Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 7 - Harsh Truth HR Won’t Tell You
14 Plays19 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire and Patrick Lowndes tackle a demoralizing experience that many young professionals face: applying to countless jobs and hearing nothing back. They unpack five harsh realities behind why HR may not be calling you back—and more importantly, how these have nothing to do with your value or identity in Christ. With practical insights and biblical encouragement, Ken and Patrick dismantle the lie that silence equals worthlessness and offer a freeing perspective for job seekers.
Resources Mentioned:
- Operator Community: Join here (link to be added in show notes)
Timestamps:
- [00:20] The False Belief: No callbacks = No value
- [02:29] Harsh Reality #1: Your resume never made it past the algorithm
- [05:20] Harsh Reality #2: Your resume looks like everyone else’s
- [07:45] Harsh Reality #3: You didn’t network—they hired someone who did
- [10:08] Harsh Reality #4: Your digital presence raised a red flag
- [12:12] Harsh Reality #5: HR doesn’t think you want the job
- [14:10] Hope and Encouragement: Your worth is not your work
- [15:44] What’s Next: 7 hacks to finally get that callback
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Buried Talent
00:00:08
Dan Sanchez
Welcome to Buried Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs about faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
Unveiling Hidden Truths in Job Applications
00:00:18
Dan Sanchez
I'm Ken Freire, and I'm here with my co-host, Patrick Lowndes, and today we're talking about the harsh truth HR won't tell you.
00:00:26
Dan Sanchez
Because the reality is, there's a lot of you who have applied to dozens, maybe hundreds of jobs, but heard nothing. And you fear that that silence leaves you self-doubt,
00:00:38
Dan Sanchez
frustration, and you feel like you're in a waiting season. And here's this false belief that you get that if I don't get a call back, I'm not valuable.
00:00:42
Patrick
That's right.
00:00:49
Dan Sanchez
And we hear this time and time again where people feel like they are not worth anything because they're not getting the call back. So that's what we're going to talk about today, Patrick.
00:01:00
Dan Sanchez
I'm super excited for us because first, we got to unveil the problem, right, for people. And if we don't unveil the problem, they don't know the solution for it.
00:01:08
Patrick
And it's not like you you you submit that resume and and you go dark and then you wake up the next morning and you're just like, you know, completely you crushed that, oh, they didn't even call me back
Five Harsh Realities in Job Hunting
00:01:18
Patrick
yet. Because then they have to wait weeks and you days and days turn into weeks.
00:01:22
Patrick
And so it's not necessarily one opportunity, right, that you feel this with, but many times it is the culmination of many attempts. And and what the enemy loves to do, the enemy of your soul, is he whispers into your ear and says,
00:01:37
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:01:38
Patrick
they you you're actually not that valuable or you've you haven't really worked hard enough or you're not good enough and like there's this this is like a crushing psychological thing that i think the enemy is trying to use in our heads and it it it like buries our confidence Right. Like this whole show, reason why we call it buried talent is because we're trying unbury your God given talents. And so, as you can tell, we're a little bit we're coming in hot on this episode here. So buckle up is all I got to say, Ken.
00:02:09
Dan Sanchez
Well, and that's the reality too, because I know, remember when I was younger, man, I just struggled. I was like, do people not like me? Am I not good enough? Do I not have the skill sets? And the reality is that today what we're going to about is five harsh realities that is causing you to not get that callback.
The Role of Technology in the Application Process
00:02:25
Dan Sanchez
So let's jump in. Let's get real practical for people on why they're not getting a callback. So Patrick, what's for number one?
00:02:32
Patrick
Yeah, well, we'd be remiss not to bring the obvious thing up, which is your number one is your resume never made it past the algorithm.
00:02:42
Dan Sanchez
Yep.
00:02:42
Patrick
You might be like, give me some stats on that. Well, you probably already know this by now, but 98% of Fortune 500 companies, they're using an applicant tracking system, an ATS.
00:02:53
Patrick
And check this out. This one kind of shocked me when I saw it. Only 25% of resumes make it past the ATS to a human reviewer. Like 25%. So that means 75 out of 100 applications don't even get to a human.
00:03:11
Patrick
Like you're only being rejected by the algorithm is takeaway here, right? And so you might imagine, there's a whole lot of things and strategies for how to not get rejected by the algorithm.
