Job Search 101: Less is More

So much of surviving and thriving in the corporate world is about mindset, particularly when you’re in search of a new job.

I saw this post floating around today on applying for 150 jobs in the last 24 hours. He chalked his results (fee responses) up to race.

Before weighing in on if that’s a reasonable conclusion (which it very well could be because racism is still a thing and I do think people of color have a different experience trying to navigate corporate America), there are some important things to note here.

First, going through the motion of filling in a form on a portal and loading the exact same resume with the exact same cover letter is not a recipe for success. You could write a bot to upload your resume.

Now I don’t know for sure what this person did but those numbers lead me to think this would be a phone it in type of scenario.

Another interesting thing is this person holds himself out as a celebrity manager, CEO, etc so I’m not sure if this was just an experiment or what. Applying for jobs is hard work and you probably aren’t going go all in if you don’t really need/ want the job.

Based on the comments, there are a lot of other people, experienced and inexperienced alike, making the exact same mistake. This is why I tell people my corporate ladder university book isn’t just for new graduates.

Many are talking about how qualified they are and how many positions rejected them but none are talking about how they approached the opportunities. Your qualifications and experience don’t matter of your resume and cover letter are trash.

The truth is even for in-demand skills you’ll typically have more than one person applying for any given position so you need to be memorable and strategic to get your name in front of the right human. Ideally, you’d want to have some sort of relationship to help you get a foot in the door which means start establishing rapport well before you need it.

I get so sad to see job seekers thinking the whole internet owes them something because they’re now looking for a job.

Cut it out.

And if you’re part of an underrepresented group, this rule applies double… but that shouldn’t be a surprise.

The bottom lines is anyone taking a shotgun approach to job search has clearly gotten some bad advice and will only compound any other negative effects in play. That’s cool if that’s what you’re into.

If you prefer your advice cooked well done, Success Factory is here for you:

https://ericpbutts.com/success-factory-v2/

– EB