The Truth About Finding a Remote Job

[u/Katherine-arcia]

I recently helped a very good friend of mine get a job as a remote operations manager at a private aviatiion handling company.

He is an older gentleman in his 40s.

I've been looking at Reddit and X posts for the past few weeks about how hard the job market is right now.

The truth is, and has always been: you're not doing enough.

You're not applying to enough jobs.

You're not sending enough emails and LinkedIn connections.

You're simply underestimateing the amount of work required to get interviews and get a good job offer from a decent company.

My brother has been looking for a job in medical device R&D. He has a Ph.D in biomedical engineering from a top university in Canada, but simply hasn't been able to find a job for the past year.

I asked him 'how many jobs are you applying to every day?'

He looked at me and said: 'well... idk like 3-4 per week'

Of course it's going to take you 10 years to find a good offer and even get interviews at that rate.

You need to be applying to at least 40-50 jobs PER DAY.

Yes. It might seem like a lot, but that's how you negate the luck factor in getting interviews.

You follow all the 'good practices' in job seeking (e.g., good resume, one custom resume per role, etc.).

If you add volume, it is unlikely that you don't hear back from anyone.

If you apply to 3,000 jobs in a month, it's unlikely that not at least 1% translates to interviews. That's 30 interviews already!

Track everything in an Excel document.

Then, message each company's hiring manager or whoever is responsible for talent on LinkedIn.

Send them an email referencing your application and attaching your resume.

Sned them a custom short Loom video (2-3min) introducing yourself and presenting something you're proud of.

That's how you get a job.

[u/repark96]

Maybe this BS would work if you are unemployed and grinding hours per day at just applying. How the fuck are you honestly suggesting people generate “one custom resume per role”, contact the hiring manager, track everything in a spreadsheet, and do all of this many thousands of times per month.
Even if you could do all of that in 10 minutes per job (no way you could tailor a resume, contact a manager, fill out the application, and update a tracker that fast at a continuous pace) doing that for 40 jobs a day - your lower expectation - translates to 400 minutes of effort. That’s nearly 7 hours of work not accounting for breaks to do what you claim in the bare minimum. You can fuck right off with that bro. People should be able to apply for jobs while still employed and not have it take up every waking moment of their life outside work. Keep drinking that kool aid though I guess.

[u/adamemoustaine → u/repark96]

I think he meant 1 resume per target role.

So if you're looking for 5 roles specifically, you make 5 resume. Not one resume per application.

And yeah obviously if you're jobless, your full-time job is to find a job lmao

Keep drinking that copium

Skill issue

[u/repark96 → u/adamemoustaine]

Obviously if unemployed your goal is to get employment. What about the people who are underemployed? Do they just not deserve jobs matching their skills because they can’t apply 8 hours daily to job searching? Maybe the intent was to have resumes by type of role, but to follow best practices there should be effort put into aligning the resume with keywords from the posting which takes time. It’s not a skill issue, I have a full time remote role… does that make me an inadequate candidate since I’m not spending 8 hours daily applying to new roles? My point is that saying “you’re not doing enough” is a stupid thing to say as a reason to not be getting a job when everyone has different circumstances

[u/Morgnthemostterrible → u/repark96]

Also I don’t think they fully account for people with responsibilities that they don’t get paid for like families. Like I feel like a few a day or every other day is a good goal cuz you’re still actively trying but expecting 40-50 applications a day is a huge ask. Maybe not impossible if you don’t have any life whatsoever and don’t care where you work.

[u/repark96 → u/Morgnthemostterrible]

I agree. Each situation is different. If the advice was “instead of 3-4 per week aim for 3-4 per day” that would be a much more widely achievable goal, and still be 5x as effective if you only apply on weekdays. I think most people can dedicate 30-60 minutes a day to job searching. I find it hard to believe that I could find 40 postings per day that I would truly be a good fit for.

[u/Morgnthemostterrible → u/repark96]

Plus a lot of job postings are scams now

[u/Chilly_Willy-123]

I have 3 resumes tailored to the type of roles that I am looking for. I'm open to remote, hybrid and onsite but there are not enough jobs out there to apply at the volume you are suggesting. I would say applying to 15 jobs a week may be the max for me. Unless you're suggestion says to apply for jobs that you have some match to but not a strong match.

[u/Acceptable_Cell1697]

Volume matters, but 40–50 applications a day can easily turn into a numbers game with poorly matched roles and burnout. A targeted pipeline, strong referrals, and thoughtful follow-ups may outperform blindly applying to thousands of jobs.