Greg Rust has raised the question of Quality vs. Quantity on the Austin Top Guns group on LinkedIn. The heart of the question is: should I apply for everything that moves, or spend more time on fewer jobs that are more ideal. Here’s what I wrote:

Once you are clear about what Quality means, Quantity takes care of itself.

Corollary: “Once you get that quantity doesn’t matter, you realize that quantity is everything.”

You have to define Quality first. A job posting has quality if:

1. You can tell a story about how you can solve a company’s problems in the position
2. You can expect to learn something, thus increasing your future value
3. You can find a champion within the company to help you get the interview

Only apply for quality positions. Then apply to as many of them as you possibly can insinuate yourself into.

The only exception provisioning jobs: jobs that allow you to extend your job search. For provisioning work, quality looks like this:

1. You can tell a story about how you can solve a company’s problems in the position
2. You can do a good job, but will have the freedom to network and interview
3. You can find a champion within the company to help you get the interview

Notice that there’s nothing here about salary quality. I would suggest that it’s more important right now to position yourself for future job changes that come with higher salaries and better benefits. Never stop looking for your next gig.

Finally, applying to a high quantity of quality jobs means being efficient: efficient at finding champions, writing cover letters and customizing your resume. I suggest that you get good with the tools that make this possible. Consider a trial of CardboardResume, which has just launched. They are currently waiving their sign up fee, which will save you $79.