The Data Behind the Job Search

5 min readJan 21, 2019

TalentWorks has an excellent blog series called The Science of the Job Search. Below are some of the best tips backed by their data analysis. Please note that this blog is not an endorsement of any of their products, but rather a genuine admiration and interest in the data science behind the job search.

1. You don’t need to meet all the Job Requirements

Based on TalentWorks’ analysis of 6,000+ applications across 118 industries:

Once you meet 30% of job requirements, your chances of getting an interview begin to rise
But once you meet just 50% of job requirements, you’re not any more likely to get an interview
And for women, once they meet 40% of job requirements, interview chances are roughly the same as they would be if they met a higher percentage of job requirements

https://talent.works/blog/2018/11/27/the-science-of-the-job-search-part-vii-you-only-need-50-of-job-requirements/

This is great news for women, who tend to dismiss jobs when they don’t meet all the requirements. Men will typically apply for a job after meeting 60% of the qualifications on the job description, while women only tend to apply after meeting all of the qualifications.

There’s some more great news for women also shown in the graph above: being a woman gives you higher chance of getting an interview. According to a different TalentWorks analysis of 4,000 jobs, having an obviously female name gives you a 48% boost.

2. Age matters

It might be illegal, but age discrimination definitely exists.

According to TalentWorks’ analysis of 4000+ applications, the best age to get a job is between 28 and 35. After you reach 35, your chances of getting an interview drops by 8% every year.

Of course, you’re not listing your age on your resume, so the “age” here is your inferred age based on your graduation date and how much experience you have. TalentWorks advises not to list your graduation date if you’re older than 35.

https://talent.works/blog/2018/01/08/the-science-of-the-job-search-part-i-13-data-backed-ways-to-win/

3. When to Apply

If you submit a job application in the first four days of the job being posted, you’re up to 8x more likely to get an interview. After that, every day you wait reduces your chances by 28%.

https://talent.works/blog/2017/09/28/getting-ghosted-on-your-job-applications-heres-fix-1-apply-within-96-hours/

Applying on Mondays helps your chances of getting an interview, while applying on Fridays gives you the worst chances.

TalentWorks analyzed a subsample of 1,610 applications to see how much time of day affects your likelihood of scoring an interview. The best time to apply for a job is between 6am and 10am. Afterwards, your interview odds start falling by 10% every 30 minutes.

Tips for your Resume:

1. Include (the right amount of) buzzwords

In order to get filtered forward by automated screening tools, you need to use buzzwords specific to your industry. But there is a sweet spot. For most people, adding 15–20 skills, buzzwords, acronyms, etc. to your resume helped their chances of getting an interview the most.

TalentWorks recommends using a buzzword every 3–6 sentences.

2. Show your achievements with numbers

Quantifying your past work sounds impressive and really helps you stand out among your competition.

The Muse has a great article on how to quantify your resume. Even if you think you don’t work with numbers, you can still absolutely add some numbers and data to your resume.

TalentWorks’ analysis backs up the importance of quantifying up to 40% of your achievements:

3. Remove team-oriented words

Unfortunately, collaborative language gets penalized if you use it too much on your resume. It may be difficult for a hiring manager to know exactly what you did when you “collaborate with” or “assist” a team. It’s also possible that team-oriented words may carry passive undertones.