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Job Search · UK 2026

Why am I not getting interviews?

Alex By Alex · 12-year UK recruiter · Updated April 2026

From twelve years of placements, the candidates who go 8-16 weeks with no interviews almost always have one of five problems. Diagnosing which one matters more than fixing them all blindly.

First and most common: ATS keyword match below 30%. The ATS scores your CV against the JD's keywords. If your CV uses 'customer engagement' and the JD says 'customer success', you're invisible to the algorithm. Run a few of your CVs through a free tool like the JobLabs CV keyword match score, see your match percentage, and rewrite the bullets to fold in the missing keywords.

Second: the top third of your CV doesn't earn the read. Recruiters spend 8 seconds on page-one-top before deciding whether to keep reading. If your top third is generic title + a vague summary + the company you used to work at, you've already lost them. Lead with a tight personal profile (3 sentences, role-specific), then a 5-8-bullet skills section using terms from your target JDs.

Third: cover letter is doing nothing. If you're applying for stretch roles or making a career change, the cover letter is the lever — and most candidates write the same generic cover letter for every application. Three short paragraphs, named gap, named compensating strength, named specific reason for this company. 280 words.

Fourth: applying to roles you're under 50% qualified for. Volume doesn't fix mismatch. If you're missing the top 2-3 must-haves on every JD, you'll never get past the ATS regardless of how many applications you send.

Fifth: wrong volume-versus-tailoring trade-off. 8-12 tailored applications a week beat 40 spray-and-pray. If you're spraying 200 applications and getting zero callbacks, the problem is the spraying, not the market.

If none of these explain it, the harder diagnosis: maybe your target salary is unrealistic for the market, or your title is too senior for the experience visible on the CV. These are conversations to have with a recruiter who'll be honest with you, which most won't be.

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