Job hunting is really tough and there’s not exactly a best practices guide lying around to help people, especially newbies who are new to the workforce.
After the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the job market, I decided to take notes and experiment to find what the best methods are to land a job, personally because I was fresh out of college and struggling, but also, I knew right then that this information I am accumulating may come in handy to someone else later on. As jobs become scarcer, and applicants more competitive, one needs to get creative and improve the process
This is a long post which took me two weeks to compile. The guide has 100+ useful links and resources about job hunting – is well structured – is filled with jokes and memes (because I can’t help myself)
Job Hunting Process
Application -> Interview(s) -> Offer -> Job
The most hardest part here is getting an interview, because not every resume gets noticed unless it’s really outstanding or if it applied via a contact in the company. This process becomes ten folds difficult if you’re a fresher with zero experience, because you will have to play the game of numbers, network with college alums/ask for referrals, do internships (pray that internship turns into a job offer), and countless other things.
Creating your job application
Before we go start looking for companies, you need to have your application in order. This whole subject can turn into another whole article but I will be concise here. Firstly, depending on what country you belong to (or basically what job market you are part of), a job application can mean different things: Resume, CV, Cover letter, Portfolio.
- CV (Curriculum Vitae) is a very in-depth document that describes your career journey in a step-by-step manner. You can think of a CV as a very comprehensive document of everything you have ever done, so it can easily go beyond 2,3 pages.
- Resume is a one-pager document that is short and straight to the point, where you only mention things that’s directly relevant to the job.
- Cover letter is a one pager document that is normally sent along with a CV or resume while applying. It’s goal is to introduce you and briefly summarize your professional experience in 250-400 words (ideally)
- Portfolio is a showcase of your talents in the form of projects or achievements. Ex – If you’re a web developer, you could probably show a beautiful responsive website that you built.
What to list in your job application
When listing an experience, try to list out in a way that tells the reader how you achieved X by doing Y, and use numbers. For example – “Redefined 15 internal processes across functions that improved employee productivity by 46%”
List knowledge/experience that’s relevant to the job
List your education briefly and only list down important details as most employers don’t care much about your education, they only care about your experience and whether you are a good fit for the job. If you’re a fresher however, do prioritize this section and mention your GPA as it matters.
Always list your last job, as current, and list it down in a chronological manner.
Do list your personal information (name, phone number, email ID, website etc.) and ensure it’s up to date.
Should you have a website
Yes. Having a website makes you seem more professional and committed and that you can learn and create something. In this day and age, it’s fairly easy to have one also using tools like Wordpress, Wix etc. But the thing is you need a domain and a hosting plan to have a website and that costs money, as little as INR 200 per month.
Alternatively, you can use a solution which is free but it may not give you an option to choose the domain or may have limits based on the solution.
- About.me
- Caard
- Github (Mostly for devlopers and tech people)
- Other sites based on your specific work also exist. Like Dribble for designers.
Get an interview
Given that you have a fair idea of what kind of work and what kind of role you will be applying for, you can proceed with applying to job listings that is suitable for you.
Send applications
I think, the first thing you should do before delving into job portals and applying to any relevant job is create a tracker for job hunting. You can use the below spreadsheet and copy it for your own use –
Send out applications every day
One should at least be sending out 5 applications every day, even though it seems a little bit exaggerated, but this should be your daily goal. Given the bandwidth I had, I could only send 1-2 applications every day, and that’s okay even if you can’t reach the goal because in the end it adds up.
Set up job alerts for specific roles/companies
Which ever job portal you go to do set up job alerts for roles you are looking for, so that once you get the alert you can immediately go and apply on the portal. Time is of essence, and even in a day’s time a job posting can get hundreds of applications, so the sooner you apply, the greater is the chance for the hiring folks to check out your profile.
Make your resume ATS-proof
Most applications get filtered via Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before they get in front of a real human (aka Human Resources), so it’s important to follow certain rules like following correct structure, using right keywords etc. otherwise the system would directly disqualify you.
Tip : Here is one way to tell if your resume is going through an ATS and if so, which one. While on the careers page of a company’s website watch the URL in the address bar of your browser to see if it changes after you click the “apply now” button. After you click “apply now” look for names in the URL like “workday”, “applicanttracking”, “paycom”, “brassring”, and “lever”. These are the names of popular applicant tracking systems.
