Some quickly written scattered remarks on how some of these points have played out for me personally:
In 2019 I applied for ~20 roles of a very wide range of types and ambition levels.
I ended up getting 2 offers, both for things that seemed really not like what I expected Iād be a good fit for, and both of which I wouldnāt have applied to if I had been screening myself out of things that seemed not clearly āme-shapedā or that I wasnāt confident Iād want to accept offers for.
In one case, I got the offer because the org decided they should change what theyāre after to suit me.
Upon reflection, I realized both of the things I got offered were things Iād be happy to accept.
So my predictions about which jobs I was most likely to be offered were wrong, and trying to predict what Iād want to accept wouldāve been mostly a waste of time (since I didnāt get most offers) and may have misguided me (since my first impressions about these two roles were off).
The role I took helped me ultimately progress to roles more like what Iād originally been aiming at.
Via many of these ~20 selection processes, I also learned things about my skills and interests, about various roles, and about various topics, and āgot on peopleās radarsā, in ways that paid off later.
I have also now repeatedly been asked to apply to more senior roles at some orgs that turned me down quickly, or even evaluated grant applications from them. This is illustrative of the point that each rejection provides only a small amount of data, and that one should be wary of giving up too early on a particular career path.
I got to the end of one selection process around July but was ~unwilling to leave my current job till the end of the year, which contributed to me not getting an offer for that role. But Iām pretty sure the org wasnāt upset about this and didnāt feel Iād wasted their time, and then a related org with an overlapping hiring committee invited me to apply to a similar role with a later start date, and that was one of the 2 things I ended up being offered. This is illustrative of the point that it can be worthwhile to apply to things even when you probably canāt /ā donāt want to take a new role early enough.
Some quickly written scattered remarks on how some of these points have played out for me personally:
In 2019 I applied for ~20 roles of a very wide range of types and ambition levels.
I ended up getting 2 offers, both for things that seemed really not like what I expected Iād be a good fit for, and both of which I wouldnāt have applied to if I had been screening myself out of things that seemed not clearly āme-shapedā or that I wasnāt confident Iād want to accept offers for.
In one case, I got the offer because the org decided they should change what theyāre after to suit me.
Upon reflection, I realized both of the things I got offered were things Iād be happy to accept.
So my predictions about which jobs I was most likely to be offered were wrong, and trying to predict what Iād want to accept wouldāve been mostly a waste of time (since I didnāt get most offers) and may have misguided me (since my first impressions about these two roles were off).
The role I took helped me ultimately progress to roles more like what Iād originally been aiming at.
Via many of these ~20 selection processes, I also learned things about my skills and interests, about various roles, and about various topics, and āgot on peopleās radarsā, in ways that paid off later.
I have also now repeatedly been asked to apply to more senior roles at some orgs that turned me down quickly, or even evaluated grant applications from them. This is illustrative of the point that each rejection provides only a small amount of data, and that one should be wary of giving up too early on a particular career path.
I got to the end of one selection process around July but was ~unwilling to leave my current job till the end of the year, which contributed to me not getting an offer for that role. But Iām pretty sure the org wasnāt upset about this and didnāt feel Iād wasted their time, and then a related org with an overlapping hiring committee invited me to apply to a similar role with a later start date, and that was one of the 2 things I ended up being offered. This is illustrative of the point that it can be worthwhile to apply to things even when you probably canāt /ā donāt want to take a new role early enough.