I’m very disciplined in the way I track my job search (and yes, like many of you I won the laid off lottery!), and just like while working, I use data to inform my strategy and derive useful insight to reach my goal[s]. BTW, I’m a Product Manager.
I have a simple GSheet file where I track my job search and the Conversion Rates (CR) of the various steps, which helps me to spot patterns and opportunities for optimization.
Currently my aggregated data after 3 weeks of job search is the following:
# 42 total applications
→ 6 interviews
→ 7 rejections
CR interviews / applications = 14%
Breaking down the data by roles here’s what we get:
# 9 Growth PM standard applications
→ 3 interviews
CR = 33%
# 3 Technical PMM standard applications
→ 1 interview
CR = 33%
BTW the applications supported by a referral should be tracked separately.
From past and peer’s experiences, my rule of thumb is: “if this isn’t your first job search in a role I’d consider a CR for standard applications healthy if ≥ 10%. If this is your first job search, on average you should expect a CR ≥ 2%”.
If lower it is very likely that there’s room for optimization, thus experimentation.
However this job market is a quite different beast from the past years.
When I started this job search I was expecting a rate around 5% CR knowing how tough the market is, and after having seen the number of matching roles diminishing after the 3rd week I think I’m unfortunately heading towards that number.
Why I think that this metric is useful
1. To inform if there is a match between the application (thus also the CV) and the Job Description
This is really important because it tells how we could optimize further our CV according to the role we are applying, the stage of the company (startup vs established), the industry, the settings (remote, on-site), geography, etc…
1. To set up the expectations for how long it would take to receive the first offer.
From past and peer’s experiences, I’d consider a 1:10 ratio a lower bound for the CR interview → offer, this means that knowing the speed we can get 10 interviews, we could assume how long it may take before seeing the first offer. Of course, this isn’t deterministic, but at least we have a baseline.
If you are currently job searching, do you use to track your conversion rates? if so, what are the insights that you are getting?
