Applying widely and holding it all in your head rarely ends well. Drawing on her own experience of redundancy, Paula Donnan explains how to track job applications properly, why the job description matters most at interview, and what your record can reveal about where your search is really stalling.

Introduction: Why a Long Job Search Needs a Different Approach If you are in the middle of a long job search, I don’t need to tell you how hard it feels. The days slip by in a blur of applications, the inbox stays quiet, and rejections can feel personal. Clients often tell me, “I feel stuck, like I’m wasting my time.” But here’s the reality. A long job search is not unusual. In the UK, the average job seeker spends around 122 days (about four months) finding a new role. For m