Track job applications and follow-ups.
Tracking a job search as a two-stage funnel localises the problem. A low application-to-interview rate means the targeting or the written material is failing, which is fixed by changing what you send and where. A healthy interview rate with a low offer rate means the material is working and the interviews are not, which is a completely different piece of work. The weekly pace shows whether the sample is even large enough to judge.
Two-stage search funnel
Interview conversion = interviews / applications x 100; offer conversion = offers / interviews x 100; applications per offer = applications / offers
Ten to twenty percent of applications reaching interview is healthy for well-targeted applications, and twenty to thirty percent of interviews converting to offers. Both vary enormously with market conditions and seniority.
At least twenty-five to thirty. Below that, a run of bad luck is statistically indistinguishable from a real problem, and people frequently rewrite a perfectly good CV on the evidence of eight rejections.
Whichever is furthest below the benchmark. There is no point polishing interview technique when only three percent of applications produce an interview, and no point rewriting a CV that is already converting at eighteen percent.