Question
You advise us not to say too much about why we’re interviewing for a new job, but I had no idea what kind of bias there is against people who’ve been laid off! Almost everybody I know has been laid off at some point, including my last boss, so I saw nothing wrong with saying I was laid off when interviewing. But I see a trend — as soon as I disclose being laid off (just being honest!), the meeting goes south. Then I read this article in SFGATE that says managers and recruiters think you’re damaged goods and “table scraps?” For real? I’ll never say I was laid off again! Please read the article. Are HR people and managers really so stupid they disparage and reject anyone who was laid off?
Nick’s Reply
When it comes to assessing job applicants, yes, most (not all) managers and personnel jockeys (especially recruiters) are pretty stupid. I think it’s because, first and foremost, they’re lazy. After indiscriminately soliciting thousands of applicants via “fire hose advertising” (a.k.a. cattle calls) they need a quick way to reject as many of those applicants as possible. If you’ve been downsized, you must be no good. On to the next applicant, because applicants cost nothing!
This is why employers complain there aren’t enough good job applicants. It’s also why I warn you not to play the cattle-call game. “And now,” says that SFGATE article, “to make matters worse, it seems that some companies view [your] unemployment status as a scarlet letter.”
Laid off? You’re somebody else’s table scraps!
The article goes on to confirm employers’ stupidity. It cites examples of managers and recruiters that:
- Equate being laid off with poor worker performance
- View laid-off workers as “damaged goods”
- Refer to their own laid-off workers as “somebody else’s table scraps”
- Characterize unemployed workers as having so much time on their hands that they “might be shopping around” and are a hiring risk because — heaven forbid! — “they might be interviewing with 20 companies”
That’s just stupid. This tells us that any company that has ever laid off any employees likely did so because it made lousy hiring decisions to begin with! (The article cites Meta’s senior HR executive as an example.)
Employer bias — or stupidity?
So, yes, I’ll say it a fourth time: Those employers and recruiters are downright and obviously stupid because they equate unemployment with being unworthy of being hired.
SFGATE cites the founder of Clutch Talent, recruiter Jovena Natal. She scolds and discounts job candidates who apply to “too many jobs” — and then complains that when she solicits thousands of applicants via job postings, 95% of them “aren’t even close to qualified.”
So who’s stupid?
The SFGATE article hints that large numbers of unworthy laid-off workers are recruiters themselves. How stupid can a recruiter be when their bias bites them in their own ass?
Laid off? What can you do about it?
So the reality is, you were laid off, and you’re being irrationally rejected for it before you even get a chance to show your stuff in an interview. What can you do about it?
Yes, you can try to avoid disclosing that you were downsized. That may help avoid rejection. But it doesn’t really help you get hired.
Stop relying on a system built on stupidity. Go around it. Ignore job postings. Don’t submit resumes. Don’t rely on LinkedIn jobs or on your LinkedIn profile. Don’t subject yourself to being judged on stupid assumptions coughed up by lazy recruiters because you’re applying for jobs impersonally.
Make your job search very personal. Being downsized is much less likely to matter to an employer if you got in the door with a strong personal recommendation that emphasizes what a great hire you’d be. A resume, an application, a profile, and your inanimate database record cannot defend you in the face of being downsized. Only a trusted personal referral can tell an employer that what you can do matters more than why you’re not currently employed.
See How to Get A Job: Get the inside track and 10 steps for personal referrals to hiring managers.
Don’t be stupid
That job you want will be hard work when you get it. So don’t join the ranks of the stupid. Do the hard work now — of getting personally and powerfully recommended for hire by someone the employer knows and trusts. It’s the only way I know to triumph over the stupidity of lazy recruiters and managers. Ironically, the normally-biased employer that hires you will probably benefit more from your efforts than you will!
Has being laid off hurt your ability to get hired? Why do you think? SFGATE refers to specific employers and recruiters with irrational biases against downsized job seekers. Where have you encountered such bias? If you’re an employer, what do you really think about downsized job seekers? Are they really not worth hiring?
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A recommendation from people already on the ground is always best. I took two years off work when I got cancer. When my other half lost his job we were both on the job market. My old company had outsourced their IT so I applied for a job with the outsourcing company. They contacted me and I asked if I could have an interview. They said fine but you have to start next Monday. They would’ve taken me sight unseen. It turned out my ex colleagues who went across to the outsource company said “grab her if you can”. Your reputation is the most important thing you have, guard it very carefully.
I think it does help to provide some context and these are all true examples. Everything needs to be framed positively. Most layoffs are a result of Leadership missteps, financial concerns, desire to cull the highly paid members of the herd or market challenges—NOT poorly performing employees.
