What is the biggest problem job seekers face? It’s not the application process, and it’s not writing a resume. No, the biggest problem that applicants still have is trying to determine whether or not they are a good fit for the job. ‘Written job descriptions are the problem. And connecting yourself to a job based on your skills, not your background or experience, is what has been missing for years,’ says the 56-year-old ‘talent whisperer’ J.T. O’Donnell, who has been advising candidates for over 20 years, amassing a following of 2.6 million on LinkedIn and 1.1 million on TikTok.
‘Connecting yourself to a job based on your skills, not your background or experience, is what has been missing for years.’
She recently explained that the required skills are often too vaguely described in job postings on the famous Chad & Cheese Podcast. Consider familiar terms like ‘good communication skills’ or ‘team player’. How does that help a job seeker? Fortunately, A.I. is to the rescue, she says. For example, the JobLeap app, which is set to launch this month, promises users a personal ‘career coach’ that will help them assess their value, including tracking what you document about your work.
‘Exciting technology’
‘We are working with them,’ O’Donnell explains, calling it ‘exciting technology.’ ‘They use the tools we’ve built for job seekers to create this application. It asks questions like: how do you like to work? How do you add value to your building? Job seekers go through a short bot conversation, and then the bot presents them with ten currently available jobs and tells them why they match. That helps the job seeker gain confidence in applying.’
‘I can’t wait for people to realize we haven’t addressed the candidate experience the way we should.’
This is one of the significant changes O’Donnell sees happening in the job market, which she believes can turn the traditional process of posting a job and sending a resume on its head. Another need she often hears from job seekers is verification. ‘They want assurance that an employer is who they say they are. This results from bad experiences with companies that made big promises but didn’t deliver.’ And there will be tools on the market to help job seekers with this, too, she believes. Rightfully so, in her opinion. ‘I can’t wait for people to realize that we haven’t addressed the candidate experience as we should. We’ve built it for employers, not for job seekers.’
The rise of video
And then, of course, there’s the rise of video. According to O’Donnell, recording a quick video as a job seeker and sending it directly to the hiring manager is becoming the norm. But the influence of platforms like TikTok goes even further, she says. ‘Every job seeker believes, thanks to TikTok, that the next job will just fall into their lap, that they don’t have to proactively look for it, and that these companies will align with what they’re looking for. And they have a longer wish list than we’ve ever seen before, which employers need to understand.’
‘Algorithms are now smart enough to bring things to your attention that you are interested in.’
Have we reached a point where we expect the world to give us everything we want, when we want it, and how we want it, including finding a job, as Cheesman asks? Says O’Donnell. ‘And I don’t even think asking for that is unrealistic. The algorithms are now smart enough to bring things to your attention that interest you. You don’t need to create a resume or LinkedIn profile anymore. That’s coming. But it will require authenticity from the employer.’
Also, hatred toward video
Employers will increasingly need to show themselves, O’Donnell is convinced. But expecting the same from candidates? She’s less convinced. ‘Candidates hate getting a link, being forced to answer questions, and not knowing where their information and video are going. You’ll see candidates taking control. I’ve been guiding a job app called McCoy for a year and a half. It was built by a former Disney, Tinder, and Google employee. And it’s so successful because it didn’t come from the recruitment industry.’
The app uses AI matching to help recruiters find candidates. ‘And suddenly, you’ll have the right recruiters in your inbox, offering you the right jobs. That’s coming.’ According to O’Donnell, more companies should follow this example: solutions designed from the candidate’s point of view, especially for the new generation. ‘To attract Gen Z, you need to create recognition. They want to see their generation in your environment. They’ve grown up with the idea of identification. If they can’t identify themselves in a situation, they think there’s probably something wrong.’
‘Arch-enemy of job seekers’
She also has a warning. Many companies now turn to AI to make their recruitment processes more efficient. But if you forget about the job seeker in the process, you may be in for a rude awakening, O’Donnell warns. Take recruiter bots, ‘the arch-enemy of job seekers,’ as she calls them. As a candidate, you fill out everything for those bots, only to hear nothing meaningful in return. A cardinal sin, according to the ‘talent whisperer.’ ‘They are so humiliated. They will never work for that company again, and they’ll tell 15 of their friends.’
‘Understanding the job seeker will be the name of the game for the future.’
What she’s saying is: ‘That’s where people don’t think on the technical side. They’re running as fast as they can to implement AI and all these technologies to make recruiting easier, but they’re not thinking about the consequences on the other side, the job seeker’s side. That’s where I want to sound the alarm. You need to think about and understand the job seeker. Truly understanding the job seeker will be the game’s name for the future.’
