I actually found a job, and it worked like this.
If you had seen my previous blog post, you know that I had left my job a few weeks ago after only a few months in that position. As I said then and I’ll say again, the job was great but the place was really not for me and if the work/life balance is not good, there is no point trying to force things. I believe there is no way you can be at your best in your job if you don’t feel right in your life and I think the place where you live plays a major part in that process.
But enough talk about that, what I wanted to share is a bit of my experience looking for a job, what I witnessed, what I noticed, what worked and what didn’t!
Activate your network!
Of course, before that try to cultivate your network before you need it! I know it seems like you’ve heard that one 1000 times but it is crucial!
Go on and knock on every door! I know it might be hard on your ego, but knock on every door! Some people will really help and that is all that matters. There probably won’t be hundreds of them, they have their own lives to live and their own problems but some will really help you.
In my searches, a few of my contacts helped me get an interview and one of them resulted in a job offer. I did pass on that job offer because I had just received a better proposition, but it did work. In the end, we all trust our peers more than a CV or a LinkedIn profile, so activate your network!
Apply, apply and apply!
Recruitment nowadays, with on-line submission is becoming a Tinder game! Recruiter receive thousands of CV for the same job and, yes, for the candidate it is a bit like being the guy on Tinder: you need to swipe quite a few right to get a match … and that does not even mean the conversation will start.
So, apply to every job that attracts you!
You like several jobs in the same company?
Ha that’s a tricky one! Some recruiters will like it, some will think you can’t make up your mind. My opinion is, refer to the point above and apply! You can’t be sure the same recruiter will be handling all of your applications and, from the mouth of a recruiter: if you’re qualified for all of them there’s no reason you should not apply and limit your chances.
That god damn motivation letter.
I don’t think anybody likes to write those, but they are the first chance you get to actually show you’re going the extra step so write it. When you apply a lot, you can more often reuse some templates, but be careful not to send a letter with wrong details!
CV and LinkedIn
Make sure your CV and LinkedIn profile are telling the same story. It sounds obvious but believe me, when I was recruiting I’ve seen a lot of them with some major differences!
Try to contact the recruiter directly
More than often your CV will be screened by people who don’t necessarily know a lot about your job or fully understand your career path in relation with the job you’re applying to. No disrespect to HR, they can’t know everything about every job so even if you’re perfectly qualified you might not go through.
So, go on LinkedIn, pay that pro account for the time you are looking for job so you can send messages to people you don’t know, and look for the person that is recruiting or that might be your future boss, and send her or him a message. It doesn’t always work, quite a few of them will probably just ignore the message but then if they do you might consider that in any case you were probably not the person you were looking for.
Don’t (always) take no for an answer!
I had applied for a job where the job description was literally one of my previous jobs and I got rejected in less than 3 hours. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed! I contacted 2 people in the company, one that was in my contacts and one that could be, I believed the actual person recruiting. Best move I did in the last few months!
They both answered, they both reached out to see what had happened and I had a interview with their HR manager that ultimately lead, a few interviews and tests later, to a contract and my next job!
Be organized
Select the companies that are interesting you, bookmark their career web sites, and look at them every day! Set-up some LinkedIn alerts, they will bring to your attention companies you had not thought about but that might be great! Keep track of your applications, of the answers you received. And if you get interviews, prepare yourself: research the company, the position and write down some questions you might have already!
Don’t despair!
It can take quite a long time to get results, weeks or months. Recruitment is a long process pretty much every time. You probably won’t get anything in the first month, it’s normal, but don’t despair and go on.
You’re going to be rejected, sometimes at the very last step, it is really frustrating but that is normal, sometimes the other candidate was just a better fit for the job!
Try to have people around you can talk to so you can sometimes share a bit of that frustration, but try to stay positive and don’t unload everything on the same person all the time!
Try to stay active.
I had the chance to be able to join a friend and help him on his startup project, and him understanding that I was still having interviews with other companies. And it really helped me as I was pacing like a lion in a cage all day, I had stuff to do, they were intellectually stimulating and matching my expertise.
If you can, try to stay active and do something else than just looking for jobs: help a friend in his company or project, get involved with some voluntary work, etc. That will help you when it’s getting rough and you might despair a bit.
That’s about all the advice I can provide based on my experience these past few months! I do hope it will help some of you reading it and I’d love to hear what you might think about it!
