I Applied To Over 150 Jobs On LinkedIn In December: Here Are My Results
See how I fared in the “labor shortage” market
A common narrative we’ve all heard since the ending of (most) COVID-19 restrictions and the bounceback of the American economy has been that of “labor shortages” and “the Great Resignation.”
Indeed, resignations broke single-month records in April, July, and August of 2021.
Regardless of the reasons why — whether it’s to seek better opportunities, etc. — workers are quitting their jobs at unprecedented levels never before seen.
And I wanted to put this supposed new market of endless jobs to the test by measuring my own worth.
I decided to go on a job hunt.
Joining the Great Resignation
If there are labor shortages, I thought, then I should definitely be able to swing a new high-paying job somewhere.
With this mindset, I set out on a mission to seek new employment and join in on the Great Resignation.
And I decided to document my journey to share with all of you job seekers and participants in the Great Resignation, in the hopes of helping you in your own journey.
My original goal was to apply to at least 100 jobs on LinkedIn within a two-week span.
I hit this goal and then some.
I ended up applying to more than 150 jobs (I lost count somewhere around 160) in the month of December, and I am now here to discuss the results with all of you.
So let’s jump right in.
Type of Jobs I Applied To
For complete disclosure, I’d like to list the kind of jobs that I applied to.
I’m doing this because job hunting experiences will undoubtedly vary across different individuals, especially if you’re applying to different jobs in different industries.
I have a rather diverse work experience, one that has included research, analysis, content writing, and more, so I had the luxury of not needing to stick to one field.
Here are the main job titles I was applying for:
1. Finance Specialist/Analyst
2. Policy Analyst
3. Researcher
4. Content Writer/Marketer
Note: I catered each resume to the job in question. I did NOT create a “one-size-fits-all” resume and mass apply to a bunch of jobs just to see what lands. This was a serious job search.
Requests for Interviews
After applying to more than 150 jobs on LinkedIn, you’d expect to get at least one interview request.
And that’s true — I did receive interview requests… just not as many as I expected.
In total, I received ten requests for an interview. I also received five requests to proceed to the next round of the process that did not involve interviews.
And that’s about a ten percent success rate — for every ten jobs I applied to, I received one positive reply to proceed to the next round.
This isn’t so far off from research elsewhere, which suggests that 62 percent of job seekers receive an interview after filling out 1–10 applications.
This research also notes that most job seekers receive one job offer for every 21–80 applications filled out.
Based on this, I should’ve received anywhere from 2 to 7 job offers…
Let’s see if that happened.
The Interview Process
I have to admit — in the process of reaching my goal of 100 applications, I ended up applying to some jobs I didn’t even want.
For this reason, I declined to move forward in the process with five out of the fifteen jobs that replied.
Another three never returned my emails when I reached out to them.
That left me with seven jobs to choose from to set up interviews.
This is where information about the position such as salary and scope of work becomes clearer and clearer.
Here, I realized that four out of the seven jobs remaining paid below or the same as my current job, and another was a completely different position than I thought. None of this did me any good because the entire purpose of this mission in the first place was to test the new market for a higher-paying job. I also wasn’t going to work somewhere I didn’t fit.
So these were busts, too.
The Remaining Two
Of the two remaining jobs, I made it to the last round of the interview process for both.
One was a research position and the other was a content marketing role. I thought I did very well on both of them.
But apparently not — for one of them, at least, because the research position declined to move forward with my candidacy.
They never replied when I inquired about the reason for not moving forward with my application — which, in my opinion, is a completely reasonable question to ask.
At the time of writing this original, I am still waiting to hear from the content marketing job. I will update the post when I know more.
(I was one of the first candidates to finish the process… which either means the company does their due diligence or that they are not 100 percent sure about my candidacy).
UPDATE: They went with another candidate.
Recap, and What It Says of LinkedIn and the “Labor Shortage”
So, what were the results of my job hunt and applying to more than 150 jobs in one month on LinkedIn?
Not as good as you’d expect.
I ended my search on LinkedIn with three promising positions — two of which rejected me in the end and another that paid less than my current job.
To be fair, many jobs did reply back to my application. Many simply rejected me immediately.
But a rejection reply is preferable (even though soul-crushing) to no reply at all.
In the end, I’d say that the often-discussed labor shortage is very industry-specific.
It’s clear that there are still thousands of job seekers out there, and many companies have a litter of applicants to choose from to fill their vacant slots.
This may not be as true for industries such as health care, retail, or food service — which are believed to be among the hardest-hit industries in terms of labor shortages.
