The job market is RIGGED and you need to play a different game.

The jobs market is brutal.

As I wrote in this article, it is deliberately RIGGED AGAINST you. Hiring organisations do not care if the hiring process becomes a dysfunctional farce. That is not their problem. It is YOUR problem, society’s problem and the government’s problem. But now, this is also the hiring organisations’ problem. As I wrote here,

Unfortunately, this widespread [dysfunctional hiring] practice results in a chronic under-investment in skills, training and development in the economy.

Today, we are seeing widespread complaints by businesses of chronic skills shortages. Unless there is leadership to solve this problem, the skills shortage crisis will get worse. This crisis will in due time, affect customers, clients and consumers of businesses. We will see increasing symptoms of deteriorating quality, fragility, breakdowns, outages, errors and even catastrophic failures in society as organisations and businesses cannot find the skills to keep the wheels of the economy running.

As a job-seeker, what can you do? How can you overcome and break out of this brutal and dehumanising game?

The Cookie-Cutter

The legacy system of CVs and resumes is designed to turn you into a fungible commodity. You are being put through a cookie-cutter and turned into a standardised object that is stripped of all the qualitative differences, leaving behind only the quantitative differences. When that happens, you become fungible, which means you are replaceable and interchangeable with another job candidate.

You need to be turned into a fungible commodity because they need to feed you into the dreaded Applicant Tracking System (ATS) where you will be sifted, sorted and eliminated. The ATS is not designed to produce the best outcome for the hiring organisation or the job candidate. It is designed to be cheap, convenient and highly efficient for the few at the expense of many.

What can you do to break out of the cookie-cutter?

You need to stand out

To have any chance, you need to stand out in this brutal jobs market that is determined to turn you into a fungible commodity.

A CV will not make you stand out. It is the very instrument that makes you unremarkably fungible.

Seth Godin, the renowned marketer, even went as far as advising people to ditch the CV. He wrote this controversial blog article in 2008 (yes, it was 2008, not a typo):

This is controversial, but here goes: I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

Great people shouldn’t have a resume.

Here’s why: A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.

Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?

Of course, ditching your CV is a courageous step. You will be opting out of the job market and removing yourself from consideration in the job application process. This may not be practical for some people if you have bills and a mortgage to pay.

But how about this middle ground instead?

You can still have your CV. And also do what I am about to tell you below. In other words, do both. What I am about to tell you to do is hard and challenging. However, given this dysfunctional and brutal job market, the status quo is also very hard and will get harder as layoffs are happening in this downturn. So, you have nothing to lose by trying this new approach.

Turn yourself into a startup

Dorie Clark wrote this very interesting book:

In this brutal jobs market, you have to put on the hat of an entrepreneur and brand yourself as a startup. Dorie Clark’s book is about this:

It’s no secret that the world of work has changed, and we’re shifting toward an ever more entrepreneurial, self-reliant, work-from-wherever-you-are economy. That can be a liberating force, and many professionals dream of becoming independent, whether by starting their own businesses, becoming consultants or freelancers, or developing a sideline.

But there’s a major obstacle professionals face when they contemplate taking the leap: how to actually make money doing what they love. You may have incredible talent and novel ideas, but figuring out how to get started, building your reputation in a new realm, developing multiple revenue streams, and bringing in a steady flow of new clients can be a daunting prospect.

Dorie Clark, a successful entrepreneur and author, has done it all. And in Entrepreneurial You she provides a blueprint for professional independence, with insights and advice on building your brand, monetizing your expertise, and extending your reach and impact online. In short, engaging chapters she outlines the necessary elements and concrete tactics for entrepreneurial success. She shares the stories of entrepreneurs of all kinds–from consultants and coaches to podcasters, bloggers, and online marketers–who have generated six- and seven-figure incomes.

I recommend that you read this book. It contains serious information on how to break out of this brutal job market and play a different game.

Here is my observation

The CV belongs to the anachronistic world of one person doing one job for one stream of income. This is a very risky position to be in. You are one job loss or job contract expiry away from having your income going down to zero in one blow.

In this new brutal world, you need multiple assignments and multiple projects for multiple streams of income. This is less risky because you are not dependent on a single source for your income.

To do that, you need to think like an entrepreneur and develop your brand. You need to develop thought leadership and expand your reach and influence as far as possible. You need to be remarkable, stand out and be spectacular.

Can you use LinkedIn to develop your brand?

LinkedIn is a very good social media platform as a starting point to develop your brand. But there is one big problem with LinkedIn.

Biggest problem with LinkedIn

Everyone on LinkedIn is put under the same cookie-cutter look. A CEO and janitor’s LinkedIn profile will have the same design. Only the contents are different.

In other words, LinkedIn (and all social media platforms), are designed to turn you into fungible commodities. Although they are much better than a static CV in terms of the type and format of content you can put in, everyone has the same uniform design. This will make it harder for you to stand out.

Therefore, you should not stop at LinkedIn when developing your own brand. As I wrote in LinkedIn alone will limit you as a thought leader,

I know of some people who are working hard to be thought leaders. They pump out content after content, day after day. But they are making a BIG mistake that is going to cost them in the long run.

In that article, I explained why using LinkedIn alone will limit your potential as a thought leader. You need to go beyond LinkedIn.

Why you need a website

That is why I recommend you to have a website. 

A website can give you the total freedom to make you look “Wow!” It is the only way for you to free yourself from the shackles of uniform boring design on social media. A website allows you total freedom in showcasing your talents, projects, abilities, insights, thought leadership, testimonials from others, and so on, in whatever media or format that can put you in the best light.

Also, consider this: a website in itself is proof that you are competent. Anyone can put together a social media profile. But not everyone has the time, inclination and stamina to put together a great website. It requires time, discipline, goal setting, and project management skills.

My example

I have a couple of websites: Stratigus and iSecurityGuru. You are reading this on my Inspiriting. I have a LinkedIn profile too.

As you can see, I am also working hard to develop my brand to reduce my dependency on the anachronistic practice of submitting CVs to machines that do not care a hoot about me.

What are your thoughts?

Please feel free to contribute your thoughts, ideas and questions below. I love to hear from my readers.

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