Stop Applying Blind: How To Get Traction In A Busy Hiring Market

You’re applying. You’re qualified. The market is busy.
And yet… you’re still not getting the traction you expected.

It’s confusing.
Because when the market is slow, silence makes sense.
But when the market is active…when firms are hiring, teams are growing, and work is flowing, silence doesn’t feel logical.

So let’s be honest. The issue usually isn’t “no one is hiring.”
It’s that direct applications don't perform the way candidates think they do.

In a competitive, fast-moving market like real estate and valuation, the problem isn’t demand. It’s access, visibility, and timing.

Here’s what’s actually happening behind the scenes, and what gets results right now.

1. Direct applications underperform in a busy market, and here’s why

You’d assume that if firms are hiring, applying directly should be a sure win. But it doesn’t work like that. Real estate hiring is messy, reactive, and influenced by things candidates never see.

The biggest issues?

AI and ATS filters cut out excellent candidates.

In a busy market, inboxes are fuller, so hiring teams lean even more heavily on automation. ATS systems score you before a human ever sees your name. If the system doesn’t like your formatting or your keywords, you're out. And no one tells you.

It’s not personal. It’s process.

Briefs shift constantly. But adverts don’t.

You might be a perfect fit for the initial brief…but behind closed doors:

• the role becomes more senior

• the commercial requirements change

• they realise they need someone more client-facing

• or they decide they want someone already trained in a niche

But the job advert stays live, and you end up applying to a moving target you can’t see.

Hiring managers are too busy to follow up

Busy market = busy surveyors = busy Directors.

Most decision-makers are juggling valuations, inspections, clients, deadlines and fee pressure. Reviewing direct applicants is often squeezed into the 20 minutes they didn’t actually have.

It’s not disrespect. It’s bandwidth.

Competition is sharper than candidates realise

Being MRICS, competent and delivering results isn’t enough when ten other people tick the same boxes. In a crowded mid-to-senior market, tiny details decide who gets traction. And those details aren’t obvious from the outside.

2. How to actually get traction when firms are hiring but selective

Here’s where surveyors underestimate the complexity of the current market. In 2025, firms aren’t hiring everyone who applies. They’re hiring:

• people who match the brief as it is today, not yesterday

• people who have commercial upside

• people who are vetted

• people who arrive via someone the employer trusts

So how do you become that candidate?

Lead with clarity and commercial relevance

You're not writing a CV for a system or a HR generalist. You’re speaking to a fee earner who wants to know what you deliver, who you work with, how you influence revenue, how you support clients, and what your progression intent is.

If your CV reads like everyone else’s, it gets treated like everyone else’s.

Context is everything

The surveyors who get traction are the ones who understand the firm’s clients, their pressure points, growth targets, hiring philosophy, gaps in their team and local market conditions.

That context is impossible to guess, but it’s essential to stand out.

Ambition matters more than candidates think

Firms want progression.
They want succession plans.
They want people who’ll be future leaders.

If you want to be an Associate Director in 12–24 months, say so.
If you want to bring work in, say so.
If you want to manage people, say so.

Vagueness doesn’t get prioritised.

3. Why going through the right recruiter beats applying blind

This is the part real estate candidates underestimate the most.

In a busy market, being good isn’t enough. Firms hire based on trust, relationships and context. And recruiters like SONDR have that access built-in. Here’s what changes when your CV goes through SONDR instead of a job board:

• You bypass the noise

• Your CV isn’t fighting through an ATS, an inbox or an advert that no longer reflects the role.

• It’s placed in front of a decision-maker directly.

• You get real context

Our team speaks to Directors daily. They know:

• which briefs are shifting

• which roles haven’t been announced yet

• which firms are hiring early for 2025

• which managers respond instantly

• which roles will prioritise you

• which teams are overloaded and need your profile

You’re applying in alignment with the real brief, not the outdated one online.
You’re presented, not “submitted”

A direct application is anonymous.
A recruiter-led introduction is human.

Hiring managers know SONDR doesn’t send CVs just for volume. When Louis calls, they answer, because they know the profile is worth their time.

That changes everything.

You become a person, not a document. You get positioned based on your strengths, your ambitions, your cultural fit, your commercial relevance, your potential, your personality and your trajectory.

A job board can’t do that.
A hiring manager doesn’t have time to do that.
A recruiter who knows you, can.

The takeaway

If you’re relying on direct applications in a busy market, you’re playing the hardest version of the game. Not because you’re not strong enough. Not because firms aren’t hiring. But because:

• adverts lag behind real hiring needs

• competition is intense

• hiring managers are stretched

• algorithms block great people

• context matters more than candidates realise

• relationships beat systems every time

The market is active. Teams are growing. Roles are opening. But traction doesn’t come from volume. It comes from access.

If you want to move quickly, be visible and be taken seriously, don’t apply into the void.
Get represented. Get advocated for. Get introduced.

Tired of applying blind?

Let SONDR put your CV in front of the right people.