How to turn your job-seeking “doom list” into career gold

“A colleague of mine advised me to apply to ten jobs a day, but I’ve been focused on doing more and getting to twenty,” my client Todd said. He then scrolled through his spreadsheet of all the jobs he had applied for — hundreds of applications, with no interviews. What at first was supposed to be a document to stay organized and track progress, he had now dubbed “a doom list of rejections.”

Todd had applied to three hundred-plus jobs and was putting in full forty-hour weeks completely committed to the job search. When he became my client, he had left his job as a music teacher two months prior. He had put in fifteen years of seventy-hour workweeks, low pay, and his full dedication. When his family faced unexpected hard times, he assumed his employer and coworkers would be there for him, but they massively let him down in his time of need. This triggered a desire to make a career change.

When he became my client, we completely shifted his job search approach, and it comes down to one idea: Measure your progress in interactions, not applications. 

Todd completely stopped applying online. Instead he took to working on himself (upskilling, rebranding his skill set, getting clear on exactly what role he wanted next) and building relationships. He had very few connections in the industries he was interested in, but did thoughtful outreaches to people who he didn’t know, as well as harnessing the power of “weak ties” to activate his network. He ultimately landed two job offers, neither of which was from applying online. Instead, one was from striking up a conversation with someone at a target company, and the other was from connecting with one of his wife’s friends, which ultimately led to getting the job interview. 

The offer that Todd accepted was more than twice what he was making as a teacher. Additionally, his workweek went from seventy hours to less than forty hours, allowing him to spend more time with his four children and to be able to afford to take them all on vacation. 

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Todd took a hopeless situation of endless online applications and transformed it into one of the best decisions of his life. I tell you this because I am mildly begging you here: please trust me when I ask you to network! Your happiness is on the other side of relationship building. I promise you that it’s not as bad as it seems and will absolutely transform your job search. 

Because the bottom line is: Applying online is the slow way. Networking is the fast way. 

If Todd’s situation has taught you anything, it’s to banish that feeling of satisfaction you get from hitting submit on a job application. Too many of us feel that applications are the measure of productivity in the job search, when really we are simply putting our information in a database, with no guarantee that anyone will ever read it. It’s like buying raffle tickets and hoping you’ll win as a strategy to pay your rent that month.

Therefore, we need to measure our progress in interactions:

• How many people have you talked to this week at your target companies? 
• How many people in your network have you told that you are job searching?
• How many conversations with acquaintances and friends have you had in which you casually brought up your professional interests to see if they know anyone? 

The more you log these types of interactions, the faster you will land your next position. In addition, you can still apply online, but after you apply, you’re not done. Every job application needs to be accompanied by an effort to get in touch with someone at the business. This could be sending an email to the hiring manager expressing your excitement and interest in the position, alerting the recruiter that your application has been submitted, or getting in touch with the person who posted about the role on their social media. 

However, as you move up in your career beyond the entry level stages, it’s best to focus less on submitting applications and more on being sure that other people submit the application for you. This is called being referred, which is the ultimate goal of all our networking. Next to being sourced, this is the best way to land an interview.

If you’re looking for the secret to having constant opportunities in your life, in one way or another, it’s networking. 

Networking allows you to have a better chance of getting sourced online or of someone referring you to a job. You can even network at scale by building an online presence.