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Slow Down to Speed up in your Job Search, with Adriane Jones

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Here’s the job search paradox: the faster you apply, the longer it takes. Career coach Adriane Jones has watched candidates send out hundreds of applications and land right back where they started. On this episode of Find Your Dream Job, she makes the case for slowing down first.

Adriane walks through four steps to get clear on what you want before you start applying: look inward, step away from your screen, do a time audit, and have conversations with people in roles that interest you. She also tackles the tension between needing a job now and finding work that feels like a longer-term fit. When you know what you’re after, the search gets shorter, the interviews get easier, and the outcome gets better.

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Find Your Dream Job, Episode 546:

Slow Down to Speed up in your Job Search, with Adriane Jones

Airdate: April 8, 2026

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

Doing more doesn’t always lead to the best results, especially when you look for work.

Adriane Jones is here to talk about why you need to slow down to speed up in your job search.

She helps organizations build learning and talent development programs that let you grow at every stage of your career.

Adriane is also the host of The Career Breakers Show.

She joins us from Portland, Oregon.

Well, let’s get started, Adriane. Many candidates start a job search by just applying everywhere.

Why do so many applicants do this at the start of a job search?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so I see this a lot. People go to the job boards, to LinkedIn, and ultimately start panic applying, right? It’s kind of like when you go to the grocery store hungry, and you just start throwing everything in your cart without a plan, because those are the places where the jobs are, right?

And so we just go, and we start hitting the apply button to see, you know, what might hit, and might we get the position just by putting it out as many copies of our resume as we possibly can.

Mac Prichard:

And when people do this, they’re staying busy, but are they, in your experience as a coach, what kind of results do you see candidates who follow this strategy get by being so busy?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so when we hit the panic apply button, and we’re throwing out our resume to tens of hundreds of jobs, even, what I see is people get a lot of rejection as a result.

And that can feel really diminishing when you’re searching for a job to continuously get these rejection notes for all of these positions that you’ve applied for.

And that’s not because you’re not qualified or this isn’t the right role, but we haven’t put in the time to really strategize what is important to us. And when you apply for more jobs, you open yourself up to more rejection.

Mac Prichard:

Okay, we’re going to talk in a moment about how to strategize to focus on the jobs. You really wanted the benefits of doing that, but I’m sure you’ve had this experience as well, Adriane.

I often will meet applicants who use the Mac’s List job board, and they’ll say, “It’s a numbers game. If I apply to X number of jobs, sure, there’s lots of quantity, and it takes time, but eventually I’ll see a result.”

What do you say to candidates like that? What’s been your experience with people who follow that strategy?

Adriane Jones:

It really does feel like the logical thing, and I’m sure that some people have seen success. Most of the people that I work with have not found success this way in getting their next job because they end up applying for the exact same job that they had before, which is what they wanted to get away from to begin with.

Mac Prichard:

And what happens in your career when you make speed, you know, just trying to apply as quickly as possible to as many jobs as possible? How does that affect not only your job search, but also your career?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so I think that oftentimes if we’re looking for a new job, it can be because we’re dissatisfied in the job that we currently have or we’re looking for an opportunity to change paths, to get new skills, to grow in our career.

And when we start applying for so many roles, we end up right back in the same position that we have because we haven’t actually paused to ask ourselves, “How do I want to grow? What type of company do I want to work for?”

And a whole bunch of these questions, so we can get clear on where we actually want to go. We’re limited by only where we’ve been in our careers up until this point.

Mac Prichard:

It’s natural to feel a sense of urgency in a job search. You might be unemployed, and you may have been unemployed for some time, and you’ve got bills to pay, or you may be in a position that’s making you unhappy, and you want to get out.

What effect can that urgency create in making choices that you might later regret?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so well, first of all, I just want to say that the experience of needing the job to pay the bills is very normal. And what I have seen people in that position do, let’s say they’re applying for a job because they’ve been laid off and they need that job to pay the bills.

When they do apply for the role, and maybe it’s the same role, and they haven’t taken the chance to really inventory what they want in their next role, simply because they just need a job.

I have seen them get the job, but what I encourage them to do is to continue to do the work of identifying what is your best case scenario. And we might have to make some sacrifices on what that best-case-scenario job is, what really is important to you, if you just need to get a job to get a job, and that’s okay.

But don’t forget to continue to do the work to identify what would be your best-case scenario and keep working towards that.

Mac Prichard:

OK, well, let’s talk about how to do that. We’ve talked about what can happen if you feel urgent for natural reasons and you’re doing things quickly.

You’re a fan of slowing down. And you say that when you do slow down, and you do some fundamental work, it’s actually going to help you speed up. Let’s talk about the benefits of that approach.

What happens when you actually slow down and think about what you want versus focusing on generating lots and lots of applications?

Adriane Jones:

Yes. So when you slow down and really ask yourself, “What do I want in the next step of my career?” And you look at things like, what type of role do I want? Who do I want to work with? What sort of company do I want to work with? What skills do I want to use? Or how do I want to grow in my career?

