The truly “average” person (i.e. all other things being equal, someone who is consistently in the middle of the pack in terms of skills, experience, fit, etc. relative to other candidates) would have to apply to n/2 (i.e. half) the jobs, where n is the average number of applicants per job.
But in practice the distribution of candidates and where you fall in it tends to bell-curved rather than uniform — there are usually a few very well qualified candidates and a lot of not-so-qualified ones. So job market conditions (scarcity of talent/labour in your particular field, willingness among employers to lower the bar, etc.) can have a much bigger impact on how quickly you find a job than anything else.
In other words, given current job market conditions, telling someone to “just keep applying” is probably not the best advice. Chances are, they’re applying for the wrong jobs, their resume needs improvement, or they need to find some way to stand out.
Took me 87 applications to get my current job, since being laid off in May. I was qualified for every job I applied to, but wasn’t going to accept a lower position/pay.
This is some pretty bad math.
The truly “average” person (i.e. all other things being equal, someone who is consistently in the middle of the pack in terms of skills, experience, fit, etc. relative to other candidates) would have to apply to n/2 (i.e. half) the jobs, where n is the average number of applicants per job.
But in practice the distribution of candidates and where you fall in it tends to bell-curved rather than uniform — there are usually a few very well qualified candidates and a lot of not-so-qualified ones. So job market conditions (scarcity of talent/labour in your particular field, willingness among employers to lower the bar, etc.) can have a much bigger impact on how quickly you find a job than anything else.
In other words, given current job market conditions, telling someone to “just keep applying” is probably not the best advice. Chances are, they’re applying for the wrong jobs, their resume needs improvement, or they need to find some way to stand out.
Took me 87 applications to get my current job, since being laid off in May. I was qualified for every job I applied to, but wasn’t going to accept a lower position/pay.
I wanted:
Got all 3.
The answer is to “keep applying.”