Job search strategy, boards, and networking
View All Tags
Silence after applying has two mechanical causes — the file did not parse, or the wording did not match the posting — and five that are not. Check targeting, bullets, follow-up, channel and timing, in that order. No employer publishes its screening threshold, and no tool can tell you what a specific company uses.
For most applications, yes — but only three sections change: the summary, three to five experience bullets, and the skills list. Titles, employers, dates and numbers stay fixed. Referrals and internal moves are the honest exceptions. Tailoring does not mean adding a skill you do not have, and it will not rescue an application you are not qualified for.
An ATS rejection is usually one of two things: the file did not parse, or the wording did not match the posting. Fix parsing first — single column, contact details in the body not a header, standard section headings, a text-based file. Nobody outside the company can tell you what threshold their ATS uses, and no published rejection percentage is checkable.
Six fields per role: company, title, stage, date applied, the resume you sent, and the next follow-up. FluxResume keeps all six on one Job Tracker card at $0 with unlimited tracking and an unwatermarked PDF. A twenty-column tracker answers no more recruiter-call questions, and nothing sends a follow-up for you.
Apply if you meet most of the core requirements — the three to five things the role cannot do without — and ignore the wish list below them. Long postings are often assembled from older ones, so length is not difficulty. Licences and clearances are not negotiable, and no applicant tracking system rejects you at a published percentage.
Your own phone and laptop, and an email address just for the search. Two or three references from previous roles, not current ones. Ask recruiters for confidentiality in writing. Group interviews to limit absences. No privacy setting hides a search from someone who recognises you in a lobby, and slipping performance gets noticed first.
Networking is keeping a short list of relationships current: reaching out when you want nothing, offering something before you ask, and keeping the ask to one twenty-minute question. It is a dated list, not a connection count. It does not work started the week you need it, and the "most jobs are never advertised" claim has no traceable source.