00:03:23
Patrick
But this is an ongoing kind of a hot topic right now in the talent and talent and human capital tech tech space is like, to what levels of bias are these algorithms actually bringing into the the process?
00:03:35
Patrick
But this is a harsh reality, Ken. So like, that's number one is, is you actually didn't even get to a human. So like, don't feel bad if the algorithm didn't pick you is kind of the first, first reaction to that, that one, that first harsh reality.
00:03:45
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:03:48
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, well, let me just comment comment on that too, is that I used to oversee HR for a certain part of the university, lot of the student HR department.
00:03:58
Dan Sanchez
And we used to implement these types of algorithms in ATS system to kind of more filter where would people go. And then when I left and I was a CEO of a company, i i implemented an ATS system.
00:04:09
Dan Sanchez
And I remember looking through some of these applications that got denied, and they were actually way better than other applications. And you may say, well, it all comes down to how you set it up, right? Because the algorithm is set up between you put, the criteria.
00:04:26
Patrick
Yeah, how you prompted all that all stuff, right?
00:04:28
Dan Sanchez
Exactly. So I remember we were saying, hey, they need at least five years of experience in certain aspects for the job. But then I remember looking at other people who only had three years of experience, but the results that they brought to the company were like triple, sometimes quadruple more effective than the one who had five years of experience.
00:04:49
Patrick
Yeah, that's good.
00:04:49
Dan Sanchez
So I'm not trying to say, hey, the ATS, this episode is not about like, hey, the ATS systems are are miserable or horrible or anything like that. It's just being aware that like there are certain biases or there are certain credentials that people put that will automatically disqualify you that if you're not using the right keywords not using the right language, they're just going to throw it
00:05:10
Patrick
Yeah. Yep.
The Power of Networking and Personal Branding
00:05:11
Dan Sanchez
out the window.
00:05:11
Dan Sanchez
So you have to be aware about that. Let me talk about the second reality.
00:05:17
Dan Sanchez
The second reality is that, kind of I alluded to this, but you look like everyone else, right? Your resume is really generic. It's blurred into a sea of you're using the same language of you're being a team player, you're a hard worker, and you're motivated by individuals.
00:05:32
Dan Sanchez
But the reality is that the average corporate job receives 250 applications, Just think about that. Imagine 250 people in a room applying for the same job and you're using the same language. Of course, you you people are to be aware of you or pay attention to you.
00:05:51
Patrick
Yep. Yep. That's right.
00:05:51
Dan Sanchez
So you have to make sure that you're not invisible.
00:05:55
Dan Sanchez
You need specificity in your life. You need stories. You need metrics. You need a a unique voice to actually break through to this. And this is where I would actually encourage you for all of you who who are checking this out, right?
00:06:06
Dan Sanchez
That one, this podcast is here to help you, right? So that if you're trying to figure out how can I figure out my unique voice or breakthrough, man, like and follow this podcast because we're going to always be giving you tips on ways to improve your God-given talent.
00:06:21
Dan Sanchez
But the second thing too is just like make sure you have a community of people who can actually speak into your life so that they know, hey, you know what?
00:06:29
Dan Sanchez
This is not you. You can actually say this better.
00:06:32
Patrick
Yeah. Yep. And what would we like to talk about this concept of like your portfolio. So, you know, like a graphic designer or like even an artist, they're really good at like, hey, just like check out my portfolio, see what I've done. And it's cool. Like you're like, you flip through like, oh, you've painted that cool thing or you design that cool website.
00:06:47
Patrick
But what's ironic is that a lot of people people coming out of the business school with like marketing backgrounds or you know, finance or accounting backgrounds or sales backgrounds, sometimes it's harder to talk about what you've done to make you look different from the other, know, 250 finance, you know, grads or early in career people, like, how do I look different?
00:07:06
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:07:08
Patrick
And so one of the ways to think about that, we're going to tease this more out the next episode. So just stay with us. But we're going to also in the community work on this thing called portfolio building. So even while you're still in school, maybe you are in your first job or two and you're like, I just need to only done this one thing. i i kind of need to look more impressive. I need to get more experience.
00:07:26
Patrick
We're going to help you build out your portfolio. But that's the second point. You look like everyone else. OK, so don't look like everyone else. Come up with something different. And again, more stuff is coming on the next episode for ideas on this. But here's number three.