When we ask ourselves these questions, we can get really clear. Then, in our job search, when we look at the job boards and when we connect with our network, we can get really clear on what we want, and we can ask for that.

And so through this process, you’ve actually then filtered out the roles that don’t pertain to what you’re hoping for in your next step. And you can get really clear on the ones that are the most important to you.

And when you step into the interview for those roles, you have a much clearer narrative and picture to be able to paint for the recruiter and the hiring team of what you’re looking for in your next role as well.

And I’ve seen that directly lead to success once we’re able to actually put words to why am I looking for this role that I’m applying for rather than just having a partial list and then kind of fumbling for the answer to why this next role aligns with you because it might not actually align with what you’re hoping for in your next chapter.

Mac Prichard:

And so the first step is to look inward and ask yourself some fundamental questions. That’s very different than the natural, the first step that many people take, which is to visit job boards.

Why aren’t you a fan of starting with job postings? Many people will say, well, I want to see what the market is, or what matters to employers, or what’s in demand. Why should you take an inward look first? How does that help you?

Adriane Jones:

So one of the things when you go to a platform like LinkedIn, there’s an algorithm that is controlling the jobs that you see. And those jobs are often based on the skills that are already listed in your profile.

So if you want to grow or you want to make a shift or pivot, these are a lot of the people that I work with, you have to actually go in and intentionally change the settings on those job boards to not reflect roles that you’re currently in, but roles that you’re hoping to move into.

And starting with the job board will just give you more of what you’re already trying to move away from.

Mac Prichard:

Well, let’s pause there. Adriane, I want to take a break. When we come back, we’ll continue our conversation with Adrian Jones about why you need to slow down to speed up in your job search.

We’re back in the Mac’s List Studio. I’m talking with Adriane Jones. She helps organizations build learning and talent development programs that let you grow at every stage of your career.

She’s also the host of the Career Breakers Show, and she joins us from Portland, Oregon. Now, Adriane, before the break, we were talking about why you need to slow down in order to speed up in your job search, and that does sound counterintuitive.

But we talked in the first segment about what can happen when you focus on activity and getting lots of applications out there, and how that can actually hold your job search back.

We talked about the benefits of looking inward and thinking about what you really want, and some steps on how to do that.

And you talked about how you don’t want to start with job postings, but think about what matters to you. Another step that you encourage people to take for slowing down is to exit from your screen. What do you mean by that? Adriane, tell us more.

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so I think a lot of us work behind these boxes. A lot of the people that I work with were behind these glowing screens. I mean, when I say exit your screen, is reconnect with who you really are, so take some time away from not just the job boards and the glowing screen, but also to reconnect to what’s important to you.

Maybe go back and pick up a hobby that was important to you, spend some time doing something that actually isn’t the job search. Because what I think of when I think of this is when we’re working inside an organization, when we have a job, of course, we allow ourselves breaks in that process.

And when you’re on the job search. This is also an important time to spend on yourself and give yourself breaks, just like you would if you were working a full-time job.

Mac Prichard:

And what are the benefits of doing that, of focusing on a hobby? How is that going to help you in your job search and eventually in your career?

Adriane Jones:

I think that doing something outside of job applications reminds us that we’re humans as well as workers. And what you’re looking for in your next role will not just be a financial next step, but also honor who you are as a person.

And by continuing to step away from our screens, picking up our hobbies that are important to us while we’re in the midst of applying for jobs just helps remind us that we are humans and we’re multi-dimensional and we have many things that matter to us, not just a paycheck.

Mac Prichard:

What happens in your experience when people focus exclusively on a job search and neglect interests and relationships, and are just looking at that LinkedIn screen all day?

Adriane Jones:

So I think that we can really drive ourselves a little crazy with this process. I think that it can create a lot more anxiety for us if we’re just staring at the screen and looking for the next job day after day after day, and not getting ourselves permission to step away from that. What I’ve seen is that it can also be really lonely for people.

So… when you’re behind the screen looking for opportunities and only talking about the next job that you want, there are very few people that you’re talking to about that. And so it can feel really lonely and really isolating when you’re just staring at the screen.

Mac Prichard:

OK. So look inward, exit the screen. A third tip you have for slowing down your job search in order to get the next job faster is to track your time. Why is it important to look at how you spend your time?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so one of the suggestions that I make for the people that I work with is to take a look at where you’re spending your time right now in your job, if you are employed, and look at the things that you truly love about that role. And this can give you some hints into what you’d like to see more of or make sure show up in your next job.

Mac Prichard:

And when you do that time audit, what are you looking for? Tell us more about that. What are you tracking exactly, and how is that going to help you in your job search?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so I actually like to encourage people to look at what they’re spending their time doing during their work day, but also to encourage them to look at their time spent outside of their work day.

What are the things that you feel really passionately about? What are the things that you feel like you’re in this zone of genius? So it could be that there are certain times when you find yourself working and you just get into a flow.

