Originally shared via email. For early access to UN job search success tips and advice, subscribe to the newsletter here.

Ever wonder how close you are to being called to the next stage in a selection process? Are you the next in line, or waaaaay down the list?

How could you know, if all you ever get is a generic, one-line rejection email?

When I ask new clients how many jobs they’ve applied for in the past year or so, the answer varies from none to 2 or 3, and all the way up to 35(!)+.

Whoa! Productive with that many, but is it effective? 

Call-back rates vary greatly between industries, expertise, seniority, market fluctuations, and lots of other parameters. For the UN, I usually say that a call-back rate of 20-30% is good. If you’re at or above this, keep going! You can always work to improve that even further, but you know your applications are working pretty well for you.

If you’ve only sent a few applications in the last several months, it’s just not enough to gauge how well they’re received; and if you’ve sent 10, or 20+ in the past year without any call-backs, it’s time to get curious.

It’s exhausting to send tons of applications without any positive response, so don’t do the “insane” thing of sending more or less the same application over and over and over and over, expecting a different result. 

If your call-back rate is below 20%, that’s an indicator that you could benefit from changing things up.

At the same time, keep in mind that recruitment at the UN can take months, so:

• don’t give up too soon
• keep applying regularly
• tweak your documents, or do a complete overhaul - change something
• get help if you're stuck

As always, I wish you much career satisfaction and job search success!