The problem of over-applying to jobs

Some people are sending out 75, 150, 400 resumes to jobs. And then they’re so happy that they finally landed 30 interviews… or one.

No one – I mean no one – should have to send out 150 resumes to land 30 interviews. That is just a horrible ratio. And no one should have to go on 30 interviews to find their dream job, or any job. That is simply too exhausting and stressful. That is over-applying. A couple of clients have told me that they had applied to more than 150 positions in the weeks before they worked with me, and they didn’t hear back from anyone. That doesn’t surprise me at all.

I don’t care if you are an executive with one million connections on LinkedIn, or if you’re fresh out of college and you have five connections. If you are leveraging your network and applying to more than five jobs per week and not getting any responses, you are doing something wrong; it’s probably the jobs that you’re applying to and it’s probably your resume. I can’t tell you how many people come to me claiming that they’re too old, they’re too young, they’re too experienced, or they’re too inexperienced. Or they don’t live in the right place. Or their employment gap is too long.

One client, an interior designer, thought that she wasn’t landing a job because people were so impressed with her background and her talent that they were overwhelmed and intimidated by her. She expressed that to me. Her experience was extensive; she had probably worked on hundreds of high-end design projects in and around New York City, and she had many repeat clients.

But during the resume writing process she told me that she was holding back on talking about her true talent because people would be jealous of her. She somehow got the idea that if she went “all out” and really demonstrated all of her talent and expertise on her resume, that people wouldn’t hire her anymore because they would be overwhelmed by her awesomeness.

Have you ever heard of an intimidating or overwhelming interior designer?I guarantee you that you don’t have: An ageism problem:    A skills problem: An employment gap problem: A region/available jobs problem: An awesomeness problem.

You have a resume problem. Sending out that problem resume to apply to 500 positions won’t fix your situation.

Before you consider throwing your resume around and hoping that it sticks somewhere (called the Spray & Pray method), and before you consider moving because there are no jobs where you live… talk to me.

Let’s work on controlling your career. Over-applying doesn’t land you the job.

Your resume is the issue.

For questions or to schedule a complimentary discussion on how you can improve your resume to land interviews for your dream roles, please email me at coach@maximizeu.life

Live, Work & Lead with greater Freedom, Power & Peace of Mind.

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