Aug. 30, 2024
Read time: 3 minutes and 3 seconds.
tags:Quantity over quality job hunting. Funny enough, but usually you hear the reverse. I couldn’t imagine going after a job, especially being involved in the world of venture capital. I was so shocked with how people might break their back for appeasing investors and fall out of love with the problem they’re trying to solve.
But a lot of us have been in the spot of looking for a job and finding that we need (and want) more than to just be screened, invalidated and rejected days or months later. I hit a wall financially and professionally, desperate for a change. I realized I needed a radical shift in my job search approach after being on loans and business borrowing in pursuit of making the next facetube.
My unemployed friends all echoed the same sentiment: the job market was a disaster. One friend’s story stuck with me – 200 applications in eight months with no offers. I knew I needed a different strategy, especially seeing that others have been at it for so long. I had to get serious if I ever wanted to raise funds to build product and continue in my entrepreneurial journey. (Yes, I have problems, I know.)
Instead of spreading applications thinly, I went all-in. I treated job hunting like a part-time job itself. For four hours every morning, I did nothing but apply – aiming for 50 applications a day. Or until my highly targeted job alerts would deplete. I thought that I needed any type of job that would allow me to remain flexible and travel as is, as per usual.
So I did the 4 hour applications each morning spending time on a specific role and job aiming to just get calls back and try to nail the interviews. So I did this for a full week straight to just see what I can get, if I can hear back or what.
And in the first 5 days, part time, I managed to send out just over 200 applications. That’s when I finally realized that people didn’t want a job. I mean, if my friend did 200 applications in 8 months. And there are 240 complete days in 8 months. If you subtract the weekends (842) ~48 days.
That means:
240 full days 48 weekend days 198 weekdays ~200 applications
They were sending a single application per day…
It’s like they didn’t want a job at all!
And then I realized that people were running into this wall over and over again… But I wasn’t! 🎉
My intense week of applying yielded 200 applications, about a dozen interviews, and three job offers. One of those jobs took me to the Middle East, which has been a life changing experience. That’s a 1.5% success rate. Which is good if you’re selling in general. Remember, most jobs and opportunities will be looking for something very specific or even be a ghost job that doesn’t really look for people. Instead, they’re posting for… post’s sake.
The job I took in the Middle East wasn’t just a paycheck. It was a new passion from the very beginning since it challenged me to try exhibiting new skills like the ones I tried with selling alongside the development of content. It combined teaching and building, and it connected me with people in a way I hadn’t experienced before. It’s been remarkable, especially spending time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in an era of pure flux that is seeing so much development at the moment!
My whirlwind job search taught me the power of focused effort and the unexpected places opportunity can lead. Sometimes, quantity does lead to quality. Even if it is hard to believe. Lol. Just apply en masse and think more about the concerted effort you’re making. Don’t worry about the job market and what everyone else is doing or saying. Do you and make things happen!