Do You Really Need To Apply For 200 Jobs To Get A New Opportunity?
Is the job market really that tough?
I’ve seen a few statistics recently related to expected success rates when seeking a new opportunity, including:
“You should be getting an interview from 5-10% of your applications” (Bonnie Dilber)
“The average interview to offer ratio is 4.8 to 1” (A Job Thing)
When you work that backwards it means that in order to get the 5 interviews that might result in your 1 offer, you’ll need to submit between 100-200 job applications.
200 applications!
That’s a lot of rejection.
This means that success in the job market is as much about your ability to stick it out as it does your skills and abilities in the role..
So what can you do to help you through the ordeal?
Know what you want
If you’re in for the long haul you better know what it is that you want from your new role.
You should know the kind of organization you want to work for.
You should know the kind of product manager you want to be.
Once you know these things then you are able to line things up in the right way to make it easier for yourself when it comes to applying.
Prepare
When I talk about making things easier what I mean is trying to do as much work upfront so that you’re not having to create every application from scratch.
If you know the kind of product manager you want to be, then you should write your CV or LinkedIn profile in a way that pushes all of your preferred attributes to the fore.
If you’re data-driven, then pack your CV full of your data skills and how you’ve delivered value by using it. If you’re all about product discovery then tell people about how you run a discovery session and the great outcomes that this has delivered.
If you know the kind of organization you want to work for then your CV or profile should be using the language that’s used by your targets, citing as many examples of how you’re the perfect person for that kind of company.
Write it once and well and it can be used for all of your desired applications without the need to write things over and over again.
Let someone else take some of the strain
It’s hard work trying to find 200 jobs to apply for so let other services take the strain for you.
Get your LinkedIn profile up-to-date and set up some job alerts.
Do the same on other services like Otta, Cord, Mind the Product, and Product Hired so that they tell you when the perfect roles appear.
Find yourself a recruitment consultant who specialises in helping hire for the roles you want or with the organizations you’re keen on. They’ll then be out in the market trying to find the opportunities so you don’t have to.
Don’t take things personally
If you’re going to face 199 rejections before you get the 1 offer you need then you need to not take things too personally, which I know is easier to say than do.
However, recruiters make decisions for all sorts of reasons.
Sometimes what they put in the job description isn’t really what they want.
Sometimes what they start recruiting for will not be what’s required by the time it comes to offering a job.
Sometimes jobs become unavailable because of budget reasons.
Sometimes other people just have more relevant experience than you, which is fine.
There are many reasons why people don’t get recruited and many times there’s little you can do about it.
You just need to put yourself in the best place to be ready when the perfect role appears.
Prepare your CV and profile.
Prepare your application and interview answers.
Do your company research.
Be yourself.
You’ll be the right person for someone, but you only get the perfect role if you’re putting yourself out there.