Applying to everything can feel productive, but a messy job search can quietly eat your week and your confidence.
Why the spray-and-pray approach backfires
You open the job board on Sunday night, see forty postings, and start firing off applications. It feels like momentum. But by Wednesday you can't remember which roles you applied to, every cover letter sounds the same, and you've stopped reading the postings closely enough to notice whether you actually want the job.
Volume isn't the problem. Untargeted volume is. When you apply to everything, each application gets a thinner slice of your attention, and thin applications are exactly the ones that get filtered out. Twelve focused applications beat fifty rushed ones, every time. The goal is to Show impact, not just activity — and that starts with how you choose what to apply for.
"I applied to 30 jobs this week." Most were a copy-paste resume sent to roles you half-skimmed. You can't name the hiring manager, the team, or why you'd be a fit for any of them.
"I applied to 8 jobs this week." Each one matched your skills, used a resume tuned to the posting's top three requirements, and you noted a real reason you wanted it. Three replied.
Build a weekly target list
Before you apply to anything, make a short list of roles worth your time. Decide on a number you can do well — six to ten is plenty for most people — and stop scrolling once you hit it. A role earns a spot on the list only if you can answer yes to all three:
- Do I meet most of the core requirements? You don't need 100%. Hitting roughly two-thirds of the "must-haves" is usually enough to apply with a straight face.
- Do I actually want this? If the answer is "not really, but it's a job," it goes lower on the list, not at the top.
- Can I picture the first 90 days? If you can imagine doing the work, you can write about doing the work.
If you're job-hunting in Canada, the Government of Canada Job Bank is a solid place to find postings and check typical wage ranges (roughly $X to $Y for a given role and region) so you're not negotiating blind later.
Set up a tracker so nothing slips
The single biggest time-waster in a job search isn't applying — it's losing track. You apply, forget, and either never follow up or accidentally apply twice. A plain spreadsheet fixes this. One row per application, columns for the essentials, and a glance tells you what needs attention. No fancy tool required.
Your tracker is also what turns "follow up someday" into a real action with a date attached. A follow-up is not begging, it is professional signal — and a tracker is what reminds you to send it on time.
Tailor smart, not obsessively
Tailoring works, but you can absolutely overdo it. Rewriting your entire resume from scratch for every posting is a great way to apply to two jobs in a day and burn out by Thursday. The 80/20 version: keep a strong base resume, then adjust the top third for each role.
- Always adjust: your summary line and your top three bullets, so they echo the language of the posting's key requirements.
- Sometimes adjust: the order of your experience, to put the most relevant role first.
- Rarely touch: formatting, older roles, and the boilerplate. If you're redesigning the layout, you've gone too far.
A short, specific note beats a long generic one. Here's a cover note you can adapt in two minutes:
Hi [Name], I'm applying for the [Role] position. In my last role at [Company], I [specific result that maps to their top requirement — e.g. "cut reporting time by 40% by rebuilding the team's tracking process"]. That's the kind of problem your posting describes, and I'd be glad to walk through how I'd approach it here. Resume attached — thank you for considering it.
Put it on a weekly routine
The system only works if it has a shape. Give each day a job so you're never staring at a blank board wondering where to start:
- Monday — choose. Build your target list of six to ten roles for the week. Add each to your tracker. Don't apply yet.
- Tuesday & Wednesday — tailor and apply. Work through the list, adjusting the top third of your resume for each. Quality over speed; aim for a few done well per day.
- Thursday — follow up and network. Send follow-ups that are due, and reach out to one or two people at companies on your list.
- Friday — review. Which applications got replies? Which roles fit best? Use what you learn to pick better targets next Monday.
A week like this usually takes less time than the old panic-scroll method, and it leaves you with something the scroll never did: a record, a rhythm, and the quiet confidence of knowing exactly where every application stands.
Create a tracker (a spreadsheet is perfect) with columns for role, company, link, date applied, contact, follow-up date, and status. Even with zero rows in it yet, you've just built the backbone of your whole search.
Useful: Government of Canada Job Bank
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