You may not know it by name, but I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pareto principle. It’s that turn-of-the-century formula by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who famously wrote that 20% of your effort will produce 80% of your results—or, more accurately, that there is a great imbalance between inputs and outputs and between causes and results. It’s remarkable that 120 years later it still explains so much.

Take a look at how retail stores operate: 20% of their goods produce 80% of their profits, and 20% of the sales year produces 80% of their revenue. Car insurance companies will tell you that 20% of their insured drivers cause 80% of accidents. In your home, 20% of the carpet gets 80% of the wear, and in your automobile only 20% of the energy gets transferred to the wheels—combustion chews up the other 80%. And when you get into work in the morning, 20% of your actions are going to result in the bulk of your paycheck.

Don’t you wish that you could simply be happy with that 20% that gets you 80%, and work just one day out of five? The problem with that logic is that we can’t recognize which 20% of our actions are the ones that will lead to the big payoffs. But for you, as a scientist seeking an opportunity to move into a new phase of your career, perhaps there are some ways to use this 80/20 principal to your advantage in the job search.

Prioritizing your job search activities
A job search requires a variety of different activities, including research, applying, and networking. Figuring out how to prioritize can be a challenge. But in light of the permanence of the Pareto principle, it’s clear that the best approach is to focus on the high points from each category. In other words, don’t throw all your efforts into the networking column, even though that’s often a productive use of your time. Neither should you put all of your effort into responding to job advertisements. Instead, recognize that a job search requires that you engage in a range of activities, and that the returns on your activities will vary. Even though you won’t be able to discern the difference between low-return and high-return actions immediately, it will come to you with experience. As you begin to realize what your “big rewards” activities look and feel like, you can then fine-tune how you prioritize your job search tasks.

Here are the five categories of activities that fill out anyone’s time spent job searching, and my tips on how to maximize the 20% of action that results in 80% of your success.

Researching employers on the Internet
This is an important category, especially early in the job search, but it can also be a giant time sink. Reviewing employers makes you feel like you are accomplishing something, but in reality it is often just wasting time. One way to avoid this trap is to determine what your geographical restrictions are early in your search—
remembering that people with flexibility end up in a better position for job offers. Then, focus only on the employers in those regions. Do you want to remain in the Pacific Northwest, with a Seattle or Portland base? Then what are you doing looking at pharmaceutical companies back in New Jersey!

Applying to job ads that fit your background
The average bio/pharma job seeker looks at any and all job advertisements that fit their disciplinary background and then sends off an application on a wing and a prayer, with only a fraction of the required skills and thus only a tiny chance of success. That’s definitely in the time-taker-uppers category. Don’t bother. Trimming back dramatically and applying only to jobs that are a good fit for your interests and experience will free up time to go after other high-productivity items.

On the other hand, job ads where you fit 60-70% of the listed parameters or more do fall into your Pareto list. After you’ve focused on the employers only in the regions you’d consider, find those job ads in which you have a true fit. If you have most of the skills, send the application. That’s the kind of 20% that will make up 80% of your success.

Building out your network via online networks
The big online networking tool is LinkedIn, where anything you invest in building your profile will be time well invested. Even though LinkedIn doesn’t count as real networking, enlarging your database there is important because the size of your contact pool opens doors for you. More people will find you and you’ll find more contacts all based on the size of your LinkedIn database. So it’s Pareto time for sure when you invest in connecting on the platform with everyone you meet and work with.

But even a tool as useful as LinkedIn can be a time sink sometimes. Wasted time on LinkedIn includes using the “auto-connect” feature, where you click one button and an invite is sent out. Don’t let anyone receive a request for connection with LinkedIn’s suggested verbiage. That’s seen as tacky by 50% of your probable connections.

As for other online networking platforms, I’m not so sure that Facebook and the like are going to earn you a lot of opportunities, so avoid the highly “social” of your social media. If you are a published scientist, than ResearchGate will be important; ensure you’ve added a photo and your contact information to that one. I’m constantly frustrated by seeing someone interesting on ResearchGate and then having to do an additional search to find that person’s email.

Making personal connections
It’s hard to imagine how any face-to-face contact with another person could be a time-waster. I’m really at odds trying to help you prioritize here, because each and every person you talk to will add value. Is she only a year or two ahead of you? Great! Ask her how she transitioned into her present job. Is he a 20 year experienced industry manager? Fine. Impress him with a few questions about his organization, how he defines success at his company, what the culture is like there, and so on.
But when it comes to searching for people to meet, there’s a fair amount of time wasted looking at people who are too senior or too tough to reach. It’s great to meet and talk to a VP of research, but that’s a rare opportunity. In the time it takes to pull that off, you could have spoken to six researchers at different levels of the management ladder, three of them with open positions. Use your 20% time to identify networking contacts who are reachable.

Conducting exploratory interviews
As your job search progresses, the goal is to meet and talk to as many people as possible. But at some point you’ll start recognizing those in your developing network who seem friendly and open to helping you. That’s where you move to the informational interview. Find that person who is open to give you more than a passing interest just a few years ahead of you and invite him or her to a Starbucks at the next meeting you’re both attending. There’s no way you can lose. Sure, you’ll spend $10 on overpriced coffee, but the advice you can pick up about that person’s career track or employer will be worth far more. Each and every informational interview has a value that falls, I’m sure, into the 20% that gets you 80% of the way.

Using these tips to help you prioritize the elements of your job search will be a good start, but it’s also important to recognize that, within each specific activity, there will be a further breakdown of 80 and 20. If you make ten networking contacts, for instance, that’s great—but only two or three of those are going to be long-term winners moving you closer to your goal. You can’t escape Dr. Pareto, no matter what you do. All you can do is to be aware of the principle and do your best to prioritize high-impact activities over those that are likely to waste your time.