Hiring is Fair. You Believing it Should Be is the Problem.

Unless you’re getting job offers, you probably perceive how employers hire to be unfair. Another probability is you justify your perception of how employer’s hire as being “unfair” with exaggerated false narratives such as racism, ageism, not having a degree, nepotism. Yes, these isms do exist, but nowhere near to the extent false narratives make it seem.

At this point, I could tell you, life, not only hiring, isn’t fair! Get over it or be frustrated. You choose.

I could also say, Your birth wasn’t fair, so why do you think your life should be fair?

First world whining: More than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.25 a day. Use this as your perspective when you tell yourself something is “not fair.”

The voice in the back of your head tells you; if hiring were fair you’d get the job because you’re the most qualified ( more often than not you aren’t the most qualified, or the best fit), the most beautiful, the most charismatic, the most authentic, you graduated cum laude, or whatever you tell yourself to think you’re the most deserving over all the other job seekers.

Our idea of fairness, whether it be when it comes to finding work, relationships or obtaining financial success, isn’t obtainable. It’s just a cloak for wishful thinking. When we don’t get what we want, we look for excuses and our self-entitlement kicks in.

You need to change what the voice tells you every time your application to the “perfect job” gets no response, or you’ve been ghosted ( again) after a phone interview, or worst ghosted ( again) after a coveted face-to-face interview. You need to reframe your concept of fairness; otherwise, you will keep playing the most unproductive game there is: I’m a victim.

Reframing your thinking is merely taking an idea, activity, or phrase and changing its meaning, typically from a disempowering sense to one that supports your goals and future self. As a job seeker, your goal is to move on from rejections without dwelling on the why and lament how you perceive the employer’s hiring process to be unfair.

Think of reframing your thinking of fairness as resetting your mindset, which involves how you choose to think. Yes, how you think and feel is a choice.

Most job seekers get so hung up on how they think employers should hire that they can’t see, and in many cases, refuse to see how an employer does hire. NEWS FLASH: Every employer hire differently. There is no universal hiring methodology. Facing hiring realities is the key to unlocking your understanding of how the employer you want to work for does hire and for you to stack the odds of getting hired in your favour.

Stacking the odds of getting hired in your favour will create some semblance of hiring fairness.

In accepting hiring realities, start with the one that is the common denominator: Employers own their hiring process. Employers design their hiring process to suit them, not the job seeker. Just because you didn’t like the result of not being hired does not mean the employer’s hiring process isn’t fair. It’s unfair to you because of how the employer chooses to hire didn’t serve your self-interest; it served their self-interest. I know it’s unfair.

Employers own their hiring process.

Lack of maturity, and feeling entitled, makes us feel that only when our self-interest is served do we feel we’re treated fairly.

The second hiring reality, also a common denominator, you need to accept: Nobody’s owed a job. I know it’s unfair.

Though we prefer not to admit it, we’re all in competition. The company you work for, someone’s trying to overtake it. The job you enjoy, someone would love to take your place or replace you with a computer program. That high-paying job you want, so, does quite a few other people. You’re aware when you apply to a job posting, you’re competing with hundreds of other candidates just as qualified as you, if not more so.

Life is not Instagram.

Never fall for the collective delusion that we live in a world with minimal competition. We dress up to impress those who can help us or win over someone. We interview, along with several other candidates, to obtain the one job currently available. The next stop up the corporate ladder requires you having to compete. O know it’s not fair.

If you think competition doesn’t exist, you’re just losing. Everything in demand creates a competitive scale. And the best is only available to those who are willing to fight for it seriously, who reframed their thinking of hiring fairness.

Take a look at the employer you applied to but who didn’t hire you. That’s an employer with years of experience hiring employees entirely different from you. As an employer, they interact with hundreds or thousands of job seekers every year.

Now, what are the odds that from all the noise created by job seekers such as yourself, the employer will pick you to join their organization? Because you exist? Because you need a job? Because you had your resume done by a so-called professional? Because you have X years of what you believe is relevant experience? These things might matter to you, but an employer’s decision is never about your needs ( READ: self-interest). I know it’s unfair.

Say, for example, 450 people answer an online job posting; one person finally gets the job. 449 rejected candidates will now lean on their false narrative, an ism or my favourite that they were “overqualified.” to pacify themselves as to the reason for having been rejected. Okay, maybe just 317 rejected candidates will lean on their false narratives, the other 132 will simply move on. Your odds were 1 in 450! Was the hiring process unfair to the 449 applicants not selected? Would you bet on a horse with 1 to 450 odds?

