6 Ways To Speed Up Your Job Search

PLUS: Get out of a stalled job search, asking the right interview questions at the right time, job title myths, stepping out of your comfort zone, and more!

Author

Hannah Morgan
August 17, 2025

Welcome to Career Essentials, where I share actionable insights and curated articles that will help accelerate your career and supercharge your job search.

Is it possible to speed up your job search when the hiring decisions lie in the hands of employers? 

Yes, there are definitely things you can do to increase your odds. 

1.  Assess what is working and what is not

Job search will take longer than you want. Don’t beat yourself up. Conduct an assessment of what you’ve been doing and what the outcomes have been. 

If you see a decline in interviews despite a high number of applications, it might indicate that your resume or cover letter needs refinement. Or, if you're getting interviews but not job offers, it may be time to refine your interviewing skills. 

Here are things for you to evaluate: 

  • Are you getting interviews for jobs you are interested in? If not, re-evaluate your resume.

  • Are you arranging networking meetings? If not, add this to your daily activities. 

  • How many jobs are you applying for jobs? Are you a good fit?

  • Are you active on LinkedIn? Are the right people looking at your profile and contacting you? 

  • Are you getting interviews but not job offers? Work on your interviewing skills.

By looking back over your activities for the past 2-3 weeks or so, where have you been successful and where have you not seen traction?

2.  Invest time upfront in finding your focus

By understanding your strengths, you will be much more likely to find the appropriate opportunities, as opposed to randomly applying for anything that looks close. 

Finding your focus means learning about yourself. I have seen job seekers waste precious time searching without really knowing where they are going.

Here are some questions to help you find your focus: 

  • What are you good at doing?

  • What skills/knowledge/experiences do you want to continue to use regularly?

  • What value will you deliver to future employers?

  • Why do you do what you do? 

When you can answer these questions, you can clearly write and talk about yourself with greater certainty. That makes it easier for everyone to understand. Most importantly, the answers help you create a stronger resume, LinkedIn profile, and a powerful answer to “tell me about yourself.”

3.  Know your values

Finding the right “fit” isn’t just about the perfect skills match. You’ve probably seen a job posting and thought, “This is the perfect job for me”.  But are you really? What do you know about the company, the team, and your potential manager? 

If you begin now defining what’s important to you in your next job (things like workplace attitudes, management style, and communication types), you can target companies and potentially weed out those that are not a good fit for you. 

You will want to discover as much as you can about the company before, during, and after the interview phase to ensure that it aligns with your values. 

4.  Manage your time well

Without structure, it is just too easy to get distracted. Don’t get sucked into searching job boards. While applying to jobs feels productive, it doesn’t always result in an interview. There are many actions you can take instead that will move your job search forward.  

You want to block time weekly for important job search tasks. Allocating time on a calendar is a visual way of holding yourself accountable. You probably blocked off time for important activities at work, so it’s time to do it for your job search. 

Here is more information on how to create structure for your job search using time blocks.

5.  Invest in activities with the greatest return on investment

New hires come from a variety of sources, according to numerous studies. You could get a call due to a referral, the company’s career site, job boards, or an external recruiter, just to name a few sources.  

The idea is to invest your time in a variety of different activities to cover your bases and increase the odds of discovering new opportunities or being discovered.  

6.  Don’t “go it alone”.  Get help.

Job search feels lonely and you may feel like you are the only one struggling. Reach out for help. There are job clubs, networking groups, career coaches, and other resources that can help you with your job search.  

This is not the time in your life to be stubborn and refuse help. You need it, everyone does. Statistics prove that those people involved in job clubs or other groups find jobs faster than those working alone. 

REMINDER: If you feel you are sinking into depression, get help. It is quite normal and almost expected that you will feel depressed; however, if you can’t shake it, please do something about it.

The Bottom Line

Taking control over what you can control is what I call a proactive job search. Too often job seekers over-rely on posted jobs to drive their search and as a result, end up feeling discouraged and unmotivated. 

Do you want accountability and help? Join my 5-week Job Search Challenge.
Enroll to get one email a week that lays out actions for you to take and instructions to make it easier. It’s just $39

I don’t know John, I’ve never heard of him before, but I was glad someone in my network left a comment on this post on LinkedIn. Otherwise, I never would have discovered it. (See the power of commenting!). 

This is a timely article because many job seekers are hitting brick walls and extended job searches. It contains reflective questions, and it’s a powerful reminder for job search coaches AND job seekers. I’m looking forward to Part 2. 

Searching by job title alone can be difficult. Different companies use different job titles. And the scope of the role may be different based on the size of the company. This is an important message, especially for those who haven’t had to look for a job in a while. 

💻 LINKEDIN

A positive attitude and clear direction are the hallmarks of a great Open To Work post. This is an example of how you can rise above and show your professionalism. 

🗨 INTERVIEWING

Questions That Kill Your Interview Chances - Shelley Piedmont, My Career GPS

In this edition of her newsletter, Shelley breaks down how to ask the right questions (at the right time) to stand out as a top candidate. Shelley also includes some examples of questions to ask to show you are truly interested in the role and company. Bonus: See what the data says about using AI to construct your resume and what you can do to prevent sounding like a bot.

⚙ AI

It’s quite possible I shared this before. But it’s worth resharing. AI can significantly speed up the rough draft writing process… when you feed it the right information. As you look at the prompts in this article, you will notice they include details and information that will be used to craft the draft. When you use specific details in your prompts, you get much better output.

🔮 WORKFORCE

No Country for Young Grads - Burning Glass Institute

“To be clear, it’s not that firms have stopped hiring.  In fact, Chart 9 shows that the number of jobs postings in these sectors is up relative to pre-pandemic levels.  The relevant factor here, however, is that employment in these sectors is down relative to economic output, as reflected in Chart 1 above.  The sectors are growing, but employment isn’t.  When combined with shifts in employer preference toward candidates with greater experience, the net effect is diminished opportunity for recent graduates.”

The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence™ in collaboration with The Business Council rose to 49 in Q3 2025, up 15 points from 34 in Q2. (A reading below 50 reflects more negative than positive responses.) A total of 122 CEOs participated in the Q3 survey, which was fielded from July 14 to 28. 

Here are the findings: 34% of CEOs expect to reduce their workforce, 27% plan to grow their workforce, and 39% expect little change. No doubt, there is uncertainty in CEO confidence.

💰 CAREER

In this post you’ll see the 5 ways to get out of your rut and make courageous choices!
And if you want to dive deeper, join us on Wednesday, August 27th at Noon ET for a live chat with Heather about these strategies. 

🚀 PRODUCTIVITY

In his latest newsletter, Jeff outlines exactly how he uses Gemini (AI) to update documents. And this got me thinking, job seekers can do the exact same thing with their job search documents. From cover letters to follow-up email drafts. There are probably so many ways you can use Google Drive and Gemini to streamline your search activities.

EVENTS

Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 12:00 PM ET

Join me with guest, Dr. Heather Maietta. She has helped career professionals and their clients navigate change with confidence. She’ll share her proven 5-step framework to:

◾ Test-drive change with small experiments 
◾ Name and tackle your fears 
◾ Build a “reinvention squad” 
◾ Create a financial runway
◾ Track proof of your progress

PS: Do you get her newsletter, Career In Progress Weekly Career Insights?

This will be on LinkedIn Live and broadcast on my YouTube channel. Yes, a recording is available if you are unable to attend in person. But joining live allows you to ask questions! 

Monday, September 8, 2025 (Kick Off Call at 12pm ET)
Dates: Monday Sept. 8, 15, 22, 29 and Oct 6
Time: Weekly check-in call at 12pm ET every Monday
Cost: $39

JOB SEARCH VISUAL

15 Leadership Competencies

It's never too early to begin preparing your interview stories.

I'm a huge fan of STAR (but others use CAR, SOAR, or PAR). They're all the same.

⭐ Situation, Task, Actions, Results
🌟 Situation, Obstacle, Actions, Results
✨ Challenge, Actions, Results
💫 Problem, Actions, Results

If you are pursuing a leadership role, be sure to have specific stories to back up your leadership abilities.

Use these as a starting point.

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WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

Created by Jon Shields a real advocate for job seekers. Recommended by Alison Doyle. Sponsored by Sarah Johnston and Job Jenny. This is a site that helps you find the right job board! 

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