Visible but Invisible: Why the Modern Job Market Feels Like a Rigged Game Show
The job market looks busy, but most of it is noise. Learn why visibility no longer equals access, and what serious job seekers must do differently.
Once upon a time, the job search was a human process. You dressed the part, walked into an office, looked someone in the eye, and made your case. If you had the skills and the timing was right, you got the job. There were gatekeepers, yes, but at least they were made of flesh and blood. Today, you upload your CV into a faceless system and hope an algorithm doesn’t quietly discard it before anyone ever sees your name. You wait, often in silence, while a handful of unsolicited recruiter messages trickle in, offering vague roles with vague companies under vague conditions.
It’s a lottery. The process has become less about being right for the job and more about playing the game well enough to get noticed. The numbers are bigger, the tools are louder, and the signals are buried beneath layers of noise. Visibility has skyrocketed, but recognition hasn’t kept pace. If anything, we’re drowning in exposure with no connection.
So let’s be honest about the reality. Strip away the productivity posts and motivational fluff. The current hiring machine is built for scale, not for substance. And anyone serious about navigating it needs to stop pretending otherwise.
The Rise of the Free-Agent Recruiter (and the Illusion of Demand)
Let’s start with the recruiter. The friendly message. The polite compliment on your profile. The vague job opportunity you might be “perfect for.” It feels promising. It feels like progress. But more often than not, it’s just another spin of a wheel that isn’t really connected to anything.
Recruiters are now operating in sheer abundance. There are the traditional agency types, the solo contractors trying to prove themselves, and an entire wave of newcomers who’ve figured out how to run keyword searches and scrape LinkedIn. Some are competent. Many are well-meaning. But the reality is, most are working on contingency. That means they only get paid if you get hired. And that creates a very specific kind of urgency.
They are not incentivized to find the best person. They’re incentivized to submit someone quickly. Preferably before a competing recruiter does. This means rapid-fire outreach, low-effort matches, and little care for fit. It’s about volume. Whoever gets a resume in first gets the credit if it lands.
So you start seeing duplicates. Messages from different recruiters about the same job. Or jobs that aren’t real at all, but “pipeline roles” companies may or may not open. The illusion of opportunity grows, but the substance doesn’t.
What used to be a signal that you were in demand has become noise. Being contacted by a recruiter used to mean someone saw value in you. Today, it might just mean you ticked a box in a spreadsheet or matched a job title from 2019. The signal-to-noise ratio is worse than ever.
Recruiting isn’t dead. But the version most candidates experience is reactive, rushed, and increasingly disconnected from real opportunity.
You’re More Visible Than Ever and Less Seen Than Ever
The modern job seeker is constantly told to focus on visibility. Build a personal brand. Polish your LinkedIn profile. Post regularly. Share opinions. Showcase your work. The advice is everywhere, and it sounds convincing. In a world where everything is online, surely the loudest, clearest voices will rise above the rest.
Except that’s not quite how it plays out.
Today’s visibility isn’t the same as being noticed. You can be active, vocal, consistent, and still get nowhere. That’s because the digital job market is flooded. Everyone is visible. Everyone is performing. Everyone is “building a brand.” The result is noise, not clarity. Being present online is now the baseline. It’s no longer a differentiator.
And behind the scenes, the mechanics of hiring are designed to filter, not discover. A single job post can bring in hundreds of applications within 48 hours. Sometimes more. Automated systems, not people, do the first round of sifting. If your resume lacks the right keywords or formatting, it doesn’t matter how strong you are. You won’t be seen.
Even if you make it past the filters, your application is skimmed, not studied. A recruiter might glance at it between meetings. A hiring manager might be looking to reject quickly rather than shortlist carefully. In that environment, being qualified isn’t enough. Being excellent often doesn’t matter.
Plenty of highly capable people are ignored, not because they’re lacking, but because they’re buried. The system is designed to screen out, not to seek out. So while you may be more “visible” than ever, the odds of being truly seen are slimmer than they’ve ever been.
The Personal Branding Treadmill: Perform or Disappear
In the modern job market, building a personal brand is no longer optional. It’s expected. The days of quietly applying to roles with a well-tailored CV are long gone. Today, you need an online persona that feels human but not too casual, confident but not arrogant, consistent but never repetitive. Your profile must sparkle. Your posts must resonate. And if they go viral? Even better.
The goal, we’re told, is to “stay top of mind.” But whose mind, exactly? The hiring manager who never saw your application? The recruiter who hasn’t spoken to the client in two weeks? In practice, personal branding has become a kind of unpaid side job. People schedule content, optimize headlines, and workshop comment strategy in the hopes that maybe someone important will see it..
