Job Search Truths: Why It’s Tougher in 2025 and What to Do About It

[00:00:00] Debbie: Hello and welcome to On Work and Revolution, where we talk about what’s shaking up in the world of work, leadership and career growth. I’m your host, Debbie Goodman. I’m CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a global group of executive search and leadership coaching companies. Whether you are navigating a career pivot, recovering from a layoff or just maybe looking for your next big thing, this is the space where we are going to unpack some strategies to help you do all of that. And today I am really excited because I have my partner in crime, my partner in business Advaita Naidoo, who is MD of Jack Hammer Africa, to join me for this conversation. And today we are tackling a topic that is timely and critical, which is how on earth to navigate the job market right now in 2025. We’re in Q2 2025, and one thing for sure is that the job seeking landscape has fundamentally changed. It’s really been almost dramatic from where we were in 2021 into 22, where there was so much activity and questioning on how to retain people, how to attract people.

There was all this talk about the great resignation and people were able to just kind of step out of the world of work for a little bit if they chose to do so. Maybe not so much in South Africa, but certainly in the US. Things have a, changed and one of the biggest questions that I get on a daily basis is, how do we navigate this wild market out there that is so fundamentally different?

So, Advaita, welcome.

[00:01:43] Advaita: Hi.

[00:01:45] Debbie: Alright. Big question over to you. Why is it so difficult?

[00:01:49] Advaita: Oh my goodness. Why is anything so difficult these days? I think the first big thing is that the visibility of jobs is really just that much higher. Every single role is being posted online, which is great marketing for a company, but then hundreds of people apply. Whether they’re right for the role or not, because it just looks good. And then related, AI has really transformed the hiring process because there are these tools that enable candidates to mass apply for hundreds of jobs in minutes. They have AI enhanced CVs, so the people behind the desks, the hiring professionals, just get totally overwhelmed with all the applications.

And then to manage that influx, they will rely on the AI screening systems. And so whether or not your CV gets noticed, I mean, is a massive gamble for many candidates.

[00:02:39] Debbie: Well that’s it in a nutshell, are we just going to end there? Um, and say sorry, everybody. It’s a bit of a crapshoot out there these days. Um, so take your chances. 

[00:02:49] Advaita: uh, you know, there’s always a silver lining and there are alternative strategies that you can use to help you stand out. So it’s not all this AI embellished doom and gloom there, there’s still some human elements to it.

[00:03:01] Debbie: There are, and I think that here’s the, if I have to sort of distil that into the reality of what’s different is in the past, the amount of activity, energy. Um, time that one would need to spend in job seeking mode was X. Now it’s 10 x, 15 x, 20 x, a lot more time, energy, and investment in the job seeking process, which people are just not used to. And so it feels harder because it’s something new and it is taking a ton more effort. Are there still jobs out there? Of course there are. Are there ways to get your foot in the door? 100%. It’s just not quite the tapping of the flywheel that one might have needed to do in the past. It’s not, not quite a, oh, put your hand up and tell a couple of people or recruiters that you’re available for a new job, and then all of a sudden, you’ve got a bunch of interviews lined up. That is not happening unless you’re one of the very, very lucky few people who can call on an instant network of companies that are hiring. That is not happening. And so I think when confronted with that, people are having a little bit of a shock moment and questioning how on earth they going to find their next job. 

They’ve tried to send out a couple of CVs, they didn’t even get a response, or they sent their CV in to maybe five or 10 companies and didn’t hear back, and then all of a sudden, they’re going, what the heck? So that’s the reason why we’ve just discussed the reason why that’s happening. But what we really wanna spend time with today is to talk through what to do about that, ’cause this is your personal agony aunt advice section. We hear lots of moaning and complaining and whining, but there’s also strategies on how to address this. Okay? So let’s talk about, we’re going to talk about a few things.

