Let’s go through the best way to apply to roles

What is the most efficient way of applying to roles. While the process is a little bit different as to when you are employed currently or not, most of it is the same. You just have more leverage if you have a job, so it always helps. It gives you more dealing power, but less time.

You apply to LinkedIn. Easy apply. You apply to other job boards. A lot of them are a real pain in the backside. Easy apply is nice, but you have this feeling that other people feel the same, looking at the 200 other applicants who applied. Other boards you do apply to, but not many. You try to avoid the ones that want you to fill out 50 questions and create a new account for every new company you apply to. You think about filling in all the hugely intrusive minority questions so you might get hired but decide not to.

Try to apply directly to company websites, if you seem them listed on LinkedIn. Try to avoid recruiters. Go directly to the source. This will help you dealing with recruiters who might ghost you, or subject you to AI scrutiny, or just basically a lot of delay that you can avoid by applying directly.

Speaking of AI, make sure your skills are a match for the position. We have seen positions salaries being updated on the fly, when skills were matched agains the listed ones in the job listing. Who knows what AI wizardry is going on behind the scenes. And make sure the person you are speaking to is not a bot. We have had many a recruiter pass a candidate on to another person, who then had such weird questions that it could only be a ChatGPT bot. How rude.

Try to call recruiters, but don’t harass them. There’s a fine line between being polite and being someone who is blacklisted very quickly. On the subject of blacklists, do they exist? You might feel this is the case as you are not getting any jobs, but no. They don’t exist. Individual recruiters might remember you, and might even give advice to a colleague, but there is no industry wide blacklist. Companies give only the most basic details in references, in order to avoid lawsuits. Remember you are dealing with hundreds of other applicants, of which usually only the first ones are processed. In the end we are still dealing with humans, once AI has sifted through the pile. Try not to take it personally. And try to be there when the job has been posted!

Update and tailor your CV to the role, and don’t be shy about updating your LinkedIn profile. And switch your ‘Looking for work’ on and off to send the little groundhog algorithms to work who send mails to recruiters in the morning. Embellishing slightly or being vague is ok, but don’t outright lie, as it is a waste of time for everyone.

State your base salary with confidence. State your bonus. If they ask you what your previous salary was, you state a number. It’s unfortunate this is asked, but if you deny it, recruiters will see you as a do not hire. So just play the game. Game it. They lie, you lie. If you make up a number, no one will check this to that point and anyway, they were hiring you for your merit, right? What your current salary is has nothing to do with what they want to pay you now. Try not to go too much about what you are really worth though. Or do, your mileage might vary. If you have a job you might be a bit more cowboy in your approach, otherwise you will probably be a bit more conservative.

Don’t play the game of endorsing on job boards. If someone endorses you, great. But don’t endorse back. That just devalues the whole process. It’s a one way trick. Once it’s used, it’s gone. Try to send out a good 10 applications per day, you will be already a cut above the rest. Because make no mistake, applying to jobs is draining. Mentally draining. It’s something we’d rather not do and we usually only do it when we really need to. So take a break and know it’s not you. And turn that ‘Looking for work’ on and off again.