For some, it works. A single post can catch the right attention at the right time. But for most, it becomes a cycle of invisible effort. A grind with little return. You write vulnerable posts about your job search journey. You celebrate micro-wins to stay in the algorithm’s good graces. Meanwhile, your actual experience sits unnoticed behind a digital gatekeeper.
There is value in showcasing your thinking and putting yourself out there. But the current climate often pushes people into content creation not out of inspiration, but necessity. If you’re not constantly visible, you risk being forgotten.
So, what began as a tool to stand out has turned into another performance. Another requirement layered onto an already exhausting process. If you want a job, you now need to market yourself like a startup. For many, that doesn’t feel like empowerment.
Average Candidates, Feedback Loops, and the False Sense of Progress
There’s a \rhythm in today’s job market that creates the illusion of momentum, even when nothing is really moving. A recruiter sends out a generic message to a large list of candidates. Maybe 150. A few people respond. A handful take a call. One or two are submitted, not because they’re an ideal fit, but because someone had to be. One of those candidates, understandably flattered, takes to LinkedIn:
“Great to be having conversations with recruiters lately. Grateful for the opportunities ahead!”
And just like that, the cycle renews.
The recruiter gets activity to show their client. The candidate feels like they’re in demand. The post generates likes. Others see it and wonder if they’re falling behind. It’s a loop. And most of it is empty.
Behind the scenes, the role might already be deep into final interviews. It may have never been real to begin with. The recruiter might be trying to build a pipeline just in case. Meanwhile, genuinely capable candidates are applying, following the rules, and getting nowhere. Not because they’re lacking, but because they weren’t caught in this loop at the right moment.
This kind of activity creates a warped picture of progress. People begin to confuse recruiter contact with market validation. They think attention equals demand. But often it’s just filler. A line in a spreadsheet. A name on a list.
The system doesn’t reward talent consistently. It rewards timing, visibility, and luck. It gives just enough positive reinforcement to keep people hopeful, while rarely delivering real outcomes.
It’s not a meritocracy. It’s not even really a system. It’s a mirror held up at the right angle to look like progress. A cycle that flatters the average, and forgets the exceptional.
So… What’s the Alternative?
If reading all this feels a bit bleak, that’s clarity. The discomfort means your instincts are intact. Because what we’ve described is the system. And it’s working exactly as it was designed: to filter people, not understand them. To optimize for volume, not fit. To move bodies through funnels, not build teams around talent.
This isn’t about being negative for its own sake. It’s about seeing the landscape for what it is so you can navigate it with purpose, not frustration.
If you're serious about your career, then the answer isn’t to post more or apply harder. It’s to remove yourself from the noise wherever possible and play a different game entirely.
Start by building real relationships. Referrals work not because they’re magic, but because they bypass the machine. They bring trust into a system that otherwise depends on filters. A warm intro from someone inside a company will outperform fifty well-worded cover letters every time.
Next, go to the source. Speak with decision-makers, not just gatekeepers. Hiring managers, founders, team leads; these are the people who feel the pain of an unfilled role and are most likely to act if you can offer value.
Also, shift your mindset from applicant to problem-solver. Companies don’t hire to fill a chair. They hire to fix something. If you can understand that underlying need, you put yourself in an entirely different category.
And finally, know this: many of the best roles never make it to job boards. They’re filled through conversations, or referrals, The people who land them aren’t louder. They’re better connected, more intentional, and focused on fit rather than visibility. That’s the quieter path. But it works.
The job market today has the appearance of momentum. Endless posts, constant alerts, new platforms, fresh roles every hour. It all feels alive and urgent. But step back, and much of it reveals itself as surface-level activity. Recruiters circulate roles they haven’t been briefed on. Candidates polish their brands instead of their strategy. Everyone is busy, but few are actually moving forward.
If you want to engage with that system, you can. Just don’t confuse motion with progress. Understand that a lot of what looks like opportunity is really just a churn of low-touch effort that often leads nowhere.
The better alternative is quieter and slower. It involves fewer people but more intention. Fewer clicks, more conversations. It means building the kind of network where real insight flows. It means showing up where problems are being solved, not just where jobs are being advertised.
You don’t have to chase the crowd. You don’t have to compete for shallow attention. But you do need to choose carefully where your energy goes.
Visibility might get you seen. But being chosen? That comes from being in the right room, at the right time, for the right reason.
At StratEx - Indonesia Business Advisory we bring serious talent into focus through targeted advisory and intentional hiring strategies.. Contact us to navigate hiring with human intelligence, not automation alone.