Never in the history of work has anyone actually enjoyed looking for it. But the frustration, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, and despondence I’ve heard from white-collar job seekers over the past year have been unlike anything I’ve encountered in my 15 years of reporting on the economy. They went to good schools. They worked at reputable companies. They’ve looked for jobs before, and they thought they knew the drill. But now, in the current job market, they’re utterly baffled. None of their tried-and-true approaches to the job hunt seem to work anymore. It’s as if they went to sleep in one world and woke up in a scarier one.
In a sense, they have. We’re in the midst of a deep white-collar recession, which is generating more unemployed professionals than job openings. And technology has simplified job applications to a single click, flooding employers with way more candidates than they can possibly hope to process. Those two forces have combined to create the mother of all traffic jams, breaking the job market as we know it. Sticking with the same old job-search techniques is a surefire recipe for disappointment. “Do not just apply and hope to get a callback,” says Kyle Minton, a longtime recruiter in tech and manufacturing. “I promise you are being buried. We are living in a new age.”
But there are ways you can break through the gridlock. To assemble the best job-search advice, I spoke with two dozen experts — recruiters, HR executives, career coaches, résumé writers, and those who run applicant tracking systems and job boards. I asked them for every pro tip they could think of, for every stage of the hiring process — the kind of insider insights they would offer their best friend. They debunked common myths, explained the mindset of recruiters and hiring managers, and provided specific tools for getting ahead. Taken together, their advice offers a concrete guide for navigating the chaos of today’s job market. Call them the new rules for job searching — a blueprint for standing out in a world that makes you feel like giving up. “In this environment,” Minton says, “I cannot stress enough how imperative it is to go above and beyond.”
LAY THE GROUNDWORK
Start by looking within.
If you’re still employed, don’t assume that the only good jobs are outside your current company. According to data from Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system, internal applicants are five times likelier to land a job than external applicants who have a referral — and 41 times likelier than external applicants without a referral. To get a leg up on your competition, scout out jobs at your company before they’re publicly posted. Invite colleagues who are doing the job you want out for coffee and ask them to let you know if they hear of any openings on their team. Networking begins at home.
Make a list of your dream companies.
Given how terrible the job market is, you might assume it’s best to play the volume game — to spray and pray, as they say in the marketing business. But that’s exactly the wrong approach. Paradoxically, the fact that the market is bad right now means you have to be extra intentional about narrowing your scope. If you’re at the entry level, then yes — apply for everything in sight. But if you’ve got more than a few years of experience, you need to start by thinking hard about the companies you actually want to work for, because you’re going to funnel a lot of your time and energy into landing a job at those places.
Keep the list short.
Matt Tague, a tech recruiter turned career consultant, tells his clients to aim for a surprisingly short list of five dream employers, max. “It takes a lot of time to properly research a company,” he says. “More dream companies = lower quality research.”
Don’t be afraid to cold call.
Look at the companies on your list and identify the managers running the teams you hope to join. Even if there are no job openings posted, message the managers and ask to have a quick call with them. The goal is not to ask them for a job — it’s to learn about their team and establish a rapport. Not sure what to say? Try using this sample DM created by Tague:
Enlist the help of everyone you know.
Friends. Former colleagues. Neighbors. College classmates. Dog park acquaintances. That guy you met in line for coffee two months ago at that really boring industry conference. Everyone.
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER ON LINKEDIN
Embrace the cringe.
No one wants to be that person who spends all their time on LinkedIn. But keeping an active presence on the platform is essential: Recruiters and hiring managers rely on it, both to search for candidates and to evaluate applicants. Post and comment frequently — that shows you’re engaged in your career and available to respond to a recruiter’s DM in a timely manner. And buy a Premium Career subscription. It costs $29.99 a month, and it gives you more messaging credits. You’ll need them for all the networking you’ll be doing.
Smash that subscribe button.
Remember that list of dream companies you made? Make sure you follow every single one of them on LinkedIn. Recruiters often filter for people who already follow the company, so this is an easy way to make sure you pop up on their radar. “It shows a bit more of that initiative, that resourcefulness, that motivation,” says Jenny Diani, a senior director of global technical recruiting at Autodesk. “We want to look at who’s really motivated and interested in working at our company.”
Optimize your profile with these 4 simple tricks.
- List your skills. Recruiters want to see more than job titles. Choose five skills to highlight in each job you’ve had.
- Fill in the “About” section. Yes, it really matters. Summarize your key qualifications and list the top five skills that are most relevant to the kind of role you want to land.
- Make the visuals pop. First impressions are key. Post a good headshot, set a cover photo, and make sure the logos of your employers show up.
- Hide your age. Age discrimination sucks, but it’s real. If you’re over 40, don’t specify the year you graduated from college.
Let your Open to Work flag fly.