With COVID19 having created unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, job seekers are now in hyper-competition for any job opening. For sought after jobs, it will be much higher than 1 to 450. COVID19 has increased the odds against landing a job you’ve applied to. I know it’s not fair.

Applying online is equivalent to playing the lottery; you are hoping a stranger will hire you. When you purchase a lottery ticket, you accept the fact lottery odds favour the ticket seller. The same principle applies to when you apply to a job online.

Apply online is equivalent to playing the lottery; you are hoping a stranger will hire you.

Acceptance of the above principle is a huge step forward to achieving the frame of mind you need to be successful in your job search.

When you decide to play a game with the odds stacked against you, how can you expect the outcome, whether in your favour or not, to be fair? If you view rejection ( READ: Not winning) as altering your path and not blocking it, then you’ll come to realize ( Keeping in mind the adage: Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.)most of your endpoints come about by sheer luck. I know it’s unfair.

Do you want to create more luck in your job search? Think strategically about how you can be at the right place at the right time, prepared to take full advantage of the opportunity in front of you.

Sitting at home, playing the online application lottery doesn’t create luck. I know it’s unfair.

When you create job search luck, you are creating more of what you will perceive as hiring being fair. I don’t need to tell you, creating luck takes work, lots of consistent hard work. It’s easier to bemoan the way employers hire is unfair than it is to do real work ( applying online is being lazy) to create the luck you need to get hired.

A few of the ways you can create job search luck is:

• Making networking a priority. It’s common knowledge that most job openings aren’t advertised. Those who are connected have access to the hidden job market. You know this, so go out and get to know people and have people get to know you. Networking is non-negotiable.
• Have a results-oriented resume and LinkedIn profile. The majority of resumes and LinkedIn profiles are a list of opinions. Employers are not looking to hire your skills, experience, service or what you think of yourself; they’re looking to hire your results. For your resume to be competitive, it needs to clearly show how you created value for your employer, not that you just put in clock time.
• Being in constant professional development mode. There’s truth in the maxim, the more you know the further you go.
• Being flexible. Be open-minded to all opportunities on your radar, not just those which fit your wish list. You can surprise yourself by taking a less than ideal job, making the best of it and finding you enjoy your new employment.

Unfortunately, the unfairness of the hiring process ( sarcasm intended) means you can do all the above, and more, and you’ll still get rejected; that’s just the way it is. All you can control is stacking the odds in your favour as much as possible. I know it’s unfair.

You and I are going to get rejected many times throughout our life. There’ll be ( actually have been) career rejections, romantic rejections, your ideas being rejected, rejections on social media ( for some reason these seem to hurt the most), rejection from people you admire, rejection from people you want to be friends with, the list goes on.

Life is one giant rejection. One of life’s greatest paradox is that we never seem to get what we deserve, and we rarely deserve what we get.

It doesn’t matter whether you are born with a silver spoon, plastic spoon, or no spoon at all. It’s not the circumstances by which you come into this world, but what you make of them once you arrive that matter. Stories of a teen coming to America from Africa, India or Afghanistan, barely speaking English, driving a cab while working their way through college, and is now a VP at a large technology services firm are all around us. They are not miracles, nor are they the rare exception. Such stories demonstrate blindness to the mindset that life is supposed to be fair.

When hiring resumes post-COVID19, there will be, estimating conservatively, at least a four-fold increase in the number of job seekers playing the online job posting lottery. A four-fold increase in applications equates to a four-fold increase in rejections, which is that many more people using the “hiring process is unfair” excuse, which is that many more people leaning on false narratives to support this belief… and the Ferris wheel keeps turning.

If you choose to play the online job posting lottery, then you forfeit the right to say hiring is unfair.

I realize all the above mention is painful to digest. That hiring is fair; if you reframe your thinking, is a mind pretzel. That you have some measure of control over luck throughout your job search. There’s not a person reading this who doesn’t know once the COVID19 lockdowns are lifted, thus reopening the economy, there’ll be a race for jobs with more racers than ever before. “Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!” The question is, what are you doing right now to prepare yourself for the increased competition every job opening will inevitably have? What are you doing to serve your self-interest and increase your odds of finding a job ASAP?

An employer’s business model wasn’t designed to serve your self-interest. You need to demonstrate how you can serve an employer’s self-interest and thus stacking the odds ( creating job search luck) of being hired in your favour. I know it’s unfair, but I believe everyone has a fair chance of creating their job search luck.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.