Everyone keeps talking about the need to submit a lot of apps, but how many exactly is “a lot”?
There is no exact number for the number of apps you should submit as it is dependent on a few factors:
- The competitiveness of these opportunities
- Competitiveness of your resume
- Ultimately, luck
A common mistake I see is that students pump out a bunch of apps, but all of them directed at highly competitive roles. Ideally you would want an even spread across high, medium, and low competitiveness roles. You can determine the competitiveness of roles by looking at the historical acceptance rate of these roles.
Secondly, be realistic with how competitive your resume stacks up against other applicants. How many relevant work experiences do you have? How many leadership positions have you held? Are you an active contributing member to your community or club? The more competitive you are, you can probably get away with submitting a lower amount of applications to get at least one interview (maybe around 10 with 50% being high competitive roles). If you don’t have much or no relevant professional experience, you might be looking at around 20-30 applications (75% of which being low competitive roles) to guarantee an interview.
Luck is also ultimately a key factor in getting your resume seen and passed through to the next stage. While this may seem out of your control, there are multiple things you can do to increase your chances of being lucky. Sending more applications will increase the likelihood of your resume being seen, and putting more effort into each individual application (compared to spraying and praying) will result in a higher chance that your resume performs better.