1) I was laid off because after the 737max and Covid, Boeing was begging people in Corp functions to take packages. I pivoted and went back to …….
I enjoyed my time there and while not the experience I thought I was going to have (after all they had been thriving), I got incredible work experience helping to manage what was their crisis of a century. I learned XXXX. While there are roles currently posted I have opted not to return as there are still ongoing issues.
2) I left XXXX, a Chinese HQ’d pharma (I asked to be included in laid off) because I had some more serious concerns around compliance. As you know the US gov is very concerned about technology being stolen and sent back to China. I have always worked with integrity and could not take this risk. I worked with XXX and XXXX teams and delivered XXXX, XXX, XXXX, XXXX. Great colleagues and I enjoyed many aspects of working with China.
3) While in transition I have been working on XXXX, XXX, XXXX. It’s interesting work and meaningful to me. My goal is XXXX. I’d like to return to XXX and definitely miss working on a team.
I don’t know if this will change anything but providing some context and pivoting to what I can do for them seems to close the subject. Most of the people doing the interviews would never have gotten into the door of any of these companies mind you …..so let’s hope they aren’t too quick to criticize or insert bias.
Well said
I agree that there is a bias by some hiring managers and recruiters and HR, and at one point, my own mom, about having something wrong with the person who has been laid off.
I adamantly disagree! The fact is, someone will be laid off, forced out, quit under duress or fired, sometime during the career life cycle.
The key for the unemployed is to network and be really good at talking about yourself and what you offer so that the “why” of you being out of work is a big “so what?”
I also believe that job seekers who are not working while looking for the next role need to stay away from third party recruiters so that the time is spent on “job producing activities” and not wasting your time with someone who doesn’t have a reason to help you.
I did find during my headhunting career that some employers felt that the unemployed were easily found and would apply for their jobs. Making the headhunter duplicating efforts of the job seeker.
It’s more seamless for you as a job seeker to network and get to hiring managers. You can do this! A good career coach can also help you with messaging.
Best of luck, we all can help each other!
@Claudia: Few employers and recruiters recognize that an unemployed candidate can be “talent at a discount.” I don’t mean the job offer should be “discounted” — I mean this may be a person you’d otherwise never have a chance to hire!
I agree! Makes me so mad!?
Why You Can’t Get A Job … Recruiting Explained By The Numbers – ERE:
https://www.ere.net/why-you-cant-get-a-job-recruiting-explained-by-the-numbers/
I remember that 2013 article by John Sullivan. It’s a prescription for how to stay on the HR hamster wheel until HR decides to let you get off. He teaches job seekers how to dedicate themselves to the abusive automated practices of employers that treat people like dirt.
By the time Sullivan wrote that, he had already discredited himself (and a guy named Michael Homula) with an outlandish “study” teaching recruiters how to apply deceptive recruiting practices. ERE has since removed the deceptive recruiting article and stopped publishing his stuff. Be careful.
My sole experience with being laid off was very positive. This was just after 9/11. At first I was shell shocked as I was told by a VP in a meeting that no one in the room had to worry about the upcoming downsizing. The most charitable thing I could say about him was that he didn’t know “$hit from shinola”. During my job search with an outplacement firm, I made contact with a recruiter in the industry who had a job to fill that I had experience in. I went for an interview with the hiring manager and his staff who I would be working with. I was then told that since this was a “high level job”, I would also need to interview with the VP of R&D. Oh boy, I thought. However he turned out to be very understanding and supportive when I told him the circumstances of my separation from the old company. He also asked me if there were others with experience similar to mine looking for a new position. They liked to hire experience and let other companies do the career development.
All in all, I ended up with a better job, more money and a nice severance payout as well as a signing bonus with the new company.
@Felix: Your experience proves there are some very good managers and employers out there — even recruiters, and it’s worth the trouble to find them. It’s the contacts that matter, not the resumes, job postings or algorithms. Thanks for posting!
How do these “recruiters” make money? I would think if one were to find out their potential placements were viewed as table scraps by a firm, they would shy away from these firms. Any contingency firm would not expect to be paid because they did not place with them. So this leaves us with HR staff who are less than competent, who in turn will become table scraps themselves. Is the system self cleaning and purging?
@Eddie: In a way, I think it is, but the overriding problem is the sheer size of the “employment infrastructure” that HR funds daily by paying $millions to use “HR tech” and “best practices.” Little of it works and the meatgrinder that the “employment system” has become actually promotes the use of useless recruiting and hiring methods. I lay most of the responsibility at the feet of boards of directors that want nothing to do with the icky HR component of their companies — so they let over-credentialed but clueless “HR experts” run the show. “Less than competent” is putting it generously! There are too many recruiters dialing for dollars and too many HR managers paying them.