You know your job is in jeopardy. You’ve either been told directly or you see the telltale signs. There have been cutbacks over the past several months: restrictions on travel, a freeze on pay, vendors were squeezed on rates, senior leadership is spending more and more time together. Now your boss isn’t talking to you as openly. And, when he does, it seems more formal. Maybe there’s just not much to be said now, and nobody is interested in small talk when things in this state. You don’t want to be seen as not having their nose to the grindstone.

Better start looking for another job now. No sense in delaying the inevitable. If your peers are released, you will just be competing with them in the job market. Don’t get left standing at the curb! Besides, why are you hanging on here anyway? The best case scenario is that you won’t lose your job. Other firms are making profit, growing, even expanding. Why should you just sit idly by?

Now… you are spending the wee hours at night at the computer, surfing the net, perusing the job boards, and submitting your resume to open positions. You threw yourself at this task with a passion. You have applied to about 30-40 positions and have gotten… zero direct responses from a human. You’ve received the automated, “Thanks for your application” emails and even a letter from one company. But, not one HR manager or recruiter has gotten back to you in response to your job applications. You even called a several of the companies and ended up in voicemail or talked to someone that told you the company has received a lot of responses to its ad, and that someone will contact you if there is a match.

Okay, this sucks. You’re tired. No, not tired; completely and utterly exhausted. You are not getting enough sleep. You’re no fun any more, certainly not at your best. If it is this obvious (and how could it not?) you are just making yourself an easy mark. Maybe your expectations are too high. There certainly would seem to be more opportunities if you just lowered your sites a little. Maybe you could relocate. Or you could take one of those traveling consultant assignments.

So, within a few days, you are at it again. You are a job application assembly line, submitting your resume to almost any position that sounds like something you’ve either done previously or thought about doing in the future. You’re willing to completely sell out at this point. You have no ego left. You are avoiding your friends (your happily employed friends). You start looking at everyone you see in public differently, wondering if you could do their job better. Wondering if you could manage more than one job in order to make ends meet. You would be working fewer hours than you are working now between your regular job and your job search. And you wouldn’t have the anxiety.

Stop! What’s the problem here? Why can’t you get a reply to your applications? This doesn’t really make sense. You might have overestimated your own value on the market a few weeks ago, but not to this extent. Just a few weeks ago you felt confident and secure in your position. You were making a significant contribution to your team, to the firm as a whole. Customers sent you notes thanking you and your team. You got a great performance review last year; you’ve always received great reviews. You’re still the same employee, aren’t you? So, what’s different? Why do you feel like you are just putting your resume in the trash bin?

Well, here’s the catch. The market has changed significantly since your last job search, so you must change your approach. The Internet has made positions so much easier to find than ever before. Just look at how many postings you’ve applied to. A job ad that might have received 100 applicants five years ago now receives 500 or 1,000, depending on the position, the location, and how widely they advertise. Every organization has software now that candidate applications. Applications are presented electronically to a screener or the hiring manager before even being printed, and only the best (or most interesting) ever get more than 5-8 seconds of the right person’s attention.

It doesn’t really matter if you are the best candidate for a position. Well, of course it matters, but if your resume doesn’t get read you won’t get a response. And if you don’t get a response, you won’t get an interview. And if you don’t get an interview… you won’t get the job.

What matters is your resume cover letter! If you have a very few seconds to catch someone’s attention, it’s going to be with your cover letter. You probably have a stock cover letter that you’ve tweaked here and there for specific positions, but for the most part, you’ve probably been sending out the same boring (sorry), average, don’t-pay-any-attention-to-me cover letter with every job application.

An effective cover letter has a specific structure and each element has a purpose. If you’re missing the right structure and one of the key components, your cover letter and resume are not doing their job, and you are not going to move to the next step. All you want is a chance to interview, to explain the value you can bring. You may still not be the most qualified candidate for every position you apply to (there is a lot of good talent out there), but you can improve your odds to 1 out of 2 or 3, instead of 1 out of 100 (or more).

The choice is yours… keep doing what you are doing, or try a different approach. What is the definition of insanity?

Check out our website for help on writing an effective cover letter.

MyExecutiveCompass is an employment portal dedicated to helping candidates differentiate themselves in today’s crowded market. Candidates can find advice on how to deal with many job search challenges as well as resume cover letter templates and resume software to make the job search process more rewarding.