You’ve seen an interesting ad, sent your resume, had a telephone interview, and then had three face-to-face interviews. So how long does it take until you’re given an offer?
There was a terrific article published on June 22, 2015 by Quentin Fottrell, a reporter for Personal Finance. The research should provide a guide for expectations as to how long your search process should take. Here are some of the salient points:
On average (taking all the highs and lows), the job interview process took 22.9 days. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time, except…
5 years ago the average was 12.6
The longest wait was for police officers (127.6 days), patent examiners (87.6 days), assistant professors (58.7 days), senior vice-presidents (55.5 days), program analysts (51.8 days), managing directors (51.1 days) and information technology specialists (48.1 days).
The shortest wait was: Entry-level marketing jobs (3.9 days), entry-level sales positions (5.4 days), servers and bartenders (5.7 days), entry-level account managers (5.9 days) and dishwashers (6.9 days).
As far as testing goes: There are more background checks (42% from 25%), skills tests (23% from 16%), drug tests (23% from 13%), and personality tests (18% from 12%)
Here are some additional findings:
Companies have a lot more job openings now than they did in 2010
Few companies did a good job of manpower planning over the past 5 years
Loyalty, talent and character traits are becoming more important than before
Fitting into the company’s culture is looked at with more importance
Now let’s talk about what this all means to you.
The higher the position, the longer it takes. The greater the responsibility the more time
Expect more people involved in the hiring process: HR, the boss, the bosses boss, co-workers, internal clients and maybe the work team: Everybody gets a say.
Respond to their questions based on their function and level. HR will be different from the boss or co-worker’s questions. See if you can discern what they really want to know.
Loyalty is becoming more important than it was before, so make sure you talk about your interest in staying with the company and contributing through more responsibility
“Good character” is becoming a factor in selection. Good character means different things, but bad character is more easily identifiable.
Background checks are more frequent, so references are important. Create an advantage.
Make sure your Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media accounts are not cluttered with inside jokes from your “friends” that can be misinterpreted by hiring organizations. Up to 50% of hiring agencies are screening what’s on your social media, with a 30% knock-out.
You can’t undo something you did when you were younger or less experienced. Have a rational explanation ready. Most employers will make some allowances. Your reputation, character and history are critical to your future success. Make it count!
Want a free assessment of your resume? Send it to: wkaufmann1@cox.net
Ready to test the market? Email: Mygreenerfuture1@cox.net