My Job Search in Numbers and What I’ll Change in 2023
Between September 28 and December 22, 2022 I have been actively searching for a job. In this period I have moved 27 companies through my pipeline.
- 19 of those have been outbound (I initiated the conversation)
- 8 have been inbound (they reached out)
Of these:
- 9 companies did not reply back (15+ days)
- 6 companies are pending response (applications sent less than 48 hours ago)
- 2 rejected me after checking my CV (first filter not passed)
- 2 rejected me after a first or second interview because of lacking specific experience (e.g. mobile, tourism)
- 1 rejected me for not being a team fit
- 1 rejected me for being overqualified and for doing an under qualified test task (which is it? They are not sure…)
I rejected:
- 5 companies after the first or second interview because of mismatch of values (reflected through the hiring manager), lack of clarity (salary/role) or a mix of both
- 1 after the first interaction, because of the product (employee vigilance, anyone?)
Of all 27 companies only 2 were clear or nearly 100% clear in answering questions. Only 2. And they had nothing in common in terms of size, culture or product.
Conclusions?
These are very humble numbers. We could even argue that I have interacted with just about 12 because those 5 that did not reply are kind of a dead end and I bet that the 6 still pending will end up in the same “silence” bucket.
I have been conservative in my approach. For better results, I have to step up my game in the weeks ahead and reach out to a higher number of companies. Probably 10x higher in 1/3 of the time.
Most companies don’t seem to know what they offer or act like they don’t. I do have clarity so I will keep looking for a match in there. And just to be clear: if they do not know something, saying that they don’t know is OK. The problem is when they mumble random contradictory responses which has been the case in most interviews.
And what about the qualitative side?
To avoid blindness, I also gathered qualitative feedback from people I trust and respect as humans and professionals, and their input has helped me get clarity when I did not have it. They have seen (retroactively) some of my work and heard about my experiences. They have helped me bounce thoughts and gather lessons. It turns out, I am doing fine. There is just a lot of noise, crap to avoid and a lot of hard work to do to get to the right ones.
Thank you Krisna, Jaana, Ines, Vince, Olivia. Thank you to everyone else who has dropped words of encouragement, advise or simply checked in. You have brought me back to focus on my most blurry days.
Lastly, I had estimated it would take me about 3 months to find a job, but I did not factor in a wave of layoffs and a lot of noise in the network. This means that estimation needs to be stretched a bit. I will also put a cap on time to decide when will I give up on this approach before I start looking into alternatives: my own business, change of industry or change of roles.
For now, time for silence, warm drinks and books.
Happy Friday and (upcoming) 2023 everyone!
Maria 🌺
Originally published at https://marialasprilla.wordpress.com on December 23, 2022.
