The numbers game for the job search

The case for the business card. Primarily the business card is a sales tool for first time meetings to establish a way for a new prospect to become a client, ideally for long term business. However in movies like American Psycho the business card was a status symbol mostly to be shared among peers, and this is often where many of my own business card have been distributed over the years to international, and internal colleagues.

However often times you may be handing a card to an acquaintance at a party over drinks either as a formality or just to continue on with networking whether it leads to something or not.  The same is true for a job seeker, business cards are not a bad item to have on you when carrying a pristine resume is too much of a hassle. Even resume’s are a true formality when you happen to be established in the industry that you work in. You can get a job with an employer just because of a referral by a trusted employee, the resume is just something that gets sent into the Human Resources department.

Something that I’ve discovered in an outside sales context is that I will give out many more business cards than I recieve. Partly because I call on potential clients in manufacturing facilities that often do not get business cards, partly because I am catching people unprepared.

A rule of thumb that I have learned with business cards first and foremost it is never a 1 business card handed out 1 to one business card returned ratio. In fact I probably hand out 10 business cards to every card I receive in return for mine, and even still I’ll have a contact take 2 of my cards, and return one to me with their contact information scribbled across the back of my card.

Card’s I’ve acquired over 3 years. Compared to my 1,000 card box given away.

This same numbers game would apply to basically any such sales process, especially the most important ones.  So when it comes to applying to jobs applying to one is good, applying to 10 is better to get the response you want.  If you found the perfect job opening, apply, and find 10 more good or nearly perfect job openings to apply too as well. For every 10 applications when you are starting out you might get called in for one interview. When the job market was bad like the period from 2009 through 2013 I was easily applying to 20 to 30 job postings to get a face to face interview set.

Good luck, and happy hunting.