how do I prioritize which job openings to apply for?

Question

I have read the question: Job ad requiring a lot of qualifications and Why do job listings often not have salary (or salary estimate/range) listed? and my question is somewhat of a consequence of the answers to both questions.

Specifically, (like everyone else I guess) I am trying to find a position where I would be the best fit and make the highest salary for the experience I have. However I am having an awful time matching my experience directly against any specific job listing. Part of this is that it is sometimes difficult (per the first question above) to figure out what the company actually requires in terms of specific knowledge and skills. Second, all of my experience is with smaller companies where job titles don't mean much and you wear a lot of hats, and this also makes it hard to try to figure out where I would fit in a big company and how my experience translates into what the company considers "experienced".

Often I see the responsibilities of the job description and it looks like something I could do, but a word here or there makes me wonder if it a position more senior or junior than where I am at. To make matters worse, no indication is given of salary, and the job title is not such that I can easily plug it into a salary estimator. For instance, when I plugged in one job title I got an estimate that omitted two of the words in the title (3 words instead of 5) and gave a salary range that ranged from 45% to 120% of my current salary. Those two extra words might be important (one seemed to imply it was more senior) but then again it might not since as far as I know there is no standard for what a job title actually means.

What I don't want to do is apply for a job that I am way overqualified for (because the pay would be way below what I am looking for) or way underqualified (for obvious reasons). It seems that I might not get any indication of the pay for the job until after two or three interviews (unless I breach the subject in the first interview, which I'm not sure isn't a faux pas) so this could waste a considerable amount of time applying to jobs that aren't a good fit based on salary alone. When applying at a large company that has several positions that I feel might be a fit, how do I prioritize which openings to apply for? It doesn't seem that I can just send my resume in and have them figure out where I would be the best match, instead I am required to apply for each specific position I am interested in.

Answer 1

Work with an employment agency. Make it clear exactly what you are looking for, and what you are not looking for. They can do a lot of the legwork for you.

The good ones are excellent at finding the right job, if they are clear what that means for you.

Answer 2

Salary ranges may or may not be published in sites like Glassdoor.

Of course that says very little about what salary will be offered to you; that depends on how much they value what you have to offer, and that in turn depends on their exact needs and how you fit them, or will fit them after settling in and learning a bit. And how much you impress the interviewers as someone they would enjoy working with. And the phase of the moon, for all I know.

Note that from your side too, salary isn't necessarily the most important question. Cost of living interacts with salary and varies from place to place. There may be things you're looking for in a job, or in a place to live.

So there is no real one-size-fits-all answer. Apply to the first batch (10-50 applications, unless you can narrow it down) taking anything that looks like it might be a good fit for what you want to do with your next N years; applying is not much effort or cost. Interview with those who want to talk to you; that will be a smaller set so there is really not that much effort here either -- and you can use those as a learning opportunity to prove your selection, application, and interview skills for subsequent applications, so very little of it is wasted effort unless your initial screening was really unselective. Repeat as necessary until you find a position that is good enough, remembering that if you insist on the absolute best match you may search forever.

Much like shopping for a used car, really, or anything else where no two are completely equivalent. In the end it comes down to what you want, what you can get, and how long you are willing to go without while making up your mind. There will probably be something better a few weeks or months from now, but there is opportunity cost in waiting in the hope it turns up. If you then decide you don't like the one you bought, after giving it a fair chance of a few years, you can go looking for a trade-in at that time, either within the company or by doing a new search outside. The best time to go shopping is when you aren't under time pressure.