00:07:39
Patrick
Again, the reason why HR is not calling you back is you didn't network. That's number three. And they hired, they might have hired somebody who did. Again, some of the stats on this are pretty crazy, but a lot of roles are filled with either internal referrals or pre-existing relationships, right?
00:07:58
Patrick
And it never, i mean, yes, they have to, there's laws about having to have the job available for three days, seven days, whatever, and they got to take in multiple applicants. But check this out.
00:08:09
Patrick
Only 6% of the applications are submitted via referrals. Okay, so very small amount. But check this out. They account, those referred applications, they account for 37% of the hires, which is bonkers. So more than one in three of the hires are from people that get referred.
00:08:29
Patrick
And so if you start, I mean, that's that's that's massive.
00:08:30
Dan Sanchez
That's huge, man.
00:08:33
Patrick
And yes, I know if you're thinking about this and you're like, man, what's my way in? Do I know anybody? You're probably already doing this when you go to a company page is checking LinkedIn for second tier, third tier potential connections.
00:08:45
Patrick
and saying, hey, would you be able to kind of maybe put in a word for me? Like, tell me that you know me. Like, maybe you have to get known first. And like, can I tell you about who I am? And maybe you went to the same school and you got, you know, an alumni there at that company.
00:08:59
Patrick
But you need to think about how am building my network? So we'll talk a lot about this on the next show when we're talking about building your network out. And some of the, there's like a bunch of ways to do this, but that's a shocking fact, Ken, right? I mean, like, what do you do with that?
00:09:15
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, well, I mean, there's this famous quote that is like, it's not about what you know, it's about who you know.
00:09:20
Patrick
That's right.
00:09:22
Dan Sanchez
to be honest, I think every role that I've ever gotten, it's all been because of my network.
00:09:27
Patrick
Yeah.
00:09:27
Dan Sanchez
I never applied for a job and was just like, okay, cool. Like, you know, and just came up and cause it never worked. It like, and right now in 2025, gosh, there's so many people who are just struggling trying to find a job, not even just out of college, but just like, I know directors, VPs, executives, they're like, it's just become more and more difficult.
00:09:33
Patrick
Yeah.
00:09:39
Patrick
Yeah.
00:09:47
Dan Sanchez
So if you don't have a network that you can rely on to kind of help you connect with, you're going to hit a wall.
00:09:47
Patrick
Yep.
00:09:54
Dan Sanchez
So, which leads to the fourth harsh reality.
00:09:57
Dan Sanchez
is that your digital presence raised a red flag. Now this might not be for everyone, but just be mindful that ah HR and recruiters will Google you. You have an online presence and they're gonna confirm it.
00:10:11
Dan Sanchez
And if it, one, contradicts your resume, that's gonna be a red flag. So hopefully you're not lying. You're living a life of integrity. And at the same time, they will also look at, are you an individual who they would actually want in the company that fits their culture, fits their values, and you would represent the well?
00:10:29
Patrick
Yeah.
00:10:30
Dan Sanchez
If you're Facebook or social media accounts, LinkedIn, TikTok, whatever, is showing you partying all the time and out, doing ridiculous things, people may start to wonder, is this person dependable?
00:10:41
Dan Sanchez
Are they trustworthy? Are they just going to want to party? You want someone who's reliable. Here's a stat.
00:10:48
Dan Sanchez
98% of companies use social media in hiring and thinking about their brand. So if your brand could look more like their brand and what they want, you have a better shot at actually going through the process and getting accepted.
Crafting Tailored and Genuine Applications
00:11:06
Patrick
Yeah, can I jump in on this? Because it's not to say like, oh, I got to change my LinkedIn banner to kind of match their branding
00:11:07
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:11:14
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, yeah.
00:11:14
Patrick
We're not saying like mimic necessarily their brand, but we're saying is like, for example, if your LinkedIn is empty,
00:11:20
Patrick
or it's weak, or again, you like like if you're just coming in for first job and you don't really have much on there, they're reading into that. They're reading into the fact that, yeah, you might have a couple of volunteer things,
00:11:35
Patrick
But maybe there's not a lot of example or proof that you're going to be able to execute for the job that they want to execute on. So again, there might be a lack. There could be a ah ah lack of things of, let me say, of evidence, a body of evidence to kind of help justify like what you're bringing to that job.
00:11:52
Patrick
So let's go to the fifth point. Again, harsh truths about why HR is not calling you back is they don't think you actually want that job. some of you are like, wait, Patrick, hang tight there. Hold up. Wait a minute. Right. But let me tell you, if I'm going to say something, you you might be like, yeah, that's me.
