Why You're Not Getting Interviews - Six Mistakes Hurting Your Job Search

Many job seekers are taking action, following advice, and putting in consistent effort. Yet despite that, the interviews still aren’t coming.

In this episode of Your Next Success, Dr. Caroline Sangal shares six common mistakes that quietly disrupt even the most well-intentioned job search. These patterns often go unnoticed, but they can have a big impact on whether someone gains traction or stays stuck.

This episode offers clarity and perspective for job seekers who are ready to take a more intentional and aligned approach.

Get the FREE LinkedIn Profile Checklist: https://nextsuccesscareers.com/linkedin-profile-checklist

Transcript

Caroline: 0:03

Why is it that you can be doing everything you're supposed to in your job search, keeping your resume sharp, staying active on LinkedIn, even networking, and still feel like you're going nowhere. Why does it seem like no matter how many steps you take, something keeps pulling you back into the same frustrating spot? Maybe you've even caught yourself wondering late at night, am I missing something big here? Or is this just how it's supposed to be? If you are in the thick of a job search right now, questioning whether it's really the market or if there's something deeper at play, keep listening. This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your host, Dr. Caroline Sangal. I'm a life first career coach and strategist on a mission to normalize questioning your career because I believe each of us is made on purpose for a purpose only we can fulfill. The longer we live out of alignment with who we are, what we do best, and why we're here, the more we miss out. And the more the world misses out On what only we can give the Your Next Success Podcast is where we explore how to build a career that truly fuels your life. We talk about self-discovery, smart job, search strategies, professional growth, and you'll hear stories from people who've navigated big career transitions themselves so you can see what it's really like to make bold changes and feel inspired to create your own version of authentic success, one that is aligned, meaningful, and truly yours. Today we are talking about six subtle ways. Your job search might actually be keeping you stuck, even though it feels like you're on the right track. And first I wanna share a story with you. It is one that Napoleon Hill told in his book, Think And Grow Rich. And yeah, it's almost a hundred years old, but I swear it might be more relevant now than ever. Picture this with me for a second. You are standing on the edge of a dock and there's a big ship getting ready to pull out of the harbor. It has got a captain at the helm, a crew buzzing around, maps and charts all laid out, and they know exactly where they're going. So when they untie the ropes and they push off, there is zero hesitation. Now barring a storm or some freak accident, that ship will arrive at its exact destination right on time, but then there's another ship, same harbor, same water, except this one has no captain, no crew, no map. It just drifts off wherever the tide decides to pull it. Where does it end up? Who knows, maybe it washes up on some random shore, maybe it crashes on the rocks, But what it's not going to do is get anywhere intentionally. And the reason I tell you this isn't to get all philosophical. It's because if you are out there in the middle of a job search right now, whether you're graduating, reentering the workforce after a break or you've experienced and found yourself laid off, there's a pretty good chance that your approach looks a whole lot like that second ship. And look, that is not a dig. Most people do it this way. You're out there firing off applications, maybe applying on LinkedIn, tweaking bullet points, refreshing your email inbox, and hoping maybe this time someone replies and you tell yourself, Hey, I am moving. I am doing something. It has got to pay off soon. But let me ask you, does it actually feel like there's a captain at the wheel? Do you have a clear chart or are you just hoping the wind pushes you somewhere good, because here's what I want to promise you today. By the time we are done here, you're gonna see exactly why your job search might be taking you further off course without you even realizing it. I am gonna show you three mistakes that you might be doing that are keeping you stuck in your job search, and more importantly, we will talk about how to shift it so that you're not just drifting, you're actually steering, you've got the map, the compass, and yeah, you are the captain. Sound good? Alright, let's keep going. Tell me if this rings true. You've got your laptop open, or let's be real, your phone and you scroll LinkedIn, Indeed, or whatever your portal of choice is. You click on a job title and your stomach does this tiny flip. Could this be it? And you start reading and you think, yeah, I could do this. You read the description two or three times and you try to see yourself in it. Then maybe you adjust your resume. You pull out a bullet point that matches, you swap a line, you upload, you hit submit. And for a moment there's hope, a little spark of maybe this one, but then a few minutes, hours or days later, nothing. Crickets or that cheery automated rejection email that somehow still manages to feel like a punch in the gut, or worse, just total silence, but you get up and you dust yourself off, and then you do it again because that's what you've been told, right? Keep applying, keep trying. It is just a numbers game, but can I tell you something gently, if it's not working now, doing more of the same is not going to suddenly flip the switch, and that's exactly what we're going to unpack today. Mistake number one is believing that the more applications you send out, the more chances that