I Automated My Job Search (And It Worked!)

There comes a point in everyone’s career where the excitement fades and the only thing that’s left is a monotonous job.

After speaking with some colleagues recently, it was apparent that a few of them were stuck in a career rut. I realized that a decent percentage of employees are unfulfilled in their current roles. That’s when my wheels started turning…

I love my current employer and am very content in the role I’m in. However, I thought about running a personal experiment to solve this common problem for the masses.

How could I automate my job search?

If I can find a system that works for me, maybe this can be helpful for my colleagues. I started looking into different tools and strategies I found online and documented everything. There were plenty of manual tasks involved in this strategy, but sticking to a system made a lot of the tasks become second nature to me.

Keep in mind that this strategy worked for me, but it won’t work for every role imaginable. If you have a friend in a career rut, share this with them and it may help them have the breakthrough they needed.

Without further ado, here is my job search ride-along from beginning to offer letter.

Step 1: Research How To Automate My Job Search

Before starting, I tried to research as much as I could about the entire process. What I found was everyone had an opinion about the dos and don’ts of finding a new job.

The important takeaway I found was the fact that there is no perfect way to accomplish this task. In the end, you are going to make decisions that could work great for some recruiters/employers, but less optimal for others.

I stumbled across an automated Google Alert strategy but figured it could take too much of my time to set this up properly. This may be a great resource depending on the goals you have.

I quickly realized that I needed to find a resource to polish up my resume before continuing with any other steps.

FYI: It is really important to take time to plan out each stage of the process. I wouldn’t have landed my job without this planning.

Step 2: Automate My Resume Writing

My amazing sister-in-law, Lindsay, is a college counselor and offered to help me update my resume! She does this professionally and her service gave me more confidence throughout the entire job hunt process.

I never thought that paying for a service would be necessary to find a new job/career, but the return on investment makes this a no-brainer. If you really want to find a new job, spend the money to build a solid foundation for your ‘personal brand’.

***Lindsay also mentioned that some colleges will provide free resume writing/editing services. It turned out that my school did assist with this! Reach out to your school’s career center to see if these free options are available for you.

FYI: I believe 100% that this step helped me land my job

Step 3: Optimize My Linkedin Profile

This step may take time, but the results are extremely rewarding. Here are a few necessary steps for a great Linkedin profile:

Keywords – Research keywords that your potential employer will be looking for and sprinkle them throughout your profile.
About Section – This needs to be compelling (like an elevator pitch) to hook the recruiter to read more
Certifications – If you need more certifications, take some courses from Linkedin Learning’s free trial. This helped me get my job!
Job History – Take the time to clean up your job history and make sure it reflects/complements your resume.
Connections – Employers want to see that you are active on Linkedin. Having more connections, endorsements, and recommendations can help.
Flip the Switch! – You can have recruiters reach out about opportunities if you turn on the ‘open to opportunities’ function. Boom, automated!

FYI: Here’s a quote from my hiring manager: “I noticed you had a handful of SEO certifications on your Linkedin profile”. This step was crucial to landing my job.

Step 4: Outsource Work To Recruiting Firms

Depending on the type of role you are looking for, this may be an option for you. Recruiting firms are a no-brainer because they do all the work for you (and typically for free!).

I used a local recruiting firm in the Austin, TX area. We had an initial call to see if I would be a good fit for their clients and they requested my resume to have on hand for when opportunities come up. They get a referral fee from their clients, so I never had to worry about spending money on this service.

FYI: I didn’t find my job from using this service, but it was a confidence boost knowing I had a team on my side.

Step 5: Automate My Job Search with Vettery

Some people mentioned that I should create a profile on Monster/Indeed/Ladders/etc., but I didn’t want to spend too much time with sites that seemed to be ‘spammy’. It’s not that these platforms are bad, but I wanted to focus on areas that don’t force me to get blasted with information overload.

I stumbled across Vettery and it tremendously helped me automate my job search. Vettery is a hiring platform (For certain US cities) that lets you create a profile similar to Linkedin’s. The amazing part about Vettery is how simple the platform is.

You will need to submit your resume, add an elevator pitch summary, and answer a few questions to let recruiters know if they are a good fit for you. Here is an example of what I chose:

Once I completed my listing, I was featured across Vettery’s client base and had an interview lined up within the first month! This was exciting because I had recruiters looking for me and willing to pay the minimum amounts I selected.