The first, we’re going to talk about LinkedIn. We are going to talk about CVs, we are going to talk about networking, and then we’re going to talk about mindset. Possibly not in that order, but that’s what we’re going to cover. Alright. Okay, so let’s talk about LinkedIn. You go, Advaita, what are the highlights that people need to focus on?

[00:05:15] Advaita: So LinkedIn is a great personal branding tool, and I know it’s probably going to make some people run for the social media hills because it can get a bit cringey. But LinkedIn is a place to build good personal and professional brand. It’s not just a networking tool, and you could make it work for you by doing a few things to optimize your profile.

Like there’s a headline space. Use that to reflect your expertise and the roles you are looking for. Don’t do these vague and cutesy things like ‘connector of dots’ or ‘storyteller’. They’re pretty compelling and they’re interesting, but you also need to be very clear about what you offer because in a world of shrinking attention spans, you need to stand out.

Then there’s your profile photo. This still actually needs to be said out loud, but it needs to be professional, needs to be crisp. You can only make one first impression, so make it count. Anyone with any inappropriate photos or wedding photos or pictures with their pets and their children, that’s not the professional image you want to be presenting.

And then below that, there’s the ‘about’ section. It’s your bio. You know, that’s where you showcase who you are and the value you bring. You can be creative, you can show your own personality, but. I mean, if you can do that in a concise way, again, in a world of shrinking attention spans and really distil who you are into a few sentences, that’s really a game changer. But, and this is where I think a lot of people get tripped up. Once that’s done, the job’s not over. You need to be active and engage with posts that other people put out. Industry leaders, you need to share your insights. You need to build your network organically. There’s, I mean, the LinkedIn algorithm makes sure that you get stuck in people’s eyeballs,

the more active you are on their platform and you can. In absolutely authentic ways. It doesn’t all need to be, you know, life lessons that you’ve learned while buying a coffee. It can really be engagement that sets you apart and really shows people who you are.

[00:07:13] Debbie: Okay, so let me, give you a perspective. I post a lot on LinkedIn. I post a lot of content and, I will often check the engagement. So let’s say I have 150 people engaging with a post. I will screen through that in order to take a look at who is engaging. I don’t do it every post, but from time to time I will, look at that and I start to notice. Uh, first of all, I’ll see people that are not in my network. I will see people with interesting job titles. I will see people who, um, they just stand out for some reason, usually because of their photo and the headline. I don’t get a chance to see their about section until I actually open up their LinkedIn profile, which just shows you how important those first two things are. And I will then mentally make a note of people who are engaging consistently and are commenting in both an authentic as well as intentional and intelligent way on the posts. So that is something that you can really be deliberate and intentional about when you are thinking about, oh, that’s a company that I’d really like to work for. I noticed that they’re hiring. Let me engage with some of the people that are actually posting on LinkedIn. So the jobs are not just going to roll in just because you’ve got, you’ve got your LinkedIn profile, right? That’s just the storefront. Then you actually gotta do something with it. 

Okay, let us then talk about point number two, networking, which is one of my favourite topics in the whole world right now. It’s something that for somebody like me who is uh, kind of leaning towards introvert, is always a terrifying thought, but it is so much safer to do digital networking, because then you don’t have to actually go to a party or a conference or a social event and do all the things that really make me die a thousand deaths.

[00:09:09] Advaita: You and I are so different. I see a room full of strangers as just friends waiting to happen.

[00:09:13] Debbie: I know, and I’m so happy for you about that. I still struggle and I still have my quota of new people that I need to make an effort to talk to in a room, but it is so much easier to do this online. Okay, so here’s the data. About 75% of people are getting their new jobs through networking. Either very directly because you see that there’s a company that’s hiring, and you engage with people who are working at that company or indirectly because you speak to people who are in your network who then lead you to other people who could be helpful. If you are not using this as a primary tactic for identifying your next career opportunity, you are in the backseat. You are not even on the bus. Okay? This is a very, very core part of job seeking right now. And it is hard and it takes energy and a lot of people feel extremely awkward about it because they don’t like asking favours of people that they haven’t spoken to since they were in high school. Um, so part of the problem is if you haven’t been engaged with your network for a decade, it is going to feel a little tricky to tap people to say, Hey, would you mind having a conversation with me? I really need help.

