I have seen enough.
As a consultant within the staffing and recruitment industry, I am exposed to the minds of key decision makers and hiring managers every single day. I see what sticks out on resumes- from the good, the bad, to the ugly.
There's no greater hurdle on a resume to overcome than being out of work.
I've seen it too many times now. Especially with candidates earlier in their career. They find themselves in a job they don't enjoy, burnt out, and desperate to get out of their employment situation. Rather than start to look while grinding it out in their current job, they just get up and leave without another job lined up.
Finding a job after quitting:
What candidates don't understand when doing this is that you are MUCH less likely to find a job when unemployed than in a job.
Check out the below chart that shows the probability of finding a job the longer you are out of work:
What candidates don't understand when doing this is that you are MUCH less likely to find a job when unemployed than staying in a job.
What's additionally challenging is the LONGER you stay out work, the harder it is to find employment. So as your search continues, you have to become less selective in the type of work you are willing to do as time goes on. This might ultimately land you in a job you enjoy even less than originally, with possibly less compensation too.
From my personal estimation, a candidate who is out of work even 1 month vs. an identical candidate with the exact same work experience who is still at their employer, will have a 50% less likely chance of getting an interview at another firm, and will have at least 20% lower salary offered to them than someone in a job.
This is because there is a bias to those who are out of work to employers and hiring managers.
Hiring Bias to the unemployed:
UCLA conducted a study back in 2011 and asked 50 HR professionals to envision their companies hiring a marketing manager. Each was provided with resumes that were exactly the same, with one exception: Half of the resumes indicated that the candidate currently held their most recent job, while the other half showed the applicant’s last day of employment was a month earlier.
The study found that the HR experts rated the employed candidates significantly higher on both confidence and hire-ability. (source: Business News Daily)
10 years later, UCLA conducted another study asking 500 employers on their preference of candidates to hire of employed vs. unemployed. 83% of employers stated they found hiring employed people easier than unemployed, clearly showing a bias in who they would ideally like to target in their searches.
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So please - if you are unhappy in your job, and are considering quitting -
Call me.
Call a recruiter.
Apply to job posting.
Network with your friends and see who you know is hiring.
But please, for the love of all things good and holy, please do not quit. You will make a difficult situation even harder, and set your career back further than you needed to.
And in the meantime, it is on us in Corporate America to be more understanding of workplace burnout and unemployment situations. It crushes me when a candidate of mine get rejected from even speaking to a hiring manager because they quit a toxic work environment. Whether it was after 6 months, 2 years, or 7 days, it doesn't matter. We need to do better.
I write this blog just to shed light on a difficult topic I am seeing in the workplace. I know every situation is not the same, and sometimes there is no choice but to quit. If that is the case, you will get through it, it may just be harder than the alternative options discussed above.
But you will get through it.
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Also -feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and see how I can be of help in your job search.