FYI: I didn’t take the job through Vettery, but it was a HUGE confidence boost!

Step 6: Outsource Work to Colleagues

During my research and planning stage, I decided to write down the names of any colleagues that could vouch for my work ethic. I asked them to keep me in mind for any future openings they come across to see if I could be a good fit.

I ended up having a handful of conversations here and saw some opportunities that would’ve come available within 6 months or so. It is amazing to see how helpful some of my friends were to help me find a new job. Seriously, Mike…Thank you!!

Don’t underestimate the power of this step because it could have easily helped me automate my job search.

FYI: I didn’t end up getting a solid lead from this, but it was nice to connect with old friends.

Step 7: Use Glassdoor to Send Applications

This is how I landed my job.

I wasn’t able to fully automate my job search with this step, but the systematic process made me feel super-efficient and accomplished every day!

I spoke with some colleagues that mentioned they have been looking for a new job for over a year. I was curious why this was the case so I experimented with a couple of strategies to see what would be most impactful in today’s world.

The test was simple. I was going to see the difference between quality and quantity submissions. I used Glassdoor because I think their platform is the best compared to any others.

Quality Resumes (meh…)

I spent about 3 weeks sending quality resumes for jobs that would be perfect a perfect fit. I would research the role extensively and re-write my resume and cover letter to tailor my information perfectly for the new role. This process took around 3-4 hours per resume submission and it was exhausting. I think I sent out 5 resumes within 3 weeks.

Quantity Resume Submissions (Heck Yeah!)

To avoid blowing my brains out, I decided to try something new. I started applying to as many jobs as I could for another 3 weeks. If the job seemed to be somewhat in my realm, I would apply. This meant that I may get emailed back for jobs that weren’t perfect, but that was okay with me.

I thought to myself, “If I was paid a minimum of $______, would it be worth relocating?” I decided to expand my search to 3 cities and increasing my financial standards for the ones out of town. This will triple my chances of finding a role and it felt exciting thinking about this new chapter in my life if I had to relocate.

I made a commitment to send as many resumes as possible.

The commitment I made to myself was 1 resume submission per day. If I did this, I would have 21 resumes sent off within 3 weeks. Using Glassdoor’s ‘Easy Apply’ option made this even easier.

I truly believe the quantity strategy was the reason I landed my job!

I’m sure there are career coaches that would argue, but in my opinion, quantity can be more powerful than quality (as long as you don’t skip step #2 above). I found a job that was absolutely perfect for me and my new employer. I wasted hourrrrrrs on other resume submissions, but literally less than 5 minutes on the job I accepted.

FYI: Read this section again if you are serious about finding a new job. No really, scroll back up and read it again now.

Step 8: Wake up Early

Think deeply about this question: Does it make sense to work a long stressful day, eat dinner, and then start looking for jobs while you are mentally and physically drained?

Most people go job hunting after a stressful day at the office when they are upset with their employer. This strategy is so unproductive and the chance of getting a job is unlikely.

But how can I get my productivity to reach level 9000?

For me, it was waking up early. I thought to myself, “If I can wake up at 5am (2 hours early) every day, I will be able to easily apply to one job per day before my day even starts!”

It was extremely tough to get out of bed in the first three days. However, on the 4th day, I was in my groove and this systematic process was running through my subconscious mind.

FYI: I wouldn’t have reached my goal of 1 resume per day without taking this step.

Bonus Tip: Remote Working Positions

After writing this article, the coronavirus pandemic came about and impacted the way many of us work each day. If you have a desk job, you could easily find a remote position so you don’t have to move to a new city.

Because there are so many companies offering remote positions, you may want to cast additional nets across the state/country. Linkedin allows you to get alerts for specific positions (including remote ones) that could help you land that dream job. Update your job preferences to include remote opportunities and cast that net in a handful of states and see how many more opportunities you find!

Final Thoughts

I learned a ton throughout the automated job search process, but the biggest takeaway was the framework.

If this framework worked well with my career search, what other goals could I accomplish? I think it is time to implement this on some of the harder goals like automating income or strengthening my relationships with others.

Please, please let me know if I can help you with any of your goals. Send me a PM or comment below if you enjoyed this article.