Quality vs. Quantity in Job Applications



Posted: Saturday, April 09, 2011

by Trevor Wilson
http://www.gradversity.com

One of the biggest things I struggled when looking for a job was how to approach the application process. Should I…

  1. Spend lots of time on each resume and cover letter, making it the absolute best it can be before sending it out?
  2. Or should I craft a decent cover letter and resume that can easily be tweaked for each job, then crank out as many as I can?

Looking back on it, I would have to say that it is a little of both.

When I started, I needed a job. I was running low on savings (meaning left over student loan money) so I started using the “Quantity” approach by pumping out applications as fast as I could. For my resume, I was using the same one each time, changing only the “objective” line. For the cover letter, I had a lot of template material, and I would enter in a few unique sentences based on company research.

That being said, I managed to find a job reasonably quickly. My application-to-interview ratio was about 10-to-1 (meaning I would get 1 interview for every 10 applications). I thought that this was pretty good seeing as I sent out 40 resumes in the first week. I thought life was good.

So what did I learn from this? If you use this method, you are more likely to find a job sooner, but it may not be the right job. I took a job with a large Fortune 500 company in sales and I hated it from the start. Looking back, the warning signs were there in the interview, but I was so desperate for work that I chose to ignore them.

Ultimately, it was my desire to send out as many applications as possible that got me into the mess that I was in. I didn’t take enough time to evaluate each individual company and its merits. Also, the lack of a tailored resume likely caused me to miss out on some great opportunities. I’m sure that my application got rejected by some great companies just because it was too generic.

What I’m trying to get at is that you need to strike a balance between the number of applications that you send out, and the quality of the applications that you are sending. Not only will you have better success in terms of the number of interviews that you will get, you are more likely to get interviews for better jobs.
Trevor Wilson is an author and consultant who works with new graduates preparing to enter the work force. His site, Gradversity.com, provides daily advice on job hunting, networking, and resume writing tailored to the Entry Level Job seeker. His first book, Overcoming Gradversity: How to Break Into the Entry Level Job Market, was published in 2008.
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