That moment I realized applying to every job posting was a waste of about 60 hours a month

I was sending out 40 resumes a week for 3 months with zero callbacks until a recruiter friend told me to pick 5 jobs and spend 2 hours customizing each cover letter, and suddenly I got 3 interviews in 2 weeks, so which side are you on - spray and pray or target and tailor?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_cooper29d ago

Maybe you just weren't using the right job boards.

lucaslee29d ago

Three months on Indeed, two months on Monster, and a solid month on ZipRecruiter says different. I was blasting out custom-tailored resumes every single night, hitting that "easy apply" button like it was my job. The real trick isn't the board, it's getting past that automated screening software before a human even sees your name. Most of those job boards feed into the same applicant tracking systems anyway, so switching from one to the other is like jumping from one line to another at the DMV. What actually worked for me was finding companies I wanted to work for and applying directly on their career pages, not through any aggregator site. You gotta go around the robot filter, not through it.