Stop Trying to Fit Every Job. Start Finding the Jobs That Fit You.

A common mistake in job searching starts with a very reasonable thought:

“I could do this job.”

The problem is what happens next.

You start rewriting your CV, adding keywords and trying to connect your experience to every requirement. Sometimes that’s good tailoring. Sometimes you’re simply trying too hard to fit a job that wasn’t a particularly good match in the first place.

And there’s an important difference between the two.

More applications don’t necessarily mean a better search

Applying to more jobs can increase your chances of getting interviews and offers. But that’s only part of the story.

A large meta-analysis by Van Hooft et al. (2021), covering 378 independent samples and more than 165,000 job seekers, found that greater job-search intensity was associated with more interviews, more offers, and a higher likelihood of employment. But intensity alone did not predict the quality of the eventual employment. Job-search quality and self-regulation showed more promising relationships with both employment outcomes and employment quality.

This distinction isn’t new. Van Hooft, Wanberg and Van Hoye (2013) had already argued that job searching should be understood not only by how much someone searches, but also by the quality of the process and the actions they take.

So sending another 20 applications isn’t automatically progress.

Sometimes better targeting is.

Look for the job behind the requirements

Before changing your CV, I’d ask something simpler:

Why are they hiring this person?

What needs to be solved, built, improved or managed?

Then look at your experience and see whether it connects naturally.

You don’t need to match every line. Research on person–job fit has consistently shown that fit is related to important outcomes before and after hiring, including applicant attraction, job attitudes, performance and withdrawal behavior (Kristof-Brown et al., 2005).

Another large meta-analysis, based on 232 studies and more than 108,000 participants, found that perceived fit was particularly important in applicant attraction during recruitment.

So fit works both ways.

The employer is deciding whether you make sense for the role.

You should be deciding whether the role makes sense for you.

Don’t treat every requirement equally

Job descriptions can make candidates believe every bullet point carries the same weight.

Usually, it doesn’t.

Some requirements are genuinely essential. Others describe preferences, credentials, or the company’s picture of an ideal candidate.

There has also been a broader shift toward skills-based hiring in parts of the labor market. Research by Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute found employers dropping degree requirements in a significant share of occupations they studied and becoming more explicit about the skills required instead.

That doesn’t mean requirements don’t matter.

It means understanding what matters most is part of reading a job description well.

Try this before your next application

Before you spend time tailoring your CV, answer these four questions:

1. What are they actually hiring someone to do?

Ignore the title for a moment. What will this person be responsible for?

2. Which 2–3 requirements seem central to the role?

Look for responsibilities that repeat or clearly connect to the job's main purpose.

3. What evidence do I have?

Not “I think I could do it.” What have you actually done that shows you can?

4. Would I want to do this work?

This one gets forgotten surprisingly often.

If those answers make sense, then tailor the application.

If you need to rewrite your entire professional history just to make the connection believable, that’s useful information too.

This doesn’t mean avoiding stretch roles. A role can absolutely take you somewhere new. Research on job crafting also suggests that fit isn’t necessarily fixed: people can actively shape aspects of their work over time (Tims et al., 2016).

But stretching into something new and forcing a match are not the same thing.

What I work on with job seekers

This is why my work with job seekers isn’t only about making a CV or LinkedIn profile look better.

We first look at direction: which roles make sense, what your experience actually supports, how employers are likely to read it, and where you should invest your time.

Then we work on the practical pieces - LinkedIn positioning, CV adaptation, networking, interview preparation and communicating your value clearly.

Because sometimes you don’t need another version of your CV.

You need a better reason to send it.

References

Fuller, J. B., Langer, C., Nitschke, J., O’Kane, L., Sigelman, M., & Taska, B. (2022). The emerging degree reset: The shift to skills-based hiring. Harvard Business School & Burning Glass Institute.

Fuller, J. B., Langer, C., & Sigelman, M. (2022). Skills-based hiring is on the rise. Harvard Business Review.

Kristof-Brown, A. L., Zimmerman, R. D., & Johnson, E. C. (2005). Consequences of individuals’ fit at work: A meta-analysis of person–job, person–organization, person–group, and person–supervisor fit. Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 281–342.

Tims, M., Derks, D., & Bakker, A. B. (2016). Job crafting and its relationships with person–job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 92, 44–53.

Uggerslev, K. L., Fassina, N. E., & Kraichy, D. (2012). Recruiting through the stages: A meta-analytic test of predictors of applicant attraction at different stages of the recruiting process. Personnel Psychology, 65(3), 597–660.

Van Hooft, E. A. J., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., Wanberg, C. R., Kanfer, R., & Basbug, G. (2021). Job search and employment success: A quantitative review and future research agenda. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(5), 674–713.

Van Hooft, E. A. J., Wanberg, C. R., & Van Hoye, G. (2013). Moving beyond job search quantity: Towards a conceptualization and self-regulatory framework of job search quality. Organizational Psychology Review, 3(1), 3–40.