人才市场火爆，为何工作更难找？原因可能在这里

是不是找新工作找了好一阵却一无所获？振作点，你不是一个人。猎头公司任仕达（美国）调查了2000名最近刚换了工作的美国人，发现找工作平均耗时五个月。在美国失业率跌至49年来最低水平3.7%以前，耗时也差不多。

不仅找工作时间长，即使发现符合要求的职位，在申请之后却经常得不到回音。位于曼哈顿的猎头公司ABS Staffing Solutions的首席执行官阿列尔·舒尔称：“我们发现，最近很多求职者难过的是连面试的机会都没有，更别提录用通知了。”

今年10月，美国新增工作岗位25万个，远高于大多数经济学家预期的19.5万个左右，而且空缺职位的总数超过700万个。为什么找工作还这么困难？

总结起来至少有两大原因，一是人口问题。随着工作岗位增加，之前一些没找工作的劳动者现在也受到鼓舞，重返人才市场。2018年以来，美国的劳动力月均增长约7万人，可供用人单位挑选的新增劳动者人数超过了实际岗位数。舒尔指出：“工作的确是增加了，但人才市场的竞争仍然相当激烈。”

目前看来，求职者在寻找更好待遇时，并没有完全考虑到竞争环境。我们对一些大城市的猎头做了一项非正式调查，发现求职者虽然称不上自大，但或多或少有点自负。一位受访猎头表示：“虽然人才市场很活跃，却不一定会如你（求职者）所愿。我们发现，很多人为了所谓的‘理想’工作坚持要求，以为机会遍地，在找到真正满意的工作以前没有必要‘决定’。”可是完美的机会从来都是稍纵即逝的，如果求职者太过挑剔，可能会忽视一些很棒的机会。

人才市场火爆找工作却变慢还有另一个原因：如果在一家公司工作时间太长，所有人都已经认识你，也了解你的业绩有多么突出。不过，你还是可能希望换个更好的环境。这种想法本来没什么错，但猎头指出，进入新环境积极表现的能力会随着时间逐渐下降，工作中应该注意的一些重要细节也容易遗忘。

近些年，用人单位筛选求职者使用的技术也在变化。例如，求职者只要发简历就行，然而现在企业应用招聘管理平台（ATS）已非常普遍。以前没人在意招聘岗位的关键字，现在十分重要。除非求职者为不同的工作专门写简历，适合相应工作的关键字在简历中重复出现，否则简历可能永远走不到招聘专员那一步，面试就更别想了。

此外，任仕达调查发现，不管是因为太过自信、缺少实践，还是其他一些原因，很多求职者依然容易犯一些传统的求职大忌。比如将近半数（占比达49%）的受访者称，明知自己不符合要求仍然会申请相关工作机会，约40%的受访者在面试后没有跟进询问。

另外，还有一个不少人忽视的经验之谈：对面试要提前做好功课，不要犯致命错误。如果简历通过了ATS的筛选，用人单位打电话通知你面试，首先要做一些了解，这是常识。要看看相关公司的网站，想几个可能遇到的问题，对诸如“你最大的缺点是什么”之类的面试常见问题要事先准备好回答。

而在任仕达上述调查中，约有半数受访者承认都有过“完全没有准备”就去面试的经历，至少都有过一次。就算人才市场供需两旺，准备不充分也可能导致找工作花得时间更长。（财富中文网）

本文作者安妮·费希尔是职场专家，也是提供职场建议的专栏作家。她在《财富》开设“解决问题”（Work It Out）专栏，向读者提供21世纪的工作与生活指导。

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

If you’ve been looking for a new job for a while and getting nowhere, cheer up. You’re not alone. The average search now takes five months, according to a new survey by recruiters Randstad USA of 2,000 people across the U.S. who have recently changed jobs. That’s about the same length of time as before the unemployment rate fell to its current 49-year low of 3.7%.

Not only that, but it’s still not at all unusual to apply for a role you’d be perfect for and then hear…nothing. Says Ariel Schur, CEO of Manhattan-based recruiters ABS Staffing Solutions, “We’re seeing lots of candidates lately who are frustrated by not even getting interviews, let alone offers.”

The U.S. economy created 250,000 new jobs in October, well above the 195,000 or so forecast by most economists, for a total of well over 7 million job openings. So, why is snagging one of them still such a struggle?

There are at least two big reasons, one of which is demographic. As jobs increase, so does the number of people who had stopped looking for work, but who now feel encouraged to get back in the race. The labor force has been growing by about 70,000 people per month in every month of 2018—many more potential new hires than employers can absorb. “There are more jobs, yes,” notes Schur. “But this is still an intensely competitive job market.”

It seems that not everyone who’s hankering after greener pastures has taken that into account. We conducted an informal poll of headhunters in major cities and discovered that a certain complacency, not to say cockiness, has set in. “The fact that the job market is so strong can actually work against you,” said one. “We’re seeing more people holding out for the ‘perfect’ job, with the idea that there are so many choices, they don’t have to ‘settle’ until they find it.” But perfection, alas, is every bit as elusive as it ever was, and being excessively picky can lead to overlooking some pretty great opportunities.

A second way the robust job market can slow down a search: You may be tempted to look around for a better situation after a long spell of working for the same company, where everyone already knows you and your wonderful accomplishments. Nothing wrong with that, but recruiters point out that the basic skills involved in wowing a whole new audience tend to rust up over time, while certain crucial niceties get forgotten altogether.

The technology employers use to screen out candidates has changed in recent years, too. The last time you sent out resumes “cold”, for instance, may have been before applicant tracking software (ATS) became as ubiquitous as it is now. So the particular keywords in each different job description may not have mattered much. Now they do. Unless you write a different CV for each job, with the precisely right keywords repeated several times throughout, your resume will probably never be seen by a human being. There goes your interview.

Beyond that, whether from overconfidence, lack of practice, or for some other reason, Randstad’s survey suggests that many people now are making many of the same old job-hunting mistakes as ever. For instance, nearly half (49%) said they’d applied for jobs they knew they weren’t qualified for, and about 40% didn’t bother to follow up after job interviews.

Then there’s that old standby, trying to wing it in an interview and falling flat on one’s face. Once you get past the ATS gauntlet and someone calls you in for a chat, it’s just common sense to do some homework first—read the company’s website, think up a few intelligent questions, have a ready reply to standard questions like “What’s your greatest weakness?“, and so on.

Yet, about half of the folks in the survey admitted they’d gone in “completely unprepared” to at least one meeting with a prospective employer. Even in this job market, that’s guaranteed to make a long search longer.

Anne Fisher is a career expert and advice columnist who writes “Work It Out,” Fortune’s guide to working and living in the 21st century.