Cold-applying to jobs on LinkedIn is a fool's game.

How do I know? I did it. A couple years ago, I wanted to make a move to full-time remote work. I liked the people that I worked with, but I spent over a decade there, management started going downhill, and I could tell the company was on a trajectory of slow death. I spent HOURS almost every day for six months applying to jobs on LinkedIn. I restricted myself to positions that I thought I was actually qualified for without stretching. I avoided consulting/MSP companies. I probably applied to well over a hundred positions.

How many responses did I get? Zero. Not a single one. Occasionally, a recruiter would ping me and say they had a job opening that was a perfect fit. Every single time, it ended up being a contract position.

I DID eventually find my current job on LinkedIn, but only because I recognized the company name as one that a friend of mine moved to 6 months earlier. I called him up, asked him how it was, and he provided a referral. It dawned on me after I accepted the offer that every SINGLE job I have ever had was either through a friend's referral or because I knew the manager beforehand. The old adage, "it's who you know," is still as relevant as ever.

Only job searching through sites like LinkedIn and Indeed are just a huge waste of time. They're going to get at the very least, hundreds of applicants. Thousands if you're advertising for remote. This is all a numbers game.

People will hate to admit this, but the best ways to counter this game is leveraging your network and ending remote work. The problem is the combination of LinkedIn/Indeed and the internet creates a national, much bigger labor supply than a national labor demand pool.