you'll have. Now it feels like common sense, right? Everyone says it. Keep applying, keep putting yourself out there, and eventually something has to stick, especially if you're analytical and results focused. It seems obvious that increasing the number of submissions will increase your odds. What I see over and over though is something very different. Because volume by itself does not create the momentum people expect. Real traction happens when your energy and focus go into clarity, into understanding exactly what problems you solve best and targeting where those problems actually exist. A scattered approach often leads to scattered results. I worked with a chemical engineer who applied to 47 roles in three weeks. She cast such a wide net thinking that if she showed she was open to a lot of different opportunities, then she would land something faster. But the reality is nothing moved. Then we slowed everything down and she got clear on what kinds of projects litter up. And how her natural abilities lined up with those roles. The next month, she sent out just five applications, and that focus turned into three callbacks and two on-sites. It changed everything. So think about it. Are the people landing the best roles, usually the ones who flood the market with applications, Or is it often the people who zero in on where they can create the most value and make it unmistakable how they fit? Imagine you're fishing and you're on a boat with a single fishing line, but you drop it in a spot where you know the fish gather that line matters more than 50 lines dropped randomly all over the ocean. Intentional effort almost always outperforms random effort. That is why clarity is so powerful. When you take the time to identify exactly what problems you want to solve, then you position your resume and LinkedIn around that story. Every application becomes a strong signal. You are not hoping someone will sort through your experience and guess and figure out where you fit. You are already showing them, and that makes decisions easier for them and more fulfilling for you. Imagine sending out fewer applications, knowing each one is a direct match. You can almost feel the relief of no longer playing the numbers game. It's a quiet confidence that comes from knowing your path and seeing your effort actually pay off. Mistake number two happens when you turn your resume into a patchwork of keywords for every job you apply to. Now, it makes sense why people do this, because every career article says, tailor your resume, match the language, hit the right keyword so that the software moves you forward. It feels strategic, like checking all the right boxes. But what I found is that constantly changing up your resume for every job post can actually water down your message. Instead of showing a clear, strong story about who you are and the problems that you're best at solving, it becomes a collection of borrowed phrases that blend you in to everyone else. I worked with someone who did exactly this. Every time she saw a new opening, she adjusted the lines, swapped out the words, pulled in language from the post, but her resume became an echo of each job description rather than a statement of her own unique value. Once we anchored her resume in what she truly did best, something shifted. Employers no longer had to decide who she was anymore, they could see it right away, and that's when interviews started lining up. So really ask yourself is a resume that tries to be everything for everyone, actually more effective. Or does a resume that speaks consistently about your strongest contributions, build more trust and pull in the right roles to you. It's like trying to grow a garden by planting a handful of every type of seed and random places. Nothing gets the consistent care it needs, so nothing thrives. When you plant the same kind of seed in the right soil, you give it a real chance to take root and flourish. When you build your resume around the specific problems you are uniquely wired to solve, it becomes instantly clear to the right people. They don't have to wonder what you do there or how you'd fit, it's obvious. Imagine the relief of knowing you are presenting the same confident aligned story every time, and that story is strong enough to stand on its own. It becomes easier for the right opportunities to say yes because you've already shown them why. Mistake number three is expecting your work to speak for itself and naturally bring the right opportunities to you. I completely understand why this is a common belief because you have worked hard delivered results, built a solid track record, and maybe even gathered glowing endorsements on your LinkedIn. It feels fair to think that by staying focused on doing excellent work, the right people will notice. It often feels more dignified too. Like, I'm not out there chasing, I've proven myself. If someone wants what I bring, they'll reach out. But what I see play out time and again is something different. The best opportunities rarely start with a random recruiter stumbling on your profile. They grow quietly through networks, through referrals and conversations long before a job ever gets posted. People look for someone they've heard about, someone who has already shown curiosity and engagement. Your track record matters tremendously, but it becomes powerful when you are the one putting it in front of the right people. I worked with a scientist who had an incredible background. She figured her results would be obvious enough that companies would reach out. Months passed without anything moving. When she started reaching out directly, just three short, thoughtful messages to hiring managers, doing work that genuinely excited her, everything changed. She mentioned a project that she loved that overlapped with their interests and offered a friendly invitation to connect. A