Amy Lindgren

How long is too long for a job search to go on? The answer is personal, but I can almost guarantee that no one’s ideal is four years. Or two years, or even one. Nor would I find many takers if I said: You’ll have a job, but you might need 2,200 applications to do it.

These are the kinds of numbers presented in recent Business Insider articles by Tim Paradis, where he interviewed what he calls “job-search long-haulers” — individuals whose job searches have dragged on without success.

As a backdrop to the personal stories, Paradis cites contributing factors, such as the change in employer hiring patterns and the impact of inflation on the job market. He also describes recruiter practices that can thwart job seekers, such as the use of fake postings and excessively long interview cycles.

These points are well-taken but they are not the crux of the problem. The stories themselves are heartbreaking, so I’m not going to describe what any particular person might have done “wrong” in racking up enormous numbers of applications or years in the search. They undoubtedly did and are doing what they think best.

But most job search strategists can tell you pretty quickly that something is indeed wrong with a search that produces so little after so long. Everyone has a suggestion, so I’ll tell you mine. If your job search is dragging on — which I would count as anything past about three months — it’s time to look under the hood and start tinkering.

First, yes, I did say three months. I’ve been doing this work through good times and bad, recessions and boom eras and I’ll stick by that timeline. A job search can be successfully completed in three months. But if you want that outcome, you’ll need to revisit the concept of the search itself.

It will help to start calling your search a project. Or, a job search project if you prefer.

Why? Because a project, by definition, has an end. It’s driven by process and guided by an initial assessment of resources, timeline and goals. You don’t need the modern language of project management to adopt the concept. Just think “beginning, middle, end.”

Beginning encompasses the planning stage, when the direction for the project is set, along with parameters such as timeline and resources. Middle is the primary period of implementation, when the project is underway. It should be punctuated with milestones or review points, to ensure things are still headed in the right direction or to accommodate new information, such as the effectiveness of specific steps. And the end is the wrap-up stage, where the objective is in hand or in sight.

Now to parse the concept of process. Process is based on strategic, productive steps that are repeated in a consistent and measurable manner. When process meets project management, it becomes the engine pushing the project forward.

And this matters to job search why? Because too often candidates will try to move forward with only half the formula. But process alone is really just unguided activity, while project alone is just a set of ideas. Without a plan and the steps to make it happen, the search will likely fail, or yes, drag on interminably.

Once you’ve committed to job search as a process-driven project, you can adopt the concept of milestones as well. These checkpoints provide the opportunity / obligation to pause so you can assess how things are going.

That sounds simple, but it’s a key step that is largely missing when candidates plow forward without a plan. With a project mindset, you’re deciding in advance that you’ll review your situation in x weeks. When that time comes, if you haven’t hit one of the goals you’ve set, stopping to troubleshoot is built into your plan.

Time is also a critical measure because it connects to the job seeker’s stamina. In a long search, things begin to grind down. The candidate’s energy shifts, their confidence drops, their contacts grow weary, the market changes, and, frustratingly, credentials and related experience fade in relevance.

Stopping to review in a timely fashion — and then adjusting course — is one of the best ways I know to keep a job search from ballooning into hundreds of applications or years of effort.

Next week’s column will take a closer look at the actual project and process of job search, from the initial plan to the troubleshooting. This will help demonstrate how a job search can switch from a life sentence to a short-term project.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.