Don’t take it personally!

During the years that I have worked with jobseekers, the number 1 grievance is “I never hear back from anyone about my job application”. It is the common experience for most people. Being left in limbo is the norm.

Gone are the days when you would receive the standard “thanks but no thanks” letter in the mail. These days, the best you can expect is an automatically computer generated email advising that your application has been received and if you haven’t heard anything within 2 weeks then consider your application unsuccessful. You may also see the occasional ad in the employment section of the newspaper thanking applicants and advising that the position has now been filled. The personal approach is long gone. But why? Let’s look at some stats.

When we look at the business data for the Geelong Region you can see that there are 16,489 businesses registered (June 2015 – Australian Bureau of Statistics). So when we cancel out the businesses that are non-employing (9,857 (59.77%) – usually sole traders/home businesses) that leaves us with 6,632 businesses. Of these remaining businesses, 4,600 (27.89%) employ 1-4 people, 1,627 (9.86%) employ 5-19 people, 384 (2.32%) employ 20-199 people and 21 (0.12%) employ 200+ people. So what does this all mean?

Of the 6,632 businesses in the Geelong Region that may have possible job opportunities, over 93% of them are small businesses employing less than 20 people.

Small businesses usually do not have a dedicated HR department to handle their job applications which leaves the entire hiring process in the hands of managers and owners who are typically very busy people. Time is money and money is tight and the cold hard facts are that they do not have the time or the money to respond individually to each applicant. It’s not personal…it’s business… Small business!

 So, please don’t be disheartened. You’re not alone in limbo.

Source:
Enterprise Geelong
http://www.economicprofile.com.au/geelong/trends/business-counts/staff

Written by our local expert, Jodie. For more information about job applications or business  in Geelong, speak to Jodie or any of our Skills and Jobs Centre advisors.