I sent out 16 applications in 2.5 months and got 2 offers

I'm a software engineer with 6 years of experience, and I was specifically looking for a remote role.

Instead of applying everywhere, I only applied to jobs that were a very close match for my background. Basically, roles where my experience already lined up well with what they were looking for, even before tailoring my resume. I still tailored my resume for every application, though.

Here's what I looked at before applying:

• The core skills had to match. If the job required technologies or experience I didn't have, I usually skipped it.
• The job title and seniority level had to make sense for my background.
• The required years of experience had to line up with mine.
• It had to be remote and available in my location.
• I needed to meet pretty much all of the must-have requirements.
• Most importantly, the actual responsibilities had to be similar to work I'd done before.

I used ChatGPT to help with this. I'd give it the job description and my resume and ask it to compare the key requirements and responsibilities against my actual experience. I also used it to see how closely the responsibilities matched my existing resume bullet points.

https://preview.redd.it/b2n9fnwqz5dh1.png?width=1298&format=png&auto=webp&s=80c7fba50e5df7942c6860489dbf738ebc9d1c8d

Preferred skills were nice to have, but I didn't care too much about those if the core requirements were a strong match.

I was probably more aggressive with filtering than most people. I applied to fewer jobs, but only to roles where I genuinely thought I had a strong shot.

Author: RedRebellion1917