The Researcher
You've thought about this more than you've acted on it.
Your type
The Researcher
You've thought about this more than you've acted on it.
What's actually happening
Research is the part of a job search that feels like progress and produces none of it. The application count is the number that moves things, and yours has not moved — so whatever else is happening, the thinking is standing in for the deciding. More information will not make the next step obvious, because the missing thing was never information.
This week
- 1
Apply to one, badly, today
The point is not the application. It is to find out what actually happens, which is the only thing all the reading cannot tell you.
- 2
Set a limit before you open a posting
Twenty minutes of research, then apply or drop it. Both outcomes are fine. Neither is more reading.
- 3
Write the one sentence
“I'm looking for a ___ job at a company that ___.” If you can't finish it, that is the actual task this week — not another company page.
Where to start
It turns a posting into a decision in about a minute, which is what the reading has been trying to do.
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 PerfectionistYour applications are good. There aren't enough of them to find out.
- The DrifterThe applications aren't the problem. Keeping hold of them is.
- 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.