week later, she was on an informal call. Two weeks after that, they were already sketching out a new role around her strengths. So it's worth asking yourself, are the most meaningful opportunities really going to the people who stay quiet and wait to be noticed? or do they usually flow to those who take small steps to get on the radar early, long before a hiring decision is ever made. It's like tending a garden by being present. You water, you check the soil, you give it light. The plants that get seen and cared for, grow the strongest. The same goes for your career. You create visibility through small, genuine connections that build trust over time, sharing what you care about, commenting thoughtfully on someone's work, sending a simple note of curiosity. These are all ways that you become known. Hiring conversations often start from someone remembering who showed interest, who understood their challenges, and who felt like an easy next step when the time was right. Imagine what shifts when you are not waiting, but gently guiding your future by showing who you are and what you love to solve. That's how opportunities come to you already aligned with what makes you come alive. Today we are talking about subtle ways your job search by actually be keeping you stuck, even though from the outside it looks like you're doing everything right. And I wanna share a story that you've probably heard because it's one of those timeless truths that hits even harder when you're in a season like this. Stephen Covey, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People said, people spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to reach the top and realize the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. Think about that for a second. You can be putting in all the hours, taking all the courses, doing everything you believe should get you ahead and still end up somewhere that doesn't actually fit you at all. Somewhere that feels draining, small, misaligned even though it's technically success. I see this all the time in career transitions. Smart driven people keep pushing, climbing faster, working harder, hoping that the effort will eventually pay off, but they never stop to check if the ladder is even on the right wall. And that's exactly what we're gonna unpack you'll see why some of these patterns might be quietly holding you back and you'll know exactly how to start shifting them so that you are not just climbing by habit, hoping it leads somewhere good. You are actually choosing the wall on purpose with your ladder steady against something that fits the life and work you truly want. So mistake number four is treating your LinkedIn profile like a digital business card Instead of what it can truly be, a magnet. Most people spend hours tweaking their LinkedIn. They update their headline, maybe swap in a new banner, rewrite the about section to sound a little more human. It feels productive like you're putting your best foot forward. But the truth is, if your profile still mostly reads like a list of duties or a string of safe corporate buzzwords, words like results oriented or cross-functional leader, it blends right in. LinkedIn is so much more than an online resume. It is your positioning statement. It's where you get to broadcast if you have this problem, I'm your person. When you keep it generic, sure it feels safe, but it also means that you fade into the noise. Specifics are what makes people stop scrolling. Being clear about what you solve, repels the wrong roles and draws the right ones to you. I had a client who was a senior project manager. Her old headline was something like Passionate about Growth and Operational Excellence. Now, it could have described a million people. When we shifted it to, I lead global pharmaceutical scale ups, cutting launch times by 30% by focusing on lean systems and quality assurance. That one change started bringing InMails from exactly the kinds of companies that she dreamed of working for. So really think about it. are recruiters and hiring managers pausing for profiles that sound like every other safe, professional summary? Or are they reaching out to people who make it obvious what kind of problems they can jump in and solve? Your LinkedIn is like a storefront sign on a busy street. A bland sign says you sell stuff. A clear focused sign says you have exactly what that person walking by is looking for. Turning your LinkedIn into a magnet starts with deciding what problems you want to solve next and how you want to be known. When your headline, your summary, and your experience sections all reinforce that message. People don't have to guess. They see it right away. Picture someone opening your profile and thinking this is exactly who we need. That's what happens when your positioning does the heavy lifting. Mistake number five is hoping that time will fix it. Trusting that if you just keep going, eventually something will land. This one can be tough to face because it carries a hint of truth. You tell yourself it's the market, it'll pick up. Something's bound to come through. It feels patient even resilient. But here's what actually plays out. Time doesn't automatically sort things out. When your approach is misaligned. Time compounds whatever you are already doing. So if every month you keep applying randomly or you keep waiting for someone to notice your profile, you are not standing still. You're slowly training yourself to accept uncertainty, to get used to polite rejections or complete silence. Your confidence starts to thin out, drop by drop. I've had clients come to me after a whole year of doing the same things, mass applying, rewriting tiny bits of their resume, hoping the next quarter might be different. By then, they weren't just tired. Their belief in themselves had eroded. But once we rebuilt everything, their positioning, their