Main image of article How to Use Data to Optimize Your Job Search

If you’ve spent days applying to hundreds of jobs with little to show for your efforts, tracking and analyzing your activities can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, refine your strategy and make your job search more effective.

Not only does tracking various types of activity and their results reveal what’s working (and what’s not), it lets you compare your performance to others through known job-hunting statistics.  In fact, job seekers who found jobs quickly, especially after being laid off, analyzed their activities and used the results to rapidly improve.

Analytics supported by the right data can inform the decisions you make during your job search, explained Steven Mostyn, CEO of Super Star Resume and Alpha Recruitment, as well as author of, “Job Search: Fundamentals of Effective Job Hunting, Resumes, and Interviews.”

Here’s a look at the most important metrics to track, the conversion rates or results you should be shooting for, and some ways to improve your performance.

Outbound Outreach

Start by tracking all of your outreach activities, including the jobs you apply to through job boards, company websites or recruiters, resumes you send directly to hiring managers and the times when you ask friends or colleagues for introductions or referrals.

According to Mostyn, you should be aiming for a 50 percent response rate from all of your outreach activities. Automated acknowledgements or “we’ll keep your resume on file” notices, rejections and invitations to participate in initial phone screens or coding assessments all count as responses.

If you’re not hitting the 50 percent mark, check to make sure that you’re not applying to jobs that have been posted for more than a week; postings inundated with applications may not yield a response, either. If your resume is further down in the queue, the recruiter may identify a slate of candidates before they get to yours. Plus, data shows your chances of landing an interview get progressively worse as more people apply.

However, the most common reason your application is being ignored is because your resume doesn’t have the right keywords or format to get past the automated screening process (ATS), noted Puneet Kohli, a software engineer and CEO of Careerflow.ai, a job tracking tool.

Indeed, data shows that applicant tracking systems weed out about 75 percent of all job applications… but most of the causes can be resolved.

It’s best to use both qualitative and quantitative assessment methods to look for patterns and opportunities to improve your initial response rate, Kohli says. For instance, using a free resume scanner/optimization tool to score your resume against a target job description can help you tweak its content and format to get past an ATS and onto a hiring manager’s desk.

But you also want to track which version of your resume is getting the highest response rate and generating the most interviews. Does the rate improve when you apply to mid-size companies, junior level positions, certain industries or jobs found through networking? Roughly 85 percent of jobs are filled through networking, so spending more time on activities that increase the size of your professional network can bring your conversion rate way up.

Since 87 percent of recruiters vet candidates online before they reach out, a below-average response rate could also indicate that your online portfolio and profiles don’t match your resume or the basic job requirements for the roles you’re pursuing.

The solution may be as simple as changing the desired job title section of your resume or calling yourself a “Senior React.js Developer” instead of a just a front-end web developer (for example). Once you have the data, analyze it, and use the patterns and insights to adapt your strategy and focus on activities that generate the best return.

Inbound Outreach

Successful job seekers don’t rely solely on outbound outreach; they receive inquiries from the estimated 90 percent of recruiters who source candidates for open positions on LinkedIn. They also spend some time building their reputation and network by joining discussions, attending networking events and blogging so they can be “found” and considered for confidential or unadvertised job openings.

If your LinkedIn profile isn’t appearing in search results or being viewed by recruiters, optimizing your profile to achieve a higher score can increase the chances of it being seen by recruiters and hiring managers by 40 percent, Kohli said. Taking a balanced approach to job-hunting activities drives the best results.

Interview Conversion Rates

Ideally, you’d like to convert 10 to 25 percent of the applications you submit to initial interviews or phone screens. From there, your goal should be to convert 33 percent of first interviews to second interviews and 50 percent of those to offers.

There could be many reasons why you aren’t progressing past the technical interview stage, but generally, it’s because candidates don’t prepare or take the necessary steps to pass the technical evaluation. Data shows that only 20 percent of technical interviewees are consistent in their performance. Keep in mind that coding on the job is different from coding in an interview. It takes practice to solve technical problems and communicate the solution in an interview setting.

But doing so can increase your conversion rate and lead to multiple offers.

Offer Conversion Rates

If you apply to 50 jobs and hit the higher end of the targeted conversion rates, you should end up with two offers. That performance will give you the most leverage to negotiate salary and keep pace with 78 percent of candidates for tech jobs who have multiple offers on the table, according to a Gartner survey.

The bottom line is that measuring your job search activity and the results gives you the information you need to analyze your performance, adjust your strategy, continuously improve—and keep your job search on track.