I have a job I don’t quite like and I’m shooting applications elsewhere. I work full time and I’m also looking for another job in my city that fits my qualifications. I cannot change states or move to another city, it is what it is.
So far I’ve sent 5 apps for positions that interest me: 2 have answered, one could offer me a different but similar job (position already filled) and the other one, while fitting what I majored in, means constant stress, plans that change constantly, even several times a day, a pay reduction and the last 2 who applied to do this quit in 4 and 6 months respectively.
At least they were honest during the interview, but I now feel depressed. I was hoping to work there and quit my current job.
Antidepressants.
I spent about a year looking for a job (senior management in cybersecurity), and had basically ZERO luck until I got wise and did the following. Had a new role within 4 months afterwards.
- Take your resume, and expand it 10-20x into a massive document listing every single project, accomplishment, or skill you can think of that could ever be potentially relevant in a new role.
- Every time you apply to a new job, copy the job posting into a ChatGPT conversation, and have it edit your resume to a 1-2 page document that only includes the experience most relevant to the job posting, and to rewrite sentences to use the exact terminology from the job posting where appropriate.
- Once you have the custom resume, use ChatGPT to generate a custom cover letter to include as well.
These 2 changes will cause your resume to get assigned a higher “relevance score” by the AI tool their HR or recruiting team uses to weed through the 400+ applications they receive, which means you’ll be at the top of the list of names that gets delivered to first human in the process (the recruiter).
You’ll actually start getting callbacks and phone screens at that point, which gives you a fighting chance. The rest is up to you.
There are paid services that’ll do this for you (like Teal), but you can do it yourself and with more control as long as you have access to ChatGPT. If you can generate a completely customized resume and cover letter in less than 2 minutes, you can pump out 10 high-quality applications in less than half an hour per day.
Edit: I see you’re getting a 40% response rate. You may be setting your sights too low if that remains consistent. If you’re applying for roles that are a solid step up form where you’re at, you would expect closer to a 10% response rate.
I like the custom-resume-per-job idea, but using AI to generate it is a really bad idea unless you very closely comb through it and edit and clean up things. At that point you may as well just create it yourself.
The 2 principles I stick to are.
- Job hunting is a numbers game, just like any sales job. Don’t take rejection personally, just move on to the next one.
- Don’t get excited about a job until you have a signed contract. Just apply / interview, and forget about it until the next stage happens.
Number 2 is hard to do sometimes, but worth doing whenever possible.
I used an automated firm to email hundreds of templated outreach emails and applications a day. Got my first SE jobin about a month.
those are rookie numbers. you gotta pump those way up.
first find your geographic fantasy area. like it would be a huge bonus to work in that area, maybe <7 minutes from home… go aggressive on that area, even if they don’t have a job posted, just reach out anyway and follow up 3 days later.
then look for remote of any type, if your home life is conducive to it. even if its not your ideal industry or position, people are drastically happier with the work/life balance.
then of course within your industry and position matches go for broke. even if its out of your area, ask if they would consider you remote. don’t assume anything.
