Why you Shouldn’t Apply for Every Job You See
Anyone who’s been out of a job understands how stressful it can be.
Bills are piling up.
Savings depleting.
The pressure to find a job is immense.
Desperation sets in and you start sending your resume to everyone.
STOP.
If you do this then several things will happen:
- You’ll end up sending your CV to the same Recruiter (or hiring manager!) more than once – Recruiters tend to hire for a particular profession. This means that they’ll have multiple similar vacancies advertised. If you’re sending your resume to every semi-relevant advert you find then you’ll inevitably end up sending it to the same Recruiter more than once. Doing this can make your applications seem desperate and non-targeted. They already receive 100s of resumes every day and if they start to see the same name coming up several times then they’re likely to discard it immediately – this is unfortunate, but true.
- You’ll get called about applications you’ve made and not remember the details of the job – This is a bad look. No hiring manager or Recruiter wants to have to remind you of which jobs you’ve been applying for. It makes you look like you don’t care about that particular position (which you probably don’t – and that’s fine – but no hiring manager or Recruiter wants to hear that!).
- Your applications will all seem generic – If you send the same resume to every vacancy then it will be obvious to each individual hiring manager or Recruiter that you’re not specifically interested in their job, but are spamming the market with your resume.
What should you do instead?
- Apply to fewer positions – I know, this is controversial advice. Choose just 20–30 positions per day and…
- Tailor your application to each company you apply for – Take the time to tailor your application email for the particular company you’re applying for. Personalise this email to make it obvious that you did your research hitting “send”. Personalisation doesn’t need to take you a long time, but do make sure to include a few details that make it obvious that you’ve at least read the job description and make it obvious why you match it. Finally…
- Follow up with a phone call – This is such an important step! Following up your application with a phone call show that a) you’re interested in the job! And b) you’re a proactive individual. It also gives you the opportunity to find out more about the vacancy and explain to the Recruiter or hiring manager why you’re such a great fit. This drastically increases your likelihood of scoring an interview.
Following these steps you should be able to increase your application to interview ratio considerably.
Best of luck with you job search!
Want to know what to include in your CV? Check out this guide: https://centrelineresourcing.com/overview-of-what-to-include-in-a-cv/
How about How to Follow Up After an Interview? https://centrelineresourcing.com/follow-up-after-an-interview/
Feel free to get in touch with me for any other advice on CV writing and interviewing: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-raymond/
