The modern job search: 29 things it takes now (most people do 3)

A couple of weeks ago I was on a call with someone who’d been made redundant. Before that, he’d been with the same company for 18 years, so he hadn’t looked for work in a long time.

He told me he had applied for around 130 roles. Two or three got to the interview stage. The rest? He heard nothing back, just crickets, and a few got the typical email: “Thanks for your effort. We had so many applicants...”

Then he said, “Maybe it’s perfectly normal that you get called once in a hundred applications these days.”

I could clearly hear in his voice that this whole process was wearing him down. And I hear some version of that every day. I’m applying for everything. I’m not hearing anything back. What am I doing wrong?

Here’s what I told him. You don’t need 130 job applications. The resume isn’t going to get you the job; it gets you in the door. And if you see 100 people have applied for a job, you seriously need to think about whether you put an application in at all.

You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re doing exactly what you’ve always been told to do. The job search has changed, and nobody told you.

Why it isn’t working

Most people run a job search with three steps. Build a resume. Apply for jobs on job boards. Wait, and wonder why nobody calls back.

There was a time when that worked. You wrote a resume, answered an ad, got an interview, and kept track of it all with a pen and a bit of paper. Back then, the pen and paper did the job.

Those days are gone. Around 244 people now apply for the average job. And if nobody inside the company knows your name, your chance of getting an interview is about 3 in 100. When someone who knows you puts your name forward, it’s 40 in 100.

Every job I’ve ever had, bar one, came through someone I knew. Not a job board. I’m not saying never use job boards; they have their place. But the job search today is a hell of a lot more involved than three steps, and it surprises a lot of people, especially if they haven’t looked for work in a long time.

So I wrote down everything a modern job search takes. It came to 29 things, in five areas. As you read, count how many you’re doing right now.

What it takes now

Get clear

1. Know the role you want and the level you operate at.
2. Have a plan, and know what to do each day so your search keeps moving.
3. Know your story: why you’re looking and what you want next, in two sentences you can say to anyone.

And that assumes you’ve got your career path mapped out, and you know where you want to go and what you want out of this.

Be ready

4. A resume you’d be proud to send, built to the standard recruiters look for.
5. A bank of your achievements, with the numbers in them.
6. A LinkedIn profile that signals you’re available, the level you operate at, and what you want next.
7. Your resumes stored in one place, ready to send at a moment’s notice.

And that assumes you know how to write a resume to industry best practice, and how to set up your LinkedIn profile so it signals the right value to recruiters.

Number 7 matters more than you’d think. If someone says “can you send me your resume tonight?”, it should take a couple of clicks. Take three days to send it, and the opportunity may already be gone.

Be connected

8. A list of the people you know, like and trust.
9. Know what to say when you ask them for help, an introduction or a referral.
10. Reconnect with the people you’ve lost touch with. They’re often the ones who open the door.
11. A list of the companies you want to work for.
12. Find the people inside them who hire for your role, or who can start a conversation for you.
13. Know how to reach out to them, and what to say.
14. Follow up when people go quiet, without being a pest.
15. One place that tracks your contacts, companies, opportunities and the tasks you need to do each day, so nothing slips.

And that assumes you know how to reach out to people: what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.

On number 15: at work, we rarely run anything on pen and paper. We use a system, a CRM, so everyone knows who’s been contacted, when, and what happens next. Then we lose our job and run the most important project of our lives on sticky notes and memory. When did I last reach out to Fred? What did I say to Mary? Where’s that role up to? It’s all over the place.

Be seen

16. Show up on LinkedIn and signal that you’re available, and the level you operate at, so people come to you.
17. Connect with people at your target companies, so they see what you post.
18. Build relationships with them through direct messages, with a view to having a call.
19. Post consistently, one to three times a week, so people get to know who you are and what you do.
20. Comment on other people’s posts for even greater visibility.

And that assumes you have the confidence to show up on LinkedIn, you know how to write content that makes an impact, and you know how to reach out to people in direct messages and build a relationship.

Think about how the brands you buy from work. You see their name for weeks before you ever buy. Job hunting is no different. If someone at your target company has been seeing your posts, there’s a good chance they reach out to you first. If they don’t, when you message them, they already know who you are. And it has to be consistent. Twenty posts in one week and then nothing for four weeks is a waste of time.

Get hired

21. Search job boards for the right roles, not everything.
22. Spot ghost jobs: about 1 in 5 job posts had no active hiring behind them.
23. Know which roles are a good fit and which are a stretch.
24. Apply early, before the shortlist fills.
25. Find the hiring manager behind the ad and reach out to them directly.
26. Tailor your resume to each role in minutes, not hours.
27. Write a cover letter for that job, not a generic one.
28. Prepare for every interview, so you walk in with confidence knowing what to say.

And that assumes you know how to tailor a resume and a cover letter, work out whether you’re a good fit for a role, and prepare for and answer an interview.

Here’s why number 24 matters. A hiring manager goes to their internal recruiter and says, “I need ten people to interview in the next two weeks.” Once the recruiter has those ten, the list is effectively closed. Turn up after that, and you won’t even be looked at, however good you are.

Every day

29. Do the next thing, every day, for weeks, while the silence wears you down.

And that assumes you have the support, the confidence, the commitment and the discipline to keep showing up every single day.

So, how many are you doing?

Be honest. Most people I speak with are doing three, maybe five. Then they wonder why it isn’t working.

It isn’t you. It’s that nobody told you the job search changed.

If it feels like a lot

It is. And it isn’t quick. In Australia, ABS data reported by Jobs and Skills Australia puts it at around 20 months for mature-age workers to find a new job, against about 9 months for 15 to 54 year olds.

A long search costs you money: about $2,300 a week on a $120,000 salary, and you never get it back. It costs you your edge, because you start doubting yourself and applying for jobs a level below. It shows up at home, where “any luck yet?” becomes the question you dread at dinner. And it costs you your sleep, awake at 4am doing the maths on how long the savings will last.

It sucks the absolute life out of you.

Why I built FutureDay

I’ll be honest: I couldn’t keep all of this together either. I had stuff everywhere. Notes in one place, contacts in another, follow-ups in my head. Some people can run all 29 of these on their own. Not many.

What I’ve learned, from both sides of the hiring table, is that the people who get hired sooner aren’t the loudest or the best qualified. They’re the ones who keep showing up, do the simple things, and tell people they’re looking. One step at a time.

So I wrote the method down in my book, Stop Applying, Start Getting Hired: getting hired through people, not job boards. It runs in four moves: Be Ready, Be Connected, Be Seen, Get Hired. That’s the list above.

Then I built FutureDay to keep you doing it. Every one of those 29 things is in it, and you don’t have to remember any of them. You rock up once a day, do five things, and it shows you what’s next: who to contact, what to say, and what to do.

One thing to try this week

Count how many of the 29 you’re doing right now. Then pick the one you’re furthest from, and do it once this week. Just one.

How many of the 29 are you doing? Tell me in the comments on LinkedIn. And if you know someone who’s applied for everything and heard nothing, send this to them.

Cheers,
Grant

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