What are those times? And when do you really feel like you’re using your strengths in your job? I like to, for a week or two, just write down everything that I’m doing.

You can use a calendar app for this and then go back through at the end of the week and rate on a simple scale from one to three. How did you feel during the time that you were doing each of those items?

Mac Prichard:

And when you work with clients, what do you recommend are you tracking quarter hours, half hours, and you said about a week? What works well for people who want to do this?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so everything, really track it all for a week. You can go longer if you’d like, but I would say a week is a great place to start to just get a pulse on what is happening in your day to day and what things you’re excited about, what things you feel passionately about and what things you really feel like you are using those strengths or you’re in that zone of genius in the flow.

Mac Prichard:

So you do the audit, you track your experiences. What do your clients tell you about what they learn from this experience? Are they surprised by how they’re spending their time, or by what excites them or actually deflates them?

Adriane Jones:

What I have found is that people uncover things they didn’t realize were there about their jobs that they actually really loved. And when we start to look at how we’re spending our time at work, often if we’re dissatisfied in our work, what we will see is that we kind of wrap everything up and summarize and say, I really dislike working in this way, with the team on a, well, let’s say I dislike like working this way, having so many meetings.

But there actually might be certain meetings that you actually love being a part of. Maybe it’s the meetings that you’re leading. Maybe it’s the meetings that you’re participating in. So when we start to just generalize and talk about what we don’t enjoy in our day-to-day jobs, sometimes we can’t see that.

So this exercise allows you to really break it down and really see specifically what type of meeting was I in? What type of people was I working with? What problems was I working on? Or who was I helping during that time, rather than just grouping everything together as my job?

Mac Prichard:

So you do the time audit. You’ve looked inward. You’ve exited your screen. Another step you recommend that job seekers take to slow down and get the job they really want is to experiment. What kind of experimentation do you recommend?

Adriane Jones:

Yes, so once you have determined what is important to you in your next career step and you have done that time audit, I think it’s really great to reach out to people who have the role that you want or are working in the industry that you want.

And you’re approaching that conversation with curiosity. I call it an experiment because you have a hypothesis that this is the role that you want next. And you’re meeting with someone to confirm whether or not the things that you think are part of this role are actually part of the role.

So in a way, you’re running an experiment. There might be opportunities as well if you’re not looking to change jobs outside of your company to talk with a leader or look for a stretch assignment, opportunities that you can actually test out.

What would it feel like to work in this sort of role doing these sorts of things? We just won’t know for sure. Even though we’ve done the time audit, we just really won’t know for sure unless we’ve tried that on and we’ve tested out whether or not that fits what we’re hoping for in our next step.

Mac Prichard:

How do you recommend finding the people who can help you learn those things? What have you seen work well for your clients?

Adriane Jones:

So what I recommend to people is to ask if there’s anyone in your network that has these skills, that people you’re already connected with that are doing these roles that you’re interested in. People who are already part of your circle already have relationships with them. I might ask my neighbor, “Do you know anyone who is doing this sort of role?”

And I think cold, outreach messages can be great from my experience, though sometimes they can get lost in the shuffle on platforms like LinkedIn. But what I’ve found really helpful for people I work with is if you know someone who knows someone who has that role, ask that person for a warm introduction.

And you’re much more likely then to be able to get connected. And you already are friends or colleagues with the same person.

So you can easily start that conversation just by simply talking about how you know your connector person, and that becomes a little bit of an icebreaker for people and makes it just feel a little less daunting to step into that curiosity conversation with a complete stranger.

Mac Prichard:

Well, I’ve enjoyed our conversation, Adriane. Now tell us about what’s next for you and your company.

Adriane Jones:

Yes, thank you. So I lead a podcast called The Career Breaker Show where I offer inspiration for people who are looking to pivot, pause, or transition in their careers. So season four of the podcast is out now, and I invite you to listen along if you’re looking for a career change this year.

Mac Prichard:

It’s a terrific show. And I’ll be sure to include a link to your program in our show notes. And our audience can also learn more about you and your work by visiting your website, adrianeejones.com.

And I know you also invite audience members to connect with you on LinkedIn.

As always, when you do reach out to a guest here on Find Your Dream Job, I hope you’ll mention you saw and heard Adrian on our show.

Now, given all the great advice you’ve shared today, Adrian, what’s the one thing you want our audience to remember about why you need to slow down in order to speed up your job search?

Adriane Jones:

I would say that it’s really important to get clear on what you want in your next step and take the time to do that. It doesn’t have to be a month-long process.

It can be an afternoon, it can be an hour, it can be a couple of hours throughout the week, but take the time to actually pause and figure out what is important to you because you’re important.

Mac Prichard:

Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job.

You can support our show and help others find it by leaving a review and rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have a question or a suggestion? Email me at mac@macslist.org, or connect with me on LinkedIn.

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This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media and creates our transcripts.

Our sound engineer and editor is Megan Hattie Stahl. Our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.

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