Let’s start with what's actually happening in the job market. Over the past six months, I’ve talked to hundreds of job seekers, and the pattern is depressingly consistent. People send 100, 200, sometimes 300 (or more) applications into the void and hear nothing back. Not even rejections. Just silence.
The numbers tell the story: You'll need an average of 42 applications just to land one interview. Only three percent of applicants get interviewed for any given position. The average corporate posting attracts around 250 applicants.
Here’s what broke the system: auto-apply tools.
4 Steps You Can Take Right Now to Improve Your Job Search Odds
- Pause mass applications around number 30.
- List 20 people you haven't spoken to in over a year.
- Pick one side project, paid consulting gig or volunteer effort you can start doing now.
- Share what you're learning publicly to invite conversation and signal your thinking.
When candidates can blast their resume to hundreds of jobs with one click, everyone does it. Job postings now receive roughly double the applications they did a year ago. The result? Only a sliver of the applications actually reach a human recruiter.
And look, I get the logic. If response rates are terrible, send more applications, right? But research shows that job seekers who apply to 21-80 positions have a 30.9 percent offer rate, while those who blast out 81-plus applications see their success rate drop to around 20 percent. Quality degrades when quantity goes unchecked. By application 81, you're exhausted, you’re cutting corners, and recruiters can tell.
Playing the volume game is like buying lottery tickets. Low upside, high cost in time and morale. So, yes, you can get a job by mass-applying, but the reality is, most jobs are filled through who you know. And yet, we keep having the wrong conversation about networking. Before we can answer whether you need it, we need to agree on what it actually means.
Why Networking Isn’t Working for You
Everyone tells you to network. But this advice assumes you know what networking actually looks like.
Most people hear networking and think: awkward events, collecting business cards, cold messaging strangers on LinkedIn. That definition is not just limited, it’s actively misleading.
I’ve interviewed dozens of people who successfully landed roles in the last few months. They don’t describe what they did as networking. They say things like:
- “I reached out to a former colleague.”
- “I took on a consulting project that led to conversations.”
- “I helped someone with a problem and it opened doors.”
They frame it as working, connecting, contributing. And that's exactly the point. The through line isn’t “I knew someone,” or even “I networked hard.” The pattern is more subtle and more actionable than that.
3 Forms of Networking That Matter
Let me break down what actually works, based on both the research and what I’m seeing in real time:
1. Reactivating Weak Ties
The 1973 “strength of weak ties” theory holds that acquaintances and casual contacts often open doors because they bridge you into other social circles. Your close friends know the same people you do. Your weak ties don't.
Fast forward 50 years. In 2022, researchers from MIT, Harvard, and Stanford conducted a massive experiment with 20 million LinkedIn users over five years, tracking 600,000 new jobs created. The finding? Moderately weak ties — people with whom you share around 10 mutual connections — create the most job mobility.
That means you need to be reaching out to that person you worked with three years ago. That classmate you haven't spoken to since graduation. You're not asking for a job. You're asking what they’re working on, what problems they’re solving and what's interesting in their world right now.
This isn’t “networking” in the icky, transactional sense. This is reconnecting with people who might know about opportunities in spaces you can’t see.
2. Individual Relationship Building
The most successful job seekers I’ve talked to don’t spray and pray with their networking either. They do what I call 1-to-1 networking: talk to one person, ask them to connect you to one specific person who can help.
This isn’t about collecting 500-plus LinkedIn connections. It’s about having real conversations that lead to introductions. Each conversation should end with "Who else should I talk to about this?" That's how you access networks within networks.
The data backs this up: Sourced or referred candidates are five times more likely to be hired than cold applicants, according to a survey by The Interview Guys. One genuine referral is worth 40-plus blind applications.
No need to frantically attend networking events and hand out business cards. Instead, it's coffee chats. Video calls. Genuine curiosity about someone's work. And then asking, “This has been so helpful. Who else do you think I should talk to?”
3. Work as Networking
Here’s where it gets really interesting, and what I’m most excited about right now.
The strongest form of connection is shared work. Rather than just talking about what you could do, you do something (e.g., freelance projects, open source contributions, consulting, volunteering) and let your work bring you into conversations.
I’m watching something fascinating happen in real time. People aren't just job searching anymore. They’re portfolio job searching. Instead of sending resumes, they're doing the work first.
- Consulting and contract work. Take on small projects, even at reduced rates, to get your foot in the door. Last month, I talked to someone who landed a full-time role after starting with a 10-hour-per-week consulting gig. The company saw their work quality firsthand, which beats any interview.
- Volunteer strategic work. Offer to help nonprofits with strategy, marketing, or operations. You build real relationships while demonstrating capabilities. One woman I spoke with joined a nonprofit board that led to connections in their target industry and, eventually, a new role.
- Learn in public. Create content, tools, or analysis in your field and share it. Write articles. Build side projects. Contribute to open source. When you apply to jobs, you have tangible work to point to (or sometimes opportunities come to you, instead)!
This approach gives you credibility, portfolio proof, new connections, and momentum, all while job searching. You control the narrative: “I’m building X” beats “I’m looking” every single time.
Can You Get a Job Without Networking?
Now we can actually answer the question.
If networking means going to awkward events, collecting business cards, cold messaging strangers on LinkedIn, and asking people you don't know for jobs, then yes, you can absolutely get hired without doing any of that. In fact, please don't do that.
But if networking means reaching out to people you've worked with before, having real conversations about problems you care about, taking on projects that put you in rooms with interesting people, and building things that demonstrate your value, then no, you probably can’t.
Because here's what I'm seeing: while everyone else is sending applications into the void, the people actually getting hired are doing the second definition of networking.
4 Tips for the Modern Job Search
If you're job searching right now, here's what you need to know:
- Pause mass applications around number 30. If you're not getting traction, adjust your strategy. Research suggests diminishing returns kick in hard after this point. I know it feels counterintuitive to apply to fewer jobs, but trust me on this.
- List 20 people you haven't spoken to in over a year. Email or message them with curiosity, not a job ask. Ask about their work and end with “Who else should I talk to about this?”
- Pick one side project, paid consulting gig, or volunteer effort you can start doing now. Use it to meet people in your target space. The work itself becomes the networking.
- Share what you're learning publicly to invite conversation and signal your thinking. This is how opportunities find you instead of the other way around.
The question “Can you get a job without networking?” assumes networking is optional. But the more important question is: what does effective networking really look like?
It’s far less about schmoozing strangers and far more about reconnecting, contributing and doing real work with real people. The traditional hiring system is broken, yet companies still claim talent shortages. These are the networking steps that actually move you forward. And the best part? It doesn't feel like networking at all.
