Can Science Help With Your Job Hunt?

There’s no doubt science has brought us far. Whether through the advent of the internet, the ongoing breakthroughs in medicine, or the special effects in films, it’s had a massive impact on our day to day lives and continues to do so.

The secret (or not so secret) key to the success of science comes down to what is called the ‘scientific method’. This process allows scientists to formulate ideas and theories, then test them, making alterations as they go until they can prove (or not) their initial claims.

So what’s all this got to do with job hunting? Maybe more than you might think. From writing your CV, to structuring your entire job search, applying the scientific method could not only help keep you positive, it’s likely to help you find a job faster – although probably not through the accidental creation of a formula that gives you superpowered intelligence, strength, and speed. Unfortunately.

 

No Need for Lab Coats

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First things first: No need to panic if you’re not particularly scientifically minded. You won’t need an advanced physics degree to apply these simple steps to your job search. Before we look at what the method is, and how it can be applied to a job search, let’s illustrate why it could be useful.

Think about your current or last job search. One of the most challenging aspects of looking for a new job, especially if you’re currently out of work, is the financial pressure. The more this pressure, along with the stress of needing to find a new job mounts, the more tempting it is to simply start applying for anything and everything.

Taking this approach can be a mistake though, for a few reasons:

• Lack of care over individual applications can mean your CV gets lost in the crowd quickly
• You might be tempted not to write cover letters for every application (find out how to write one with our cover letter guide).
• You’ll probably end up applying for jobs you don’t really want.
• You might stand out to employers and recruiters for the wrong reasons, especially if you’ve applied for a few jobs with the same agency or company.
• The lack of responses will get frustrating.

By applying a simple form of the scientific method to your jobsearch, you’ll remove these problems easily while hopefully staying more positive and motivated.

 

 

 

What is the Scientific Method?

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Simply put, it is a process that allows scientists to determine if their initial idea was correct. It generally follows six stages, which are:

1. Define a question.
2. Gather information.
3. Form an early explanation/answer to the question (a hypothesis).
4. Test the hypothesis with an experiment
5. Analyze the results.
6. Draw conclusions, and use these informed conclusions to start the process again if needed.

With this is mind, we can now see how these steps can be effectively applied to a job search.

 

The Six Step Job Search Experiment

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Let’s take our example above, of using the ‘shotgun’ job search approach of applying to everything. Suppose we’ve tried it for one week, applying for jobs everyday, and had no success at all so far. Now let’s try using the basic scientific method in relation to a job search.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above is just a rough example of course, but the essence here is that constantly reviewing and refining your job search achieves two things:

• You’re more likely to get success in the long term, as you’ll constantly be learning how to make your applications better. You’ll also be more comfortable writing CVs, cover letters, and attending interviews as time goes on, which will in turn translate into a successful job search.

• You can help to keep the stress and pressure of looking for a job at bay by making gradual, positive changes to your approach, rather than trying the same method over and over again to no success.

These days, scientific methods can be far more complicated, but regardless, the above six steps could be just what you need if your job hunt is running out of steam. Try a job search while you’re here too, as we list thousands of roles, one of which could be just right for you.