Jobscan - A free tool to scan your resume and its compatibility with a given job role
Don’t forget to apply on company’s website
Companies like the courting ritual, if I can call it that. They like to see that the candidate has put in the effort to go to their website and apply.
To avoid the entire process altogether, there are methods like directly emailing to the concerned hiring manager or HR. More often than not, when you’re applying for jobs via LinkedIn, you can also see the name of the person who posted that job. And when you have their name, the next step is to guess the person’s email ID, and since the majority of them are like, it gets a little easy –
“Firstname”.”lastname”@”companydomain”
“firstletteroffirstname””lastname”@“companydomain”
Here’s a link to a tool to find emails – hunter.io
Normally, when you’re sending these emails, a better idea is also to give a brief description about yourself, your past experiences and how you can add value to the company, in the email body itself. You can also directly copy your cover letter (if you already have one) and make some modifications to keep it small and to the point.
Now, just sending emails isn’t the final step, you also need to follow up in a few days, because it’s possible that the person actually missed out on your email ID. A basic rule, is that you should be following up at least twice before that contact becomes cold. This is also why you should have a tracker, because it gets messy following this mechanism and checking up with people
Email template for job applications –
An efficient way to email employers
Now this may come off as a hack, based on how you see it, but a little automation can become really useful and save your time while sending emails to companies. Just do what sales personnel do – Create an email campaign .
Create a list of companies you’re interested in or start shortlisting job listings you want to apply for.
Search for people relevant to the role you’re applying for and start guessing their email addresses and jotting it down on an excel spreadsheet. Then put it into the Hunter.io’s bulk verification tool to validate all emails are legitimate.
If it isn’t you can try other combinations of the emails or simply send it to “ta@companydomain” OR “hr@companydomain” OR “careers@companydomain” as a next option.
Import the list of email ids into Hunter.io’s email campaign sender tool. This is a pretty awesome tool that allows you to send semi-personalized emails to many people at once.
Write a cold email explaining who you are, your past experiences and how you can add value to the company, in the email body itself.
Send out a test email, just to see how it looks like and to check for errors.
Run the email campaign.
The success rate is considerably higher and the effort spent is well, less (around 1-2 hours). I did try this once and send it to 30 companies, from which it led to ~4 interviews (response rate of 13%), which is pretty good given that most companies do not bother sending out any email if you go via the traditional route of applying via job portals.
In the end, send as much applications as much as you can, even if the companies don’t have a job listing. You can still send a letter of interest, a letter that expresses your interest in learning more about a particular organization’s opportunities and/or working for that organization.
Don’t necessarily get disappointed if you don’t match the job requirements, they are mostly a wish list and very annoyingly even entry level jobs ask for experience in certain areas, which doesn’t make sense.
Also, do not stop applying for jobs even after an interview or an offer, it’s always better for you to have two options.
It can take even 500+ applications to land a job, do not give up, you just need one that will make all the difference.
Following up
You should normally follow up a week after sending an application. (Unless explicitly stated to not reach out to the employers regarding the application status OR if an exact response date is mentioned in the job ad or in the response email which they send after applying)
How to follow up?
In either case, whether you’re applying via job portal or emailing your application directly, the hiring manager email id will come in handy. (Go to LinkedIn and then use Hunter)
Send an email to the Hiring manager telling him/her that you have applied and why you love the company and why you should be given an interview. Don’t stop with the hiring manager, also try to find the highest person you can reach out to you and speak about how you admire their work and how you can contribute in the company.
Follow up until you get a response (no matter how uncomfortable you feel). It isn’t that annoying, as much as you think it is.
Even if a company said no, do follow up after a couple of months, Surprisingly, I had a company follow me up for another role many months later when they had an opening, that they thought I was a suitable candidate for.
Templates for a follow up
How to stand out
Do extensive research about the organization, their values, their products and services, their customers. Go through their website and definitely check if they were on the news recently.
More importantly, try to bring together your experience with the needs of the role. Make sure your pitch is clean and straightforward, on why you are a good fit for the role.
Good platforms for job hunting
- LinkedIn (Most popular one, but also sees the most applications)
- Indeed (Has many job listings, LinkedIn seems limited in comparison)
- Glassdoor (You can also find reviews about the company, which is a plus)
- Startup.jobs (Contains openings for tech start-ups)
- Angel.co (Contains openings for all start-ups. Pretty useful if you are interested in working for a start-up.)
Will continue this in Part 2 of the guide where I will specifically talk about Interview Prep and share more resources, or else this will become exceedingly long