What’s Really Happening in the Job Market Right Now

What’s Really Happening in the Job Market Right Now

Why am I getting no response despite strong experience?

January is traditionally positioned as a hopeful month for job seekers. Budgets reset. Hiring plans reopen. Momentum returns.

And yet, for many senior leaders, January feels anything but energizing.

You may be doing everything you have always done. Updating your resume. Applying for roles that align perfectly with your experience. Reaching out to recruiters. Leveraging a strong track record built over decades.

Still, the silence feels louder than ever.

If that sounds familiar, here’s the first thing you need to hear clearly:

This isn’t a personal failure. It’s a structural shift.

The senior job market has changed in ways that are subtle, largely unspoken, and often invisible to those navigating it for the first time in years.

This article explains why senior job searches feel so broken right now, what the data actually shows, and how to recalibrate without tearing everything down and starting again.

 

 

The uncomfortable reality: hiring has changed 

One of the most frustrating aspects of today’s market is that very little has been “announced”.

There hasn’t been a single defining moment. No press release that said, “This is how senior hiring works now.”

Instead, changes have layered quietly over time:

  • More internal hiring and redeployment

  • Greater reliance on referrals and known quantities

  • Increased automation and filtering earlier in the process

  • Fewer publicly advertised senior roles

  • Longer, more risk-averse decision cycles

According to research aggregated in our State of the Job Market Report, fewer than 15% of senior roles are ever filled via job boards, despite job boards dominating most people’s job search activity.

🔎 You can read the full research summary here:
https://gamma.app/docs/A-Review-of-Global-Job-Market-Research-2025-sn4e4tpiilf4qwv?mode=doc

🪞Self-reflection questions:

  • Where are you spending most of your job search energy right now?

  • How much of that effort is visible to decision-makers, not systems/AI filters?

 

 

Why applying online feels like shouting into the void

Many senior leaders tell us the same thing:

“My resume is strong. I know I’m qualified. But I’m getting nothing back.”

This disconnect is often caused by where applications sit in the hiring sequence.

At senior level, job ads should be the final step, not the first.

By the time a role is publicly advertised:

  • The scope may already be heavily shaped

  • Internal candidates may already be in play

  • External referrals may already be considered

  • Risk is already being actively managed

Job boards still exist, but they are often compliance theatre rather than the engine of senior hiring. They are collecting data at an eye-watering rate, yet fail to deliver the very thing they purport to deliver - jobs! 

This job board aligns with data from LinkedIn Economic Graph insights, which consistently show that the majority of senior placements originate from direct approaches, referrals, and proactive sourcing, not inbound applications.

💡 If this resonates, the full breakdown is explored in depth in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZANFV9EQmw

 

 

Experience isn’t failing, but it is being filtered differently

This is the hardest truth for many experienced professionals to sit with:

Experience alone is no longer a sufficient signal.

Not because it lacks value, but because it is no longer interpreted the way it once was. If you’re in your 40s to 50s, your experience has always been the one thing that differentiates you. That is no longer the case. 

Modern hiring systems, both human and automated, increasingly look for:

  • Clear relevance to current business challenges

  • Evidence of adaptability, not just longevity

  • Signals of impact, not responsibility

  • Familiarity, not potential

Research from Gartner highlights that organisations under uncertainty default to risk minimisation, favouring candidates who feel immediately “safe”, known, or visible, even if others are equally capable.

This is where many senior leaders get stuck.

They are experienced, but not positioned for how decisions are now made. If you don’t alter your positioning, you will really struggle to stand out in the 2026 hiring landscape. 

🪞Self-reflection questions:

  • Does your resume describe what you were responsible for, or what changed because you were there?

  • Could a hiring manager quickly articulate where you fit now, not where you’ve been?

  • If your resume is as strong as you think it is, why is it not getting you the traction you need?

 

 

The mid-career pressure point (40–55)

If you’re in your 40s or early 50s, the current market can feel particularly unforgiving.

You’re often balancing:

  • Peak responsibility

  • Financial commitments

  • Reputation built over decades

  • A desire not to “step back”

At the same time, hiring dynamics may skew towards:

  • Internal successors

  • Younger profiles perceived as more “malleable”

  • Fractional or interim solutions

  • Portfolio approaches

Studies referenced by OECD consistently show that experienced professionals face longer time-to-hire, not because of capability gaps, but because of misalignment between experience and hiring narratives.

This is often felt emotionally as rejection, but structurally it’s about fit, framing, and familiarity.

🔎 If you want context for how this plays out in real hiring decisions, the research is summarised here:
https://gamma.app/docs/A-Review-of-Global-Job-Market-Research-2025-sn4e4tpiilf4qwv?mode=doc

 

 

Why January feels so high-stakes

January is not just “busy”.

It’s formative.

Hiring shortlists often begin shaping in January, even if:

  • Interviews happen later

  • Offers are delayed

  • Roles aren’t advertised until Q2

This creates a psychological trap. Senior leaders feel pressure to act, but without clarity on how to act differently.

The result is often more of the same:

  • More applications

  • More tweaks to wording

  • More time spent refreshing inboxes

Momentum, however, does not come from volume at senior level.

It comes from:

  • Visibility in the right places

  • Conversations that shape roles

  • Signals that reduce perceived hiring risk

💡 If you want to understand what creates real momentum instead, this is explored step-by-step here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZANFV9EQmw

 

 

What actually works instead

The senior leaders who navigate this market successfully tend to shift focus in three key ways:

  1. From applications to positioning

  2. From documents to visibility

  3. From effort to strategy

This doesn’t mean abandoning your resume or LinkedIn profile. It means using them as tools, not the strategy itself.

It means understanding:

  • How recruiters actually search

  • How internal conversations influence outcomes

  • How trigger events open doors

  • How credibility is built quietly

At Resume Pilots, we work with individuals navigating this every day, but we’re also committed to raising awareness of how outdated hiring practices disproportionately disadvantage experienced leaders. And how businesses are suffering as a result. 

This isn’t about “fixing” people.

It’s about fixing the lens through which experience is evaluated.

 

 

💭Questions worth sitting with

Before changing anything tactically, pause with these:

  • Where am I relying on systems that were built for volume, not seniority?

  • How visible am I to decision-makers who aren’t actively advertising roles?

  • If a role were quietly being shaped tomorrow, would I be considered?

  • What assumptions am I making based on how hiring used to work?

Clarity here changes everything.

 

 

If you want to go deeper

🔎 Read the full State of the Job Market research
https://gamma.app/docs/A-Review-of-Global-Job-Market-Research-2025-sn4e4tpiilf4qwv?mode=doc

🎥 Watch the full workshop explaining what’s changed and what works now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZANFV9EQmw

💬 If you want to talk through how this applies to your own situation
Book a call here: https://www.resumepilots.com/pages/untitled

📩 Or contact us directly: team@resumepilots.com or visit https://www.resumepilots.com/ 
🔗 Follow our insights on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/resumepilots/

 

 

Final thought

If your January job search feels harder than it should, that doesn’t mean you’re behind.

It means the rules changed while you were busy leading, building, and delivering.

Understanding that shift is the first real step forward.