Nearly every candidate I talk to asks me some version of the same question. Will it pick up before Christmas? Is January going to be dead? It’s a hard market at the moment, and I’d rather say that up front than dress it up.

Why it’s harder than usual

There are a lot more people looking. Thousands of roles have been made redundant across Australia in recent months, and not because the work dried up. They’ve been moved offshore or absorbed by AI. Every one of those people is now applying in a market that was already crowded.

If you’ve sent off dozens of applications, or hundreds, and heard nothing, you’re in good company. Plenty of the people I speak with are in the same spot, and they’re fed up.

When you're getting only automated rejections or hearing crickets after every application, it can be hard not to take it personally, but I can tell you with certainty – it's not you or your resumé; it's the reality of the current market.

Will it get busier?

Recruitment runs in cycles. It slows towards the end of the year, January starts out quite, then things pick back up. I can’t give you a date, but I’ve seen enough of these cycles to know this quiet stretch will end.

Where your application goes

A lot of companies now run applications through AI screening, and some send that screening offshore as well. I’ve yet to see many businesses do it well.

Most of it filters on keywords rather than capability. I regularly meet people who’d be ideal for a role and were never contacted. If you’ve been passed over without a word, it may have nothing to do with you. A system simply didn’t find the words it was looking for.

What’s working

For a better chance of landing a role, you can’t rely on job boards.

Call recruiters in your field. A good recruiter can put you straight in front of a hiring manager and skip the screening altogether.

Lean on your network. Contact former colleagues and managers. Ask who they know at businesses you’d like to join, and whether anything’s coming up. A lot of roles are filled this way before they’re advertised.

Keep more than one CV. I tell people to do this. If your experience spans a few areas, one generic CV undersells you. Write a version for each type of role you’re targeting, then adjust it for each application. You’re making it easy for the reader, human or software, to see the fit.

Step away for a week. Not everyone can afford to, I know. But if months of applying have worn you down, log out of LinkedIn for a week and stop applying. You’ll come back sharper, and hiring managers notice the difference.

Where that leaves you

This slow patch won’t last. In the meantime, the people getting results are picking up the phone, using who they know and pacing themselves.

If you’re job hunting in Melbourne and want a straight read on your corner of the market, give me a call.