In our job seekers guide, which we are going to be distributing very shortly, there’s some very clear guidelines on how to go about the process of networking. I don’t wanna dig entirely deeply into this right now ’cause we’ve got limited time on this podcast, but both your direct network, meaning people, your friends, family, former colleagues, current colleagues, people who can vouch for your professional engagement and conduct clients, former clients.

Get engaged with them, reopen those doors, knock on those doors. And if you ask for help very frequently people will do that for you. The one thing I wanna say about that is always offer a quid pro quo, even if you don’t have anything necessarily of tremendous value to offer right now to be able to say to somebody after they’ve given you 10 or 20 minutes of their time to say, if there’s at any point in the future where I can reciprocate or return the favour, please don’t hesitate to ask. 

I had a call with somebody the other day, who wanted to some job advice. About, I spend about maybe one to two hours a week just on giving advice to people who need a little bit of either, support on the job or even just moral support. And I was so surprised I did not get a thank you after that call. And I thought to myself, what a missed opportunity for this person. I had been generous with my time. I’d given as much wholehearted support as I could, and all she needed to do was send me a thank you email or even something on LinkedIn. I did not get that. And so that’s another thing to remember, guys.

These are just like so simple things. Such simple things to do is offer something for the future if you’ve got nothing now to reciprocate with. And then always, always send a little thank you. That’s all that’s needed in this world of reciprocation, which is what networking is all about.

[00:12:24] Advaita: And that’s the difference between transactional and being relational because somebody is much more likely to expend their social capital for you if they know that there’s genuine connection behind it, and not just a favour for the sake of a favour.

[00:12:39] Debbie: Right. Okay. Let’s talk about referrals and how to ask, what to do with them. 

[00:12:43] Advaita: Networking is a nice way into referrals. You know, you can skip the queue with referrals if you have a network within a company that you are targeting, using that person as an in could be career gold because companies should trust their employees to recommend great talent. And a referral will help you bypass those filters, and those screening processes and get you straight to decision makers.

[00:13:09] Debbie: Okay, so I wanna just double down on that. There are many times when we’re involved in an executive search process that our clients have spent a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of resources, mandating us to do a search. We’ll get all the way to the finish line, and then in those dying moments, our client will say, oh. Hold on a second. We’ve just received a referral from a board member, a colleague, a friend, the neighbour. It doesn’t matter who. Those referrals skip the queue. And so as Advaita was saying, this is like gold in the world of job searching, if you can get a referral from a trusted person who knows somebody who knows somebody, it may not be fair you know, in any measure, but it is leverage. So where you can get referrals, go for it. And always, always make sure that you send a thank you to the referrer because that is just gold dust paving away for you. 

Alright. And then the fourth thing that we wanted to speak about, Mindset. 

Okay. So I’m always a little bit, maybe, brash or, give people a little bit of a whip when it comes to, when I hear candidates, when I hear job seekers feeling very defeated and very demoralized about how much work it’s taking to get onto the radar, even just to get a first interview. And yes, the market has fundamentally changed, but people who have a positive, enthusiastic mindset who see this as an opportunity for broadening their network, an opportunity for learning new things about themselves, an opportunity for reinventing themselves, an opportunity for dusting off old stuff, and being creative about what their next step is around looking at this as an opportunity for growth as opposed to an absolute drudge. Those people are the ones who are getting jobs. I I coach CEOs all over the world and I also coach CEOs and other people in leadership roles who are looking for their next job. And I can tell you this from experience is that those who come in with a very positive mindset around really tackling this as they would any other project, putting time and focus and attention, a spreadsheet, an organized way of knowing who they’re speaking to on any given day, who’ve got, uh, targets for themselves on how many networking calls they’re going to have, how many emails they’re going to send out. Those people are getting jobs. And so there’s partly the attitude that you bring and then there’s the energy that people who are speaking to you will feel. They will feel your energy of optimism. They will feel your, openness to looking at new things, and that is magnetic. That is what encourages them to make a referral.

