Is the Job Search Really a Numbers Game?

The other day I ran across a discussion on LinkedIn about a job seeker who was thinking about hiring someone to send out 8,000 résumés for her.  Whoa! That is just crazy on so many levels!  First of all, the job seeker probably isn’t even interested in working at 99 percent of those businesses.  Second of all, any résumé sent this way would have to be very generic, which would generate no interest whatsoever.  And lastly, if a company did respond to an unsolicited résumé that arrives by fax or email and isn’t personalized in any way, it is doubtful that it would be a company anyone would want to work for.

I hear people say that the job search is a numbers game, but that can be a very misleading statement.  The more résumés you submit, the more people you talk to, or the more LinkedIn connections you make will not necessarily result in more interviews and subsequently more job offers.  A productive job search needs to be targeted and planned out.  The successful job seeker will know exactly what type of job she is looking for and have a list of companies she is interested in.  She will focus her time and effort on making quality contacts and asking questions that will move her toward her goal.  She will spend her time building relationships with a manageable number of key people, not making brief contact with many.  She will have better luck conducting 20 informational interviews at companies that interest her than submitting 420 résumés through the job boards.

While it is true that the more times you practice networking, interviewing, and your job search techniques, the more comfortable you will be and the better you will become; please be careful how you interpret the “numbers game” statement.  Don’t fall for the scam of the résumé blast.  If you feel like you need help, spend your money on a good career coach who can help you focus your job search.  And when someone tells you that you absolutely must tell everyone you meet that you are out of work and looking because you never know where a job lead might come from, you can mostly ignore that advice.  Tell your hairdresser because hairdressers always have great information, but skip the teenager bagging your groceries and the tollbooth operator.  It’s really less about numbers and more about taking aim at a well-defined target.

Tags: career coach, Informational Interviews, Job search, Job seekers, network, resumes

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