If you’re like most job seekers, you are applying to as many jobs as possible via job boards, then crossing your fingers for an employer to call you back (also known as the "spraying and praying" method). If you are taking the quantity over quality approach, you are already on the wrong track.

You might be scouring the internet looking for advice on how to "fix your resume," "how to optimize your LinkedIn profile," or "how to answer difficult questions for your next interview." But are these things actually getting you any real results? Maybe, but you aren't any closer to a job offer, but you might think, that's okay, the job search takes a while anyway.

How long does it take to find a new job on average? If you google "how long does the average job search take," you will come up with a lot of different numbers, statistics, surveys, theories and articles. Let’s look at what was found with a quick search: "4 months plus, in the best case scenario," "Just over 8 weeks," "Roughly one month to find a job for every $10,000 of the paycheck you would like to earn."

Not only is is this discouraging to see, but there seems to be a lot of contradicting information on the internet. Seeing articles that tell job seekers to be prepared to be patient and to be in it for the long haul, is completely disheartening. The truth is, there is no magic number of day, weeks, or even months. Preparing yourself for an exhaustive 7-10 month job search can be what actually holds you back.

If you start off with a defeated mentality, what's going to push and motivate you when things get rough? If you prepare for a long and tedious job search, more then likely, that is what you will find. Remember, you get what you expect.

On the flip side, if you have a great job search strategy in place and you are willing to put in the hard work that it takes to find a job in today's market, then you will have much more control. You will have more power over how long it takes for you to secure the next opportunity and more than likely, it won’t take you that long to find the right opportunities.

You have a lot of influence on your marketability in the job market, your job search and your career than you think you do. It's not about being passive, patient and waiting out this “average job search” period. The right approach is being real with yourself and your job search.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I have complete clarity of what the next step in my career looks like?
2. Do I have a list my ideal companies that I want to target?
3. Do I have an excellent cover letter that will enhance my chances of hearing back from employers?
4. Do I have a perfectly polished resume, that’s ATS (Applicant Tracking System) friendly?
5. Is my LinkedIn optimized in order for recruiters to be able to find me for opportunities?
6. Do I know what an effective networking message looks like?
7. Am I comfortable and confident when doing phone, video, and in-person interviews?
8. Do I know the right questions to ask my future employers?
9. Do I know the steps to take post-interview, so I’m not left in the dark?
10. Do I know what to do when I receive a verbal offer and how to negotiate my salary?

Now it's time to be really honest with yourself. The truth is, if you are answering "no" to the majority of these questions, you don't have an effective job search strategy.

When you don't have a solid game plan, that is when the job search can become a tedious process, lead to a lot of frustration and burnout. That is also when those statistics mentioned at the beginning of this article can start to become your reality: It does begin taking 6, 7, 8+ months to find your next job.