00:12:10
Patrick
If you've just taken your resume and taken a cover letter and thrown it into GPT and boom, just kind of lazily thrown it out there, boom, pop pop in that one. OK, on to the next one. If you've done that.
00:12:23
Patrick
you're obviously like not putting a lot into it, right? So someone who might be really preparing and thinking about this would really take the time to say, is this hitting the points for what this specific role is interested in?
00:12:34
Patrick
And so if you kind of just thrown stuff out there and your application looks like you kind of just mass sprayed across a bunch of job boards and, you know, a bunch of different kinds of, you know, let's say entry-level finance jobs or entry-level sales or whatever jobs it is, they're probably going to pick up on that.
00:12:48
Patrick
Right. And I would venture to guess the algorithm is probably like, oh, yeah, we've seen a bunch of that say just the same thing. I wonder how much right now can algorithms it easily sniff out other algorithm generated stuff.
00:13:01
Patrick
So.
00:13:02
Dan Sanchez
Oh, for sure.
00:13:03
Patrick
you really want it, you have to show that you are not only intentional with your cover letters and the details on your resume and your application, but that you think about what that company is trying to accomplish.
00:13:16
Patrick
We talked about this a little earlier. on a previous show about what are the company's goals? How are you helping that company achieve their goals? And really, what is the mission and the vision and the values that they have?
00:13:28
Patrick
You want to be able to demonstrate how you've already been doing that. And if you don't take the time to even know what those are, you're going to again, you're going to to just be like everybody else. And they're going to
Encouragement and Next Steps for Job Seekers
00:13:37
Patrick
skip past you.
00:13:38
Patrick
So those are the five, those are the five harsh truths that why HR is not calling you back.
00:13:38
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:13:44
Patrick
But we're going to break this down for you and finish it up on this episode here. Ken, what do you got to kind of bring us home?
00:13:50
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, I want to leave with some hope. As some of you are thinking about this, these five realities may sting, but they aren't the final verdict on your value, like we talked about earlier.
00:14:01
Patrick
Yeah.
00:14:02
Dan Sanchez
They're not about who you are. They're just things that you need to work on, like anything else. It's a new skill set that doing. Think about it in the Bible. right David was overlooked by Samuel. Joseph was stuck in prison and got overlooked.
00:14:14
Dan Sanchez
Time and time again throughout Scripture, you see people who are overlooked, but God's saying, hey, your value is not tied what you do. So remember, your identity and your value and worth is not found in what you do.
00:14:22
Patrick
yeah yeah
00:14:28
Dan Sanchez
You're not a human doing. You're a human being. As a child of God, if you have been redeemed and born again, you already have someone who gave you perfect performance and acceptance on your behalf.
00:14:39
Patrick
amen amen
00:14:40
Dan Sanchez
And the reason I bring that up, this is so important, is that when you hear those no's, Don't let those no's reply or silence you and bury your confidence because your confidence doesn't come from what you do.
00:14:52
Dan Sanchez
It comes from whose you are. And you're a child of God.
00:14:56
Dan Sanchez
And he's going to find the door. He's going to open the door for you. You've got to put the work in it, right? You've got to do the things. But make sure, make sure you don't falter and not lose heart because, man, the door is going to open.
00:15:03
Patrick
Yeah.
00:15:10
Dan Sanchez
You're going to find the right thing. You just got to work a little bit It's a different skill set that you might not have learned how to do.
00:15:16
Patrick
That's right. And we're going to give you a little bit more hope because the next episode, just keep listening here. If you're on lunch or something or working out, just like binge right into the next one because we're going to right now hit on seven hacks to finally get that callback. So as you're about to jump in to listen to that, we welcome you into it.
00:15:35
Patrick
But if you're like, man, I got to just spend more time and like dig in on some of this stuff, we've got a place to do that. Unlike a lot of podcasts where you never really get to interact with the host or any advisors or or mentors, we actually create a space to do that on our operator community.
00:15:51
Patrick
So if you haven't checked that out yet, we'll put that in the show notes, but it's a free community. Jump on in and you can find other young professionals either in college or a couple years out of college into their career, trying to trying help each other out to be faith driven in our orientation.
00:16:05
Patrick
So jump into that next episode and we'll give you seven hacks to getting that call back.