We have recently conducted a survey targeting the IT professionals. The objective of which is to understand their mindset, when it comes to job switch. We received considerable amount of responses and the article is completely based on the survey results.
We began by asking how easy or difficult it is for candidates to change jobs. Not surprisingly only 14% believed it is easy for them to switch jobs. 32% feel that it is neither easy nor difficult to change jobs. 45% feel it is difficult and 8% feel it is very difficult to change jobs. The figures clearly indicate it is pretty difficult to change jobs.
Why is it difficult?
The current Covid circumstances are probably the biggest factor. Majority of the companies have closed their physical offices. Not just in India but globally. Almost every employee is working remotely. In such circumstances the entire hiring process has gone online. The technical tests are done using different assessment tools. The interviews are either on zoom or on skype. There is absolutely no human contact.
Now, pre-Covid situation was different. The candidates used to visit the office premises for interviews, they used to see the office campus, office infrastructure and there was interaction with office employees. In the absence of all these factors, candidates do not get to understand the culture of the company. For modern day candidates work life balance is extremely important. For them it’s not just about the handsome salary, it’s also about how the company treats its employees. Due to lack of visibility, there is uncertainty in the minds of the candidates.
Moving forward, the next question was how confident are they that there’s no better option when they accept the offer? 32% of the candidates responded as extremely confident or very confident. 49% responded as somewhat confident. 15% as not so confident and 5% not at all confident. The figures indicate majority of the candidates are pretty low in confidence when they accept the job offer.
Why do they not feel confident?
Candidates have become risk averse in these current circumstances. As discussed above candidates have seen their office, infrastructure and culture in their current companies. There is this lack of such touch points with the company making the offer. Companies are experiencing this phenomenon that it’s hard to get even 1 out of 4 offers to result in the candidate joining. Money does not become a factor here. For example, candidates are being hired remotely now. So suppose an offer has been made to a candidate who is not from the city where the physical office is located. Such candidate doesn’t know anything about the company. So the probability of them accepting the offer is pretty low. Most companies are better known in their home locations.
The 3rd question. Job search can be quick or a long drawn out affair. What is your experience? Following are the statistics. Not surprisingly 68% of the candidates said they start the process when they feel like but wait for some time for the right job. 19% said they don’t start searching immediately as it can be distracting and time consuming. 12% said they don’t wait when need to switch the job as jobs are always available for them. 9% said they start the process but stop when they get too many calls.
One can conclude from the statistics that almost 90% of the candidates experienced that job search is a long drawn process, unless you are one of the lucky ones.
Why it’s a long drawn process:
So it’s not like there are lots of jobs in the market and the candidate can just decide and switch. Or they can just upload their cvs’ on the portals are start getting calls. It’s difficult and time consuming for candidates also. There is a lot of confusion around this question. Probably this situation is because of the pandemic, probably they have become cautious because of lack of confidence, they have to think. Some others are getting distracted because they are getting too many good offers. They might be feeling like a kid in a candy shop. So there is a lot of uncertainty. There are so many factors that pointing out one is difficult and won’t be accurate.
Why this could be happening? Why it is taking so long? Why is this not quick? We don’t know and is a good topic for further research and the next survey. We will publish the findings in next month’s tech hiring blog. Don’t forget to check it out.
Conclusion:
So the overall conclusion is.
- Job change is not easy for the candidates
- Candidates don’t feel that confident while accepting offers
- Job search is a long drawn process
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With an overall experience of more that 3 years, Akshay Moon is someone who specializes in content marketing and has always managed to create quality content. He is currently working with Rezoomex as a Digital Marketing Executive.
Passionate about sports, particularly obsessed with cricket, anything related to the game is enough to attract Akshay’s attention.