outreach strategy, their understanding of what they actually wanted, things began to move quickly, but it took extra work just to get their energy back to try again. So ask yourself, does time on its own create better outcomes? Or does time only start working in your favor once you give it something meaningful to build on. Time is like a snowball. It grows based on what you pack at the start. If you start with misalignment, it just becomes a bigger ball of confusion. If you start with clarity and strategy, it picks up speed in the right direction. Time starts working for you when you give it a foundation, a clear resume, a LinkedIn profile that positions you for what's next, targeted applications and warm conversations that build momentum. That's how time becomes your ally each week, instead of feeling more stuck, you see small signs that you are moving toward the work that truly fits you. Mistake number six is pouring all your energy into what you've done instead of shaping your story around where you actually want to go next. It's easy to see why this happens because most of us were taught that resumes and profiles are supposed to be a running list of everything that we've done, so we stack up job descriptions, achievements, responsibilities, certifications. It feels like that's what gives us credibility. That if we show enough past success, someone will figure out where we fit. But what I've seen over and over is that employers hire forward. They look at where you're pointing, not just where you've been. When your entire narrative is anchored only in the past, it leaves hiring managers trying to guess what problems you want to solve next, and many simply move on to the person who makes that crystal clear. I had a client who was in biotech operations. Her resume and LinkedIn were packed with technical wins and complex system rollouts, all written like dense case studies. Impressive, sure. But it read like a historical document. Nothing pointed to where she wanted to go. When we reframed it around the kinds of problems she wanted to keep solving and wrote her profile to position her as someone driving innovation and operational excellence for future launches, it suddenly opened doors. Companies could see exactly how she fit into their next big project. So think about this for yourself, are the opportunities you want most likely going to go to someone whose materials read, like a career obituary, documenting everything that they've already done, or to the person who says, here's what I solve, here's where I'm heading, and here's how That connects to what you need. It's like driving a car by staring in the rear view mirror. The view behind you is valuable. It shows how far you've come, but you reach your destination by focusing on the road ahead. Shifting this means deciding what problems you want to keep solving, what environments energize you and what future you are intentionally moving toward. Then your resume, your LinkedIn, even the way you introduce yourself becomes a story of where you are heading, supported by the results that you've already delivered. Picture a hiring manager looking at your materials and instantly seeing how you fit into the challenges they're facing right now and the goals that they're driving toward. That's when they reach out because you're not just a record of the past, you are a solution for their future. So just to recap where we've been today, we have talked about how sending out more applications without real clarity is often what keeps you running In circles, we looked at how turning your resume into a patchwork of keywords for every new posting actually blurs your message instead of sharpening it. And we explored how expecting your work to speak for itself leaves you quietly overlooked when real opportunities usually grow through conversations and networks long before there's ever a formal job post. So let's picture this together for a second. Imagine just a few weeks from now. Your LinkedIn doesn't just look nice. It actually does work for you. It positions you clearly so that the right people immediately see how you fit. Your resume doesn't blend into the pile. It feels like a direct line to the kinds of problems you want to keep solving. You are not sitting back, hoping time will sort it out. You've given time something to compound. Each week, you are seeing small signals, maybe a warm reply to a thoughtful message or an introduction to someone that you've genuinely admired. You feel lighter because you're not carrying the weight of trying to be everything to everyone. You are clear, you are intentional, and that quiet confidence starts pulling the right opportunities straight towards you. if you recognize any of this in your own search, that's actually a really good sign. It means you're paying attention. You are asking bigger questions about where your ladder is leaning, and that's what changes everything. The simplest place to begin if you need help, is by grabbing my free LinkedIn profile checklist. it will help you make sure that your profile is not just a digital resume, but a clear, compelling statement of what you solve and where you're heading next. You'll find that link right in the show notes, and if you're ready to take it deeper, to figure out exactly what kind of problems you are built to solve and how to position yourself for work that is truly aligned, you can book a strategy call with me. We will look together at how to make that happen. So this is how you stop hoping and start steering. This is how you build real momentum toward the life and career that fit you best. I'm glad you're here. Keep going. Your next success is closer than you think. Thanks for listening to Your Next Success with Dr. Caroline Sangal. Remember, authentic success is yours to define and includes aligning your career to support the life you want.