How to Job Search Without Losing Your Mind

‘WTF is going on with the 2024 Job Marker’ is a question I keep hearing. I’m even asking it myself.

And while explaining that is a different (and future) topic, here are 8 job search strategy tips you can incorporate immediately, regardless of job market.

These come from not only a recruiter POV, but common questions I get asked from job seekers. Better yet, these are best practices I used when looking for a job in 2023. Incorporating these helped me go from laid off in January to offer accepted in February.

About 6 weeks total if we are getting specific. But let’s dive in.

1. Diversify your search

Use a variety of channels when looking for jobs. LinkedIn is the most obvious and accessible platform, but that makes it the most saturated as well.

Since many job seekers are using LinkedIn, roles posted there will receive more applications. It’s simple supply and demand. LinkedIn is the most popular platform for professionals. There is a high supply of candidates, with lower demand for hiring. This eans those applications get A LOT of attention.

In addition, given the current market conditions LinkedIn is prioritizing promoted jobs getting in front of job seekers because they make money from that.

As of 12/2023, 100% of the roles suggested to individuals through LinkedIn are promoted.

This is an increase from roughly 86% of jobs being promoted earlier this year.

LinkedIn gets paid by jobs being posted, not from candidates landing jobs. This creates a potential incentive for them to promote the job to candidates instead of them being incentivized heavily for someone to land a job.

Here are some alternative channels I would use.

  i. Company Career Pages (High success rate)

 ii. Dice

 iii. Wellfound

 iv. Remotive

 v. Weworkremote

 vi. Remote.co

 vii. Build in NY

 viii. Alumni portals

 ix. Flexjobs

 x. JustRemote

 xi. Working Nomads

 xii. Dribble

 xiii. Career Vault

 xiv. Any niche job board for your goal

What is important here is you find the job board that best matches your needs. Some are niche and focused on certain industries or companies. For example, quite a few of the channels I included are startup or remote work focused.

If that is not applicable to you, don’t feel like you need to use a certain board. There is a lot of value in using fewer common boards, however.

2. Don’t worry about resume length.

The notion that your resume needs to be one page is a myth. It comes from a time when finding a job was not digital. You needed to send over a hard copy of a resume, resulting in the need for it to be one page. Given everything is digital now, this is much less important.

I have never rejected a candidate based on resume length. However, the thing to keep in mind is that it’s rare to find the information a recruiter needs on the 5^th page of a 10-page document.

Diminishing returns apply to resume length.

You still want to make it concise and clear to avoid unneeded fluff, but you don’t need to worry about a resume being strictly one page. 2-3 is safe, if all other aspects are formatted appropriately.

3. Your resume should be built based on your situation

The nuance portion of building a resume comes from your specific goals and needs. If you have short tenure due to contracts, you need to address that in your resume while highlighting while you are looking for a full time role.

If you are looking to pivot careers an objective statement can be used in addition to focusing on transferable skills and experiences as much as possible.

If you are open to relocation, call that out on your resume.

You can add specific resume components to improve your positioning based on your goals. Still build around the 4 foundational elements but include other sections that can help you achieve your specific goals as needed.

4. Rejection does not (always) reflect your skills

The job search is a mental game.

It’s easy to be hard on yourself when it feels like your job search effort is going into a black hole. But most reasons why a resume isn’t selected are outside your control. Rejection is not indicative of your skills. If you are at 1000s of applications and a resume isn’t getting results, your resume is probably needs improvements. If you applied to 20 without results, it’s probably bad luck.

Here are realistic reasons you might not get an interview that are out of your control:

•  Role was already filled, and company didn’t remove it.

• Company did a terrible job highlighting skill requirements on the posting.

•  The company has an internal in mind, but regulation required an external posting.

• A company is using an ‘evergreen’ posting to collect applications but being too selective since the need isn’t urgent.

• By the time you applied they had candidates in late interview or offer stages.

• The role is getting canceled but waiting on confirmation.

• The hiring team is unrealistic on the skills they need to hire.

• It’s a dummy posting to get applicants to talent boards.

• 27 different recruiting agencies all have postings up for the same position.

• Poor QC over the job posting process internally resulting in inactive jobs being advertised.