Worried recruiters will think something’s wrong with you if you use LinkedIn’s green banner to signal your availability? Think again. Recruiters not only don’t mind #opentowork, but some even prioritize candidates who use it. So turn it on — and then post about it. Do’s: articulate the kind of role you want; highlight your skills and key accomplishments; be positive. Don’ts: disparage your previous employer or former colleagues; mention your fear of losing your house.
PUNCH UP YOUR RÉSUMÉ
Hire a professional résumé writer.
“I don’t think anybody came out of the womb good at writing a résumé,” says Jon Stross, a cofounder of Greenhouse. So hire an expert who knows how to do it right. Prices range from a few hundred dollars for a basic makeover to a few thousand dollars for help with networking strategy and interview prep. I’ve spoken with quite a few successful job seekers who credit their new gig to their professional résumé writer. But there are a lot of scammy ones out there, so do some Googling to see whether the person is legit and knows what they’re talking about.
Beat the AI bots by customizing your résumé for every single job you apply to.
Companies are increasingly using AI to score candidates based on how well their résumés match the job description. And recruiters often prioritize résumés by filtering them for keywords from the job posting. So make sure you use those exact same words in your résumé, and list achievements that demonstrate you’ve already done what the company says it’s looking for. “If you don’t take the extra time to tailor your résumé to the job listing,” says Avani Prabhakar, the chief people officer at Atlassian, “you stand no chance.”
Use a bot to beat the bots.
Customization is time-consuming, but there are online tools that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Teal, for example, compares your résumé to job listings and suggests new bullet points to make them match up more.
But for God’s sake, don’t put the keywords in white.
For some reason, the internet has become convinced that you can game applicant tracking systems by sneaking extra keywords onto your résumé in a white font that will be visible only to the software. There’s apparently a small chance it might work. But some recruiters actually check for “white fonting,” and then reject you as dishonest. If you think a keyword is important, stick to black type.
Be careful with the boss vibes.
Many companies are cutting back on the ranks of middle managers, which has forced a lot of senior-level professionals to apply to lower-level jobs. If that’s you, don’t emphasize your managerial skills in your résumé — you don’t want recruiters to think you’re above getting your hands dirty. Instead, says Saba Siddiqui, the head of talent acquisition at Gusto, position yourself as a player-coach. Highlight all the ways you continued to pitch in as an individual contributor, even when you were in a supervisory position.
Don’t get your heart set on working from home.
Given the return-to-office push, most companies are advertising only for in-office or hybrid roles. Many recruiters don’t even bother to look at candidates who live far away. On your résumé, make sure you specify the city and state where you live at the top. If that’s far from a company’s offices and you’re willing to relocate, indicate that next to your current location.
But if you do apply for a WFH role, emphasize the W.
Tailor your résumé to prove you’re good at working remotely. After all, WFH is a skill of its own. “We really look for people who are autonomous, who can manage their time in an efficient way, who feel comfortable working in ambiguity, and don’t require people holding their hand,” says Anastasia Pshegodskaya, the director of talent acquisition at Remote. “These are the skills you would like to see on the CV.” Note the roles you’ve had that were fully remote, and showcase your experience working with far-flung teams.
Ditch the cover letter.
No one reads it. For companies that require one, send in something generic, but don’t spend too much time customizing it. The résumé is the far more important document.
START APPLYING
Get to the front of the line.
Many applicant tracking systems present candidates in the order they applied. Recruiters often don’t get through all the candidates. And the companies that actually commit to reviewing every résumé will take down the job listing as soon as they get enough applicants, which can happen within days. So make sure you apply as soon as you can. Pro tip: Set up job alerts for your dream companies on LinkedIn so you get a notification the moment a new listing goes up.
Jump the line.
Unless a company specifically tells you not to, send a DM or email introducing yourself to the hiring manager or recruiter. Worried it might annoy them? “I would take that risk,” says Steve Knox, the global head of talent acquisition at Dayforce. “Show that you’re taking initiative.” Nine times out of 10, Knox says, the manager will be curious enough to click on your LinkedIn profile — and if they like what they see, they’ll put you on the fast track. Here’s a DM one job seeker sent to a recruiter right after she applied for a position. The recruiter wrote back to set up a call, and the enterprising applicant ended up beating out more than 1,500 other candidates to land the role:
Do everything you can to get a referral.
With a referral, according to Greenhouse’s data, you’re nine times more likely to get hired than a candidate without one. A referral from someone who knows you well is best. But if you’re not close to anyone at your dream companies, circle back to those people you cold-called and ask if they can put you in touch with their colleagues on the team you’re hoping to join. And don’t be shy about asking whether they’d be open to putting in a word for you with the hiring manager — many companies offer referral bonuses for their employees.
