It's easy for us coaches to give advice.
The truth is: career development and job search is a lot harder than anyone gives it credit for in practice.
I'll often tell my clients to not focus on the quantity of jobs that they are applying for (and instead focus on how the roles match with their goals, skills, and experience).
I wasn't completely surprised that 41% of respondents in one of my recent polls applied for 100+ jobs in their most recent jobs search. For me, it really demonstrates how difficult it can be to look for work today.
Listen, when you apply for a job, it makes you feel productive (at least it does for me). You have some hope - at least temporarily. So, I totally get why you would apply for as many jobs as you can. It feels like it's going to help you to find a job sooner.
In the end, though, it might just create more noise than anything.
For me, it's a little like the college application process today. If you have kids that have gone through this recently, you know what I mean: it's very easy for students to apply to lots of schools very quickly. Basically, you just click a button and you can apply to any number of schools through the Common App.
But then you start getting the emails. Getting 100s of emails a month from the 13 schools that your child applied to is overwhelming.
My point here is this: you only have a limited amount of attention to give during this process. Make sure that you are focusing your time on the opportunities that are the closest match for you. Applying for lots of jobs may feel productive in the moment, but if the opportunity really isn't a match, it might be counterproductive and take you away from activities that can really advance your search.
Question of the week
I am having trouble customizing my resume with 20+ years of experience. Do I only include jobs that match the opportunity- and then add that a full work history is available on request? Do I take off the years that I worked on past jobs? I believe I am a victim of ageism. I have so many talents and I am not over pricing my salary...but I am struggling with the resume/my age/getting past the AI screening. Can you please cover these topics in your newsletter? Thanks in advance. PS I do not feel old but the job search seems to indicate otherwise;)
The answer is: it depends.
You want your resume to tell your career story in an understandable, straightforward manner, so just including the jobs that match the opportunity isn't the best path to go. I'm OK with you including years work through the past 15-20 years or so - then I would summarize your past, relevant experience at the end of your resume without years.
I took a quick look at your LinkedIn profile - I would remove your date of graduation from your undergraduate degree to prevent ageism. I would also use your About section to discuss relevant past experience (especially since right now, you are only showing 10 years of experience in LinkedIn).
Want to work with me?
I'm currently booked through the end of March - I have a few open client spots available in April, so reach out now if you'd like to secure your space for a new resume, LinkedIn profile, executive bio, and/or 1-hour strategy call.
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Other ways that I can help:
Corporate Presentations: I deliver customized presentations for businesses and universities, offering webinars/in-person presentations across topics including ageism, resume best practices, LinkedIn optimization, job search, and more.
Hiring Help: Reach out if you have any open roles that you would like to share with this community.
Sponsorships: Reach Gen X and Baby Boomer executives by sponsoring this newsletter (we're currently at 4000+ subscribers for the newsletter and 69,500+ followers on LinkedIn, so you can easily reach a wide base of readers).
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Take care of yourself and have a wonderful weekend!
Colleen