I could go on, but there are multiple reasons why your resume might not get responses, that have nothing to do with your experience.

Don’t take the rejection personally. Focus on the applications that do get results. Once you have applied for a role, move on to the next. Beyond some basic outreach, much of the outcome is outside of your control.

Focus on your output, not outcomes. This will help with the frustrations.

Keep track of what resumes get you results to continue to build upon successes. You will see trends.

5. Job Search Organizational System

Stop checking your main inbox every 30 minutes for an update. It’s a waste of time and going to ruin your mental health waiting on so much outside of your control.

 This is a quick system to keep you organized. It also can allow you to build on your successes. Save resumes with specific file names to build upon success.

 Example “Name Industry Resume” for foundational resumes.

 When making minor tweaks, save with the above but call out company identifier, so for example if you were applying to Amazon save the file as “Name Industry Resume Amazon”.

 This will be easier to retain all files while allowing you to backtrack on what was successful vs not.

 If you got a response to interview, go back to that resume and compare it with the job posting to assess what specifics could have resulted to the interview. Keep building upon your successes.

 Additionally, create a dedicated email address for your job search. This will help disconnect from your job search. Focusing on it 24/7 will burn anyone out.

 Personally, I created a separate email address when job searching as well. That way I didn’t have rejections, interview communications, job application confirmations, etc. flooding my personal inbox. It made it much easier to avoid staring at a sea of job search communications too.

 I created the email to use for my job search. Put it on my resume. Used that for all applications and communications. I checked it 2 a day to see if there an updates regarding applications or interviews, and pretty much ignored it from there. 

6. Speed matters

Recruiters and Sales professionals use the saying of ‘time kills all deals’ because it’s true. It applies for your job search as well. A huge component of success is being in the right place at the right time when applying.

The earlier you can apply the better. Set up alerts and focus on newly posted roles (1 week or less) when possible. Apply to everything but prioritize the new postings when possible.

Set up alerts on job boards and Google news alerts with key words for your job targets and hiring or jobs.

Here are examples of some Google alerts to create.

[Insert Company] AND [Hiring OR “to hire” OR “New Jobs]

[Insert Industry] AND [Hiring OR “to hire” OR “New Jobs]

[Insert Job Title] AND [Hiring OR “to hire” OR “New Jobs]

 Tie it to your job search email if easiest. Use this to get a pulse on market trends and gain insight on potential hiring in the near future.

 Given the current market conditions, the earlier you apply to a role that is posted the better.

7. Your goal is to get attention on your resume

Do whatever you can to improve the odds of getting attention on your resume. This can come from applications. It can come from referrals. It can come from outreach.

If you can find the recruiter tied to the role, message them.

If you have a contact who works at the company, see if they can get you in front of the recruiter.

I get a lot of outreach, and 99% is bad. “Hey, do you have jobs that fir my background” isn’t going to net responses.

Use the below instead to tap into the interest of the person you are reaching out to.

"Hi [name], I'm reaching out because [Highlighting a specific thing about your profile]. I am interested in [Insert Company] based on [Insert Specific Reason]. I applied for [Insert Job Title and ID] and based on the description feel I'd be a fit based on my experience with [Insert Job Requirements]. Would you be open to connecting about the role or be able to point me to the right person if it isn't you?"

This will be more effective than generic outreach. Intentionality wins.

This is a different topic all together, but finding avenues to get attention on your resume are key.

Do whatever you can to improve your odds.

8. If you are a fit for the role, apply.

Countless job seekers have spoken to me about the stress they feel seeing hundreds of applicants have applied to the role. They decide it’s not worth applying.

 Don’t do this.

95% of those applicants don’t have the qualifications needed.

Most of the boards that advertising this aren’t even counting completed applications.

They count people who have clicked. Marketing scare tactics, not the truth. If you meet the requirements of the job, apply then move on. Make it simple for yourself.

Wrapping it up

The magic happens in the job search with a combo of actions happening at the perfect moment.

The first part is having a strong resume reflective of your skills.

The second part is applying to jobs that match your skills and landing interviews.

The final part is having a job search system developed so you don’t spend 8 hours a day on this.

Incorporating all of these will improve your overall system. Let me know how it works out on X or LinkedIn @ConnorLibutti