Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs
One book, placed in its field — what Peter Cappelli's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · peopleleader.guide/guides/profile-why_good_people_cant_get_jobs_cappelli
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Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs
One book, placed in its field — what Peter Cappelli's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · peopleleader.guide/guides/profile-why_good_people_cant_get_jobs_cappelli
The problem
Vacancy Fulfillment erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The model
- 01Applicant Abundance
- 02Inflated Job Requirements
- 03Below-Market Wage Offers
- 04Automated Applicant Screening
- 05Employer Training Investment
- 06HR Analytical Capability
- 07Employer Search Intensity
- 08Capable Candidate Screen-Out
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 1 of 5 · Applicant Abundance
The ratio of seekers to vacancies, not candidate merit, is what hands employers the power to be picky.
Misconception
Employers believe that when hundreds of resumes arrive for one posting, it proves that only a tiny fraction of the workforce is actually competent.
Reality
A flood of applicants reflects slack in the labor market, not a collapse in candidate ability; the same qualified person who is 'unhireable' in a recession is a coveted recruit when vacancies outnumber seekers.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 2 of 5 · Inflated Job Requirements
A job description that no human can satisfy is a hiring failure disguised as high standards.
Misconception
Practitioners believe long requirement lists protect quality by ensuring only the truly qualified apply.
Reality
Excessive requirements don't raise the quality of your applicant pool—they shrink it to zero or push you toward candidates who game keywords, while the specificity ('7 years in exactly our stack') screens out people who would master the role in weeks.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 3 of 5 · Below-Market Wage Offers
If offering more money would fill the job, you do not have a skills shortage — you have a pricing decision you haven't owned.
Misconception
Employers believe that when qualified candidates decline or don't apply, it proves the necessary skills are rare in the labor market.
Reality
A wage is a market-clearing price, not a fixed cost of a job; if you posted the same requirements at the prevailing wage the applicants would materialize. Empty pipelines at low pay are demand behavior, not supply scarcity.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 4 of 5 · Automated Applicant Screening
A near-empty candidate pool is more often evidence of a broken filter than of a missing workforce.
Misconception
Practitioners believe the software surfaces the best candidates and merely removes the unqualified, so a thin funnel proves a talent shortage.
Reality
The filters optimize for literal keyword and credential matches, not capability, so they reject people who could do the job but described it differently or lack one nominal checkbox. A shrinking funnel usually signals over-specified criteria, not a scarce workforce.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 5 of 5 · Employer Training Investment
Vacancies left open to find a perfect match usually cost more than training an imperfect one.
Misconception
Employers assume that training is a sunk cost lost to poaching—train someone and a competitor hires them away—so buying finished talent is cheaper.
Reality
The cost of a prolonged vacancy and repeated failed searches usually dwarfs the cost of ramping a capable hire, and workers you invest in tend to stay longer, not leave sooner. The turnover fear is largely a self-fulfilling excuse.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The cheat sheet
- Applicant AbundanceThe ratio of seekers to vacancies, not candidate merit, is what hands employers the power to be picky.
- Inflated Job RequirementsA job description that no human can satisfy is a hiring failure disguised as high standards.
- Below-Market Wage OffersIf offering more money would fill the job, you do not have a skills shortage — you have a pricing decision you haven't owned.
- Automated Applicant ScreeningA near-empty candidate pool is more often evidence of a broken filter than of a missing workforce.
- Employer Training InvestmentVacancies left open to find a perfect match usually cost more than training an imperfect one.
- HR Analytical CapabilityAn HR function that cannot quantify the cost of an empty seat has no leverage to challenge an inflated requisition.
- Employer Search IntensityCheap searching is not free searching—the cost lands on the vacancy, not the recruiting budget.
- Capable Candidate Screen-OutA skills-shortage narrative usually collapses once you audit your own rejection reasons.
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Sources
- Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs — Peter Cappelli
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide