My Job Search in Numbers (Part 2)
I recently left a Data Scientist role in tech for another Data Scientist role in tech, which I will start next month.
Read Part 1 about my job search.
I kept track of a lot of data from my job search and have more to share. (Here’s a basic template of my job search tracker.)
Remote versus Hybrid
Everyone wants a remote role. I get it - if you don’t live in or near a city, there just aren’t as many in-person jobs. Also, a remote role provides a lot of flexibility in not just where you live, but you have no commute, you can wear sweatpants and be barefoot and hang out with your pet(s) all day, you can have some flexibility in your day-to-day schedule, etc.
Unfortunately, those jobs are much harder to land. Even when you’re highly qualified. There’s just so much competition.
This was my experience:
Remote roles:
209 applications
18 recruiters who DMed (and I talked to)
64 interviews
1 offer
Interview rate (from apps): 22%
First-interview-to-offer rate: 1.6%
Hybrid roles:
47 applications
10 recruiters who DMed (and I talked to)
20 interviews
2 offers
Interview rate (from apps): 21%
First-interview-to-offer rate: 10%
So while I had the same likelihood of getting an interview for a remote or hybrid role, when I could get an interview, I was 5x more likely to get an offer.
The job I ended up accepting is hybrid, but I live in a major city with great public transit. I spent 15 years commuting 5 days/week most weeks with some truly awful commutes. Thankfully this role is 2 days/week in office with an easy commute and good office perks.
How many qualifications do you actually need?
I wasn’t tracking this at first, but I started keeping track of how many qualifications I had for each job I applied for. As well as the jobs I interviewed for where the recruiter reached out first.
Anyway, my interview rates based on the amount of qualifications I had:
70% of qualifications = 23%
80% of qualifications = 12%
90% of qualifications = 16%
100% of qualifications = 39%
Additionally, for all 3 of the job offers I got, I had 100% of the qualifications listed on the job description.
This is a big change from the pre-2023 analytics/data science job market. I think for the role I just left, which I started in 2019, I had around 75% of the qualifications listed on the job description when I started.
I do find it interesting that I had a better interview rate for jobs where I had 70% of the qualifications compared to 80-90%. Perhaps those jobs had really tough qualifications and lot of my competition self-selected out by not applying. Who knows. It would have been helpful to keep track of the breakdown of required versus preferred qualifications I had, or how many of the job duties I have experience doing.
What about referrals?
I actually didn’t put much extra effort into getting referrals - I had one for less than 10% of the jobs I applied to. I already do a lot of networking, so if I had a solid contact at a company, I would reach out for a referral. But I was getting enough interviews as it was, so I didn’t see the point in trying to get more referrals.
However, my interview rate was higher - 45% with a referral versus 20% without - but none of the referrals led to a job offer. But if you’re not getting as many interviews, then there might be value in spending more time networking and reaching out to people to make introductions that can lead to referrals.
And cover letters?
Once the job market got competitive, I included a cover letter with about 40% of my applications. I only wrote them when I met 80% or more of the qualifications - because then I could write a compelling cover letter. And I actually did write them all. (Well, I had my own template that I customized for each one.) I tried using ChatGPT but felt that my writing skills are much better than what it was generating.
My interview rate was slightly higher (25% when I included a cover letter, 20% when I didn’t), but that could also be because I was only including them for roles where I was highly qualified. However, I didn’t get any offers for the jobs I applied to with a cover letter.
So what are my takeaways?
Hybrid roles are less competitive, so if that is an option for you, make sure you are considering those roles as well.
If you’re mid-level or above and can craft a good resume, you probably don’t need to spend as much time on referrals or cover letters. But if you’re struggling to get interviews, there could be value in spending more time networking.
The advice to “apply anyway even if you don’t have all of the qualifications” isn’t as helpful these days. You might not need all of the qualifications to get an interview, but you need to meet the majority of them, and you are likely competing against candidates who do have all of the qualifications, so you’ll need to figure out a way to outshine them in your interviews.
What else do you want to know?
I’ve already gotten a lot of questions from folks on what else they’d like to know, so I’m planning at least one more email addressing some FAQs. But let me know what else you’d like to know.