Don’t be afraid to apply for a job cold.
Can’t find a connection at the company? Give it a shot anyway. In one analysis, Greenhouse found that 68% of the hires made by its clients were external applicants without a referral. Your odds will be insanely long, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
Pitch your own job.
Four years ago, when I was looking for a new job, I had a bunch of networking calls with editors at Business Insider. I wasn’t right for any of the positions they were advertising for, so I pitched them on the job I really wanted: to write features about the American workplace. They liked the idea enough to create a whole new role for me to do exactly that. Not only did it enable me to land my dream job, but it also afforded me a distinct advantage: I was the only applicant.
Infiltrate your target.
Full-time jobs are hard to come by — so consider getting your foot in the door as a contractor. Use this website to look up which staffing agencies your dream companies use, and then contact those agencies directly. “Since their product is people,” says Minton, the recruiter, “they are generally more likely to connect with you.” Once you’re a contractor at a company, you can network on the inside and work your way up to a full-time position.
ACE YOUR INTERVIEWS
Do your homework.
There was a time when senior professionals could wing their interviews on charisma alone. Not anymore. “Right now there’s an expectation that you have done extensive research,” says Frank Burgoyne, an interview coach for experienced professionals. “And that goes beyond the company website.” Read every news article about the company. Watch as many of its obscure sales presentations on YouTube as you can stand. Be ready to show that you already understand the problems the company is wrestling with and why you’re uniquely qualified to solve them.
Apply to some “maybe” jobs before the dream ones.
Think of them as preseason warmups. Says Tague, the career consultant: “You’re going to get that interview practice in a safer environment, with lower risk, than your one shot at Google.”
Get ChatGPT to help.
Give it the job description, your résumé, and your interviewer’s job title, and ask it to spit out a bunch of sample questions for you to answer. You can even have it critique your answers, but don’t recite its suggestions verbatim. Recruiters can tell when you’re regurgitating canned, robotic answers.
Use the STAR method.
If an interview question starts with “tell me about a time that you,” your answer should be structured in four steps: situation, task, action, result. “It used to be a nice-to-have,” Burgoyne says. “But now companies expect that 100%.” Burgoyne tells his clients not only to prep their answers, but also to keep a running spreadsheet of stories formatted in the STAR method. “You’ll have that spreadsheet for the rest of your career,” he says. “And you should be adding to it regularly.”
Don’t answer “What’s your biggest weakness?” with “I’m a perfectionist.”
It’s lame, and recruiters will see right through it. Instead, talk about something that was once a weakness and then explain how you overcame it.
Send a thank-you email after every interview.
And not a generic “thank you so much for the interview yesterday.” Mention something specific from the conversation that impressed you, or an additional thought you had about something they asked you. Bonus points if you can tie that back to the contribution you hope to make.
Collect your failures.
Got rejected? Treat it as another networking opportunity. Send your interviewers a request for a LinkedIn connection. And ask the recruiter if you can follow up in a couple of months to see if more jobs have opened up. “I can think of quite a few people that have been hired at Autodesk who did not get the first role that they applied for,” says Diani. “They followed up either with that hiring manager or the recruiter, and were put in process for another role.”
KEEP YOUR COOL
Stay organized.
It’s common for job seekers to keep a spreadsheet of the jobs they’ve applied to. But even more important is keeping a spreadsheet of all the people you talked to along the way. Include where they work, how you met them, a summary of the conversation you had, and when you spoke. Then follow up with them every few months — and hit them up for a referral when there’s a job opening at their company.
Don’t take rejections personally.
Datapeople, a provider of recruiting analytics, has found that nearly a third of all job postings never result in a hire. “Hiring happens within the context of a whole big messy company with decisions and priorities and delays and personalities,” says Tague, who led recruiting teams at companies like Microsoft and Lyft. “Very rarely are they digging into it like, ‘Oh, if only she’d said this.’ It’s not really like that on the inside. There could be internal people you don’t know about. There’s all kinds of factors that can come into play, but the candidate doesn’t see that.” So stop obsessing over the reason you were rejected — it probably had little to do with you. Move on.
Build a support group.
You know how married people don’t understand the hell that is modern dating? Employed people don’t understand how miserable job searching is these days. Make sure you surround yourself with folks who actually get it. Don’t think you’re alone, because you aren’t.
Take breaks, weekends, vacations.
Job-searching burnout is real. Keep it sustainable by not doing it all the time.
Congrats! You got a job!
But if you’re smart, you’re not done with the job search. Keep networking at your dream companies. Work the room at industry events. Tague recommends setting a goal to connect with two new people a month. The more legwork you do while you’ve got a job, the easier it’ll be the next time you find yourself looking for one. Here’s hoping that’s not for a long, long time.
Aki Ito is a chief correspondent at Business Insider.
