Jalonni Weaver is all too familiar with the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."Weaver, 30, is a recruiter at a large telecommunications company. But the Dallas resident didn't get the job the first time she applied, or even the second or third: She applied to seemingly identical recruiter positions at the company nine times without getting so much as an interview before being hired on her 10th attempt."All they can say is no," she says. "But at least I know I put myself out there."'You never know what's going on behind the scenes'Weaver sent the first in her string of applications to the company early last year. She didn't get an interview. But a few weeks later she saw a seemingly identical role posted again, this time with a different job number. So she applied again. And again. And again.As someone with experience on both the candidate and recruiter sides, Weaver says she doesn't let rejections get to her. There are "so many different reasons" someone might not get a particular job, she says.So she kept at it. She polished her resume over time to add the skills she was picking up in her previous job while she was applying for the new ones. "My experience back in January was not the same when I applied in September," she says.She also got more granular in her resume each time. Rather than saying she did high-volume recruiting, for example, she talked about handling 60 to 70 requisitions at a time. After Weaver's 10th application, a recruiter reached out to offer an interview. "This can't be real," Weaver recalls thinking. But a few interviews later, she got the job.Weaver may never know for sure what made the difference the 10th time around. One possible explanation, she says, is that her company used the same job description repeatedly to hire recruiters for various departments; none of the posts, as far as Weaver recalls, specified a department. So while she might not have been a fit for certain departments, she guesses that she was simply a better match the last time, she says. Her current work aligns with her prior experience in high-volume corporate and tech recruiting.Factors like role cancelations or internal moves could also be at play when candidates are rejected, she notes, adding that "you never know what's going on behind the scenes." 'Be very intentional about what you apply to'As a recruiter, Weaver says she doesn't fault candidates for applying to several roles at the same company, if the roles are similar."Be very intentional about what you apply to," she says. "It wasn't like I was applying to a recruiting position, then a marketing position, then an accounting position, because that just shows I just want my foot in the door."It's "not unusual" for candidates to apply to multiple roles at large organizations, technical and executive headhunter Nicole Kaiser told CNBC Make It in October 2025. Bigger firms can hire for similar positions across "sister teams," Kaiser said, and if a candidate is strong but not the best fit for a certain team, a hiring manager may suggest them for another.Like Weaver, though, Kaiser discouraged candidates from applying to multiple roles that don't have much overlap, especially if "you've got none of those credentials in your background."Through her application process, Weaver frequently reached out to people at the company to get intel on open roles and the organization. She believes this, along with putting more tangibles in her resume, helped her ultimately land the job."In this market, it's one of those things where it's trial and error," she says. "You don't just want to keep throwing something at the wall that's not going to stick."Weaver started her new job in October. "It was worth the wait," she says. "I'm glad that I am on this team." And if she hadn't gotten the offer the 10th time around, she says, "I'd probably still be applying."Want to lead with confidence and bring out the best in your team? Take CNBC's new online course, How To Be A Standout Leader. Expert instructors share practical strategies to help you build trust, communicate clearly and motivate other people to do their best work. Sign up today!