The Perfectionist
Your applications are good. There aren't enough of them to find out.
Your type
The Perfectionist
Your applications are good. There aren't enough of them to find out.
What's actually happening
Every application you send is stronger than average, and you send so few that it barely matters. The thing holding you back isn't quality — it's the wait for a version you'd be happy to be judged on. That version doesn't arrive, because the standard moves with the work.
This week
- 1
Send the next one at 80%
Pick the application currently sitting unfinished and send it today, as it is. You will not be able to tell afterward which version it was.
- 2
Set a floor, not a ceiling
Decide the minimum — contact details extract cleanly, the top third matches the role, no obvious dealbreaker. Anything above the floor goes.
- 3
Apply to three you feel underqualified for
Stated requirements are a wish list, and the people who get hired routinely miss some. You are calibrating on a bar that isn't the real one.
Where to start
Before polishing further, check the file is readable at all — polish is wasted on text a parser can't extract.
Is this you?
Eleven questions, about two minutes. You get your own score out of 100 alongside your type — and we'll show you how it compares to this one. No account, and your answers stay in your browser.
Find your typeThe other seven types
- The RewriterYou're doing more work per application than almost anyone. It's going into the thing that moves least.
- The Wide NetYou're doing the work. It's landing in the wrong places.
- The DrifterThe applications aren't the problem. Keeping hold of them is.
- The ResearcherYou've thought about this more than you've acted on it.
- The CampaignerYou're running a real campaign. The channel is what's capping it.
- The CloserIt's working. The risk now is what happens when these ones end.
- The Steady HandNothing here is broken. There just isn't enough of it yet.