That is what inspires them to go, wow, wouldn’t this person be great to have on our team, or somebody else’s team? So I can’t emphasize how much bringing positive energy and bringing wholehearted openness and enthusiasm to this process. Even though it’s hard, and even though it can be so disappointing, I know that it can be heartbreaking at times, but you gotta get over it.

This is your full-time job now, if you’re looking for a job and you have to approach this as you would any project with openness and enthusiasm, I know I’m harping on this a bit,

[00:16:46] Advaita: But the energy matters, so.

[00:16:47] Debbie: You may want to fast forward. Uh,  but this is really, really important. Let’s talk about CVS. It’s the humdrum part of a door opening. Yes, you need a LinkedIn profile, but you also need a CV, a resume that is up to date with 2025 standards. What do you think, Advaita? 

[00:17:10] Advaita: Humdrum also means practical, and it’s something that you can work on and feel that there’s been a shift. Obviously putting good energy out into the world, it makes a difference, but you will feel a tangible difference when you update your CV. So if you haven’t updated in a while, make sure that it includes the, relevant keywords that are tailored to each role that you’re applying for.

Don’t do the mass apply because this will help whatever individual automated systems there are, identify your fit for the specific role that you’re applying for. Stick to standard formats. Don’t make them overly creative or distracting. These tend to confuse the parsing tools that companies use and believe it or not, keeping it brief is actually going to serve you in better stead. A nine-page CV is not going to get looked at with the level of attention that you think it will. Two pages should really be the maximum.

[00:18:04] Debbie: Yes, guys. Longer than two pages is, I know it’s really hard to condense an entire lifetime, an entire career into two pages, but you gotta do it. You have to figure it out. Yes, use small font, but it’s not just that. You can leave off everything that you did in high school. Alright? That is no longer relevant.

It’s not important.

[00:18:28] Advaita: You can leave what you did in high school, um, your early jobs. I mean, you can summarize them into a line or two, but this is the thing that even executives still get wrong. They list their roles and responsibilities under each job instead of talking about what their key achievements and their impacts were. And you would be surprised at the number of CEOs that I have to advise to talk about their impact.

[00:18:53] Debbie: Right. Okay. And, and just another thing I know, this is, uh, going into nuts and bolts here. Bullet points, please. No long paragraphs. Paragraphs are really hard for a person to read. Short bullet points, no more than three under each job title. You have to figure out how to do that, and guess what? You can go onto ChatGPT.

They’ve got a tool for that as they have a tool for everything. You no longer need to thumb suck on how to do this. There are tools online. ChatGPT there are 10 resume builders that online resume builders for free that you can use. So, at Jack Hammer we no longer wanna see anything longer than a two page CV please, please, please, please.

Alright, unfortunately, we are drawing to a close of this riveting version on how to find a job in 2025. As I mentioned a bit earlier, we actually have also got a guide, a written guide for people who are job seeking in this era of the Wild West on how to navigate the new world of job applications. We haven’t even spoken about the job interview, because even getting that job interview feels like a massive trawl. So hopefully this will have been of help, but you will also have access to the job seekers guide, which will be distributing in conjunction with this. Any last comments, Advaita?

[00:20:13] Advaita: You know, I think the thing that makes candidates stand out for me is passion. I mean. We have people who come to us on a weekly basis because Jack Hammer is a wonderful place to work. We are the original gangsters of the amazing workplace, and people who come to me and talk about how much they love what we’re doing have shown that they have done research on our company and have a passion for people the way we do.

Those are the people that stand out. So if you want to stand out to a company that you want to work for, show the same passion that they do.

[00:20:45] Debbie: Okay. Such wise words from two wise women. Um, we hope you got value from this. We hope you enjoyed it, and all the best of luck out there. Bye now.