward. The job market is less a ladder and more a labyrinth – full of dead ends, hidden doors, and unspoken rules. If you’re navigating a career move or supporting others through one, here are some of the uncomfortable truths about landing a new job that don’t get talked about enough.
It’s Not a Meritocracy
You’d like to think the best candidate always gets the job. But many hiring decisions hinge less on capability and more on timing, chemistry, brand perception, and sometimes even internal politics. You could be the most qualified person on paper and still not make the shortlist because someone else came via referral, or simply ‘a better fit’.
Visibility Beats Applications
Endless hours uploading tailored CVs to black hole job portals rarely pays off. Most roles – especially senior ones – are filled through executive search, not adverts. Hiring managers lean into trust. They want someone vouching for you and an external expert who has powerful assessment tools. If you’re not investing time being visible to headhunters, you’re competing at a disadvantage, no matter how polished your LinkedIn is.
Your CV Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Most CVs are skimmed in under 10 seconds. Algorithms filter candidates before a human even sees them. Meanwhile, nuance – your leadership style, judgement, potential, influence – doesn’t get a look in. Those attributes only surface in conversation, which again underscores why warm introductions and personal contact matter more than keyword stuffing or template tweaking. Keeping things to the point, results and evidence based is key.
The Hiring Process is Often Badly Run
Despite talent being an organisation’s greatest asset, many hiring processes are chaotic. Feedback is sometimes vague or non-existent. Timelines are inconsistent. Interviewers may not be aligned or even trained. Candidates are sometimes left guessing.
Rejection Isn’t Always About You
It’s easy to take silence or a “no” personally, but often it’s not about your performance. Budget shifts, restructuring, internal changes, or other changes can all scupper an otherwise promising process. The problem is, you’ll rarely be told the real reason. This doesn’t always mean you weren’t a strong candidate – just that the context changed.
Interviewing Well is a Skill – Not the Same as Doing the Job
Being great at interviews doesn’t necessarily make you great at the job. Yet many hiring decisions hinge on how comfortable, confident, or likeable someone is in a high-pressure, artificial setting. If you’re brilliant at what you do but struggle to ‘sell yourself’, this creates an unfair disadvantage – and it’s one of the reasons executive coaching and interview prep are so in demand. This is also where many companies use headhunters, as they can use powerful tools to uncover insights beyond an interview, particularly where senior leaders are very competent at communicating their way through an interview.
The Best Roles Are Rarely Advertised
If you’re relying on public job boards, you’re seeing a tiny part of the market. The best opportunities – especially in leadership – are usually shared privately, through retained search or informal referrals. Getting access to these takes more than just applying; it means being in the conversations before the job even exists and approaching the market strategically (which is where outplacement coaching can help).
