Expectations are resentments in the making.
Many job seekers today enter the job market with an inflated sense of entitlement, expecting employers to prioritize their self-interests over their own. Instead, they’re experiencing a fiercely competitive environment where emotions are decimated, and proving your value to an employer’s profitability is your only currency for getting hired.
The sooner you realize that the world owes you nothing—not a job, not a reply, and definitely not a career built around your « passions »—the sooner you’ll start working strategically on your job search. Success doesn’t come from expecting what you think you deserve, which, as I mentioned, is nothing; it’s achieved by what you’re willing to accept—akin to Rocky Balboa’s « You gotta be willing to take the hits! »—by maintaining a more resilient mindset than the job seekers you’re competing against, who, for the most part, are busy whining about employers’ hiring practices.
Job search success in today’s job market requires a disciplined focus on what you can control and an indifference to what you can’t. It’s imperative to let go of the following expectations:
Expectation of Communication
Silence is communication.
You submitted your résumé, had a second interview, and then silence. Ghosting is no longer a breach of etiquette; instead, it’s become a social norm. Today, recruiters and hiring managers conservatively receive over 500 applications per role and therefore need to rely on technology that reduces candidates to data points. Silence isn’t poor manners or unprofessional; it’s the message. Socially or professionally, ghosting is regarded as an efficient way for someone to let you know they’ve moved on, and you should do the same.
Expectation of Feedback
In a litigious society like ours, expecting feedback is naive. An employer giving feedback to a candidate they didn’t select risks liability issues. In an era of ‘strip-mall lawyers’ looking for a payday, a single wrong word about ‘culture fit’ can lead to a discrimination lawsuit. A prudent strategy to avoid giving candidates ammunition for a lawsuit is to refrain from providing feedback to rejected candidates.
Expectation of a Fast Hiring Process
Corporate bureaucracy is a slow, grinding machine, and the cost of a bad hire, both culturally and financially, is exorbitant. As bad actors flood the job market with AI-generated résumés and exaggerated qualifications, employers are conducting more due diligence than ever.
« Hiring is not a democratic process; it is a risk-mitigation exercise. Companies would rather leave a seat empty for six months than fill it with a liability. » — Lars Schmidt, Founder of Redefine Work.
If you’re frustrated by waiting, remember that the employer cares about protecting its culture and bottom line, not your bills.
Expectation You Don’t Have to Sell Yourself
The belief that your « experience » speaks for itself is a form of laziness. Job searching is a sales activity; an interview is a sales meeting. Your résumé isn’t a trophy case; it’s a marketing brochure. It’s not what you did that matters to employers; it’s what you can do for them by the end of the next quarter. Unless you clearly explain in your résumé, LinkedIn profile, and especially during interviews, how you’ll positively impact the employer’s business to make it more profitable, you should expect a lengthy job search.
Expectation of Human-Only Reviews
Complaining about Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) is like complaining about the weather; it’s pointless and changes nothing. AI is a necessity for companies to sift through the thousands of mostly unqualified applications they receive.
« AI isn’t the enemy of the job seeker; it is the filter for the unprepared. If you can’t speak the language of the machine, you’ll never get the chance to speak to a human. » — Jan Tegze.
When the application process shifted from a handshake to an online portal, the « human touch » vanished. It’s what it is.
The Expectation of Guaranteed Networking Help
No one is obligated to help you. Today, thanks to digital fatigue and heavy workloads, a stranger owes you nothing; someone you’ve neglected to stay in touch with owes you even less. When you haven’t consistently added value to a relationship, don’t expect to receive a favour when you need one. With a sense of entitlement widespread, most job seekers think pestering strangers and people they’ve lost contact with for « a job » counts as networking. Don’t be that job seeker!
Having expectations of others is more than just a recipe for chronic resentment and anger; it’s a self-imposed hindrance that anchors you in a victim mentality. You can’t change how a recruiter, hiring manager, or anyone else behaves, and quite frankly, it’s not your responsibility to try. Your only job is to manage your own behaviour.
The biggest obstacle between you and a paycheque isn’t how employers choose to hire or being ghosted; it’s your expectations. Conducting a job search with the expectation that employers will acknowledge your potential, without any effort on your part, to boost their profitability or hire you on your terms, is why many job seekers are frustrated and angry.
The most effective job search strategy a job seeker can adopt is to lower their expectations of what’s out of their control to nearly nothing and expect more from themselves.
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Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned corporate veteran, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. Send Nick your job search questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.