Increase Your Chances of Getting a Job
By: Jeff Hadden
Tags: Unemployment, Resume, Advice, Networking, Job Search

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

I was laid off in early April 2020. I’ve written before about the kindness of others during the job search and the humorous aspects of being unemployed during a pandemic. The good news is that I’ve found an exciting new role at a fantastic company with great people. It was a long road back, but I learned a ton about the job search process. However, before I jump back into full-time employment, I realized I needed to compile all that I’ve learned during my search about how to best look for a job. Hopefully this advice can help others in their search.

Networking

No doubt you’ve heard it before, but networking is your best shot at landing a new role. Dropping your resume in response to a random job posting subjects you to the mysteries of Applicant Tracking System (ATS) algorithms. I found my application-to-interview conversion rate to be way higher when I knew someone at the company and they greased the skids for my resume. People do want to help so you just need to make the connection and the ask.

Use Your College, Co-Workers, and Friends of Friends: This is an easy source of people that have some connection to you. Use LinkedIn to find people at your target companies that went to your undergrad or grad school, worked at one of your prior companies, or know someone who knows you. Then, either email/message/call/text them or ask your closer connection to make the introduction.

Don’t be shy: You may have to contact someone you haven’t talked with in a decade or more, but don’t worry. They understand the game and I found 99% of those people, even ones I wasn’t especially close with, eager to help out.

Broaden Your Network: Maybe you’re in a new city or new industry or maybe your network is stale. You can expand your networking reach by joining something like Lunchclub, a platform that matches you up for videochats, on your schedule, with others in your industry, function, or region. I found this an extremely easy and beneficial tool and met lots of interesting people who have given me great advice and even referred me for jobs.

Make the Asks: Besides asking to connect on LinkedIn, before you end a call with a new connection always ask either 1) “Who else do you suggest I contact?” or 2) “If you were in my shoes, what would you do to get your foot in the door?” (h/t Jeremy Schifeling). This will often lead to them connecting you with additional folks or them agreeing to pass along your resume.

Circle Back: Touch base again with your contacts after 2–4 months. It’s helpful for preserving that connection, but also, they may have seen a relevant role and just forgotten to reach back out to you.

Show Gratitude: Keep track of all the folks you connect with so that when you snag that job you can reach back out to everyone (ideally individually) and thank them for their help. It will be greatly appreciated and will create an even stronger connection. You’ll need that as your next job will very, very likely not be your last.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was my most frequently used tool during my job search. It’s extremely helpful for finding people at your target companies, reaching out to folks, and reminding your connections that you’re looking for a job.

Go Premium: I paid for a premium subscription and thought it was definitely worth it. I actually was a $60 a month Premium Business member because I was doing so many people searches. Besides better people searches, Premium gives you more InMails (useful for cold networking messages) and lets you see who’s seen your profile.

Cold Contacts: Sometimes you try to make a connection at a company via your network and you just can’t. In these cases, I would reach out to people, via LinkedIn InMail, with relevant titles or who attended one of my prior schools even if I had no real connection to them. While my hit rate on this wasn’t high, I still got plenty of responses and even had some of those folks eventually pass along my resume for open positions. No risk and easy to do!

Polish that Profile: However, before I reached out to people, even within my network, I put in the time to spiff up my profile. It doesn’t have to be 100% perfect before you start networking, but better to have it 80% there because looking at your LinkedIn profile is an automatic action when you ask someone for a connection or help and you want it to depict you well. For me, that meant:

Putting target function and industry in my headline (it’s not the place for your former role & company)

Using the about section to describe my uniqueness and key skills

Detailing my accomplishments and responsibilities for each of my roles

Maxing out the skills section (helpful for recruiter searches)

Soliciting relevant recommendations from former co-workers. For this, ask 3–4 people to write a recommendation for you and then give them each a different aspect/skill that you want them to focus on. Make sure your recommendations are fresh (don’t rely on something that is more than ~5 years old).

Ignoring endorsements (I haven’t seen any evidence that these are worth any effort).

Contribute: A big benefit of LinkedIn is that when you make posts, it will remind others in your network that you’re out there. If they remember, then they are more likely to reach out to you about a relevant open role. My strategy was to make semi-regular posts (1–3 times weekly) with links to articles I found interesting. I made sure to not only post the link, but also to provide a few takeaways or insights from the article, remind people that I’m looking & what I’m looking for, and include a few relevant hashtags. In order to increase the odds that the LinkedIn algorithm would surface my post to my network, I would also immediately like and comment on my own post (no shame in this game), engage others in the comments section, and try to publish between 8am-9am (h/t Mike Mehterian). I wasn’t always good at making regular posts, but when I did, I got a lot more profile views and messages with offers to help.

Use the Green Banner: I’ve seen and been a part of plenty of debates around the value of the LinkedIn “Open to Work” profile banner. I am firmly in the camp that it’s worth doing.

The main benefit is that it reminds people in your network that you are looking for a job. If you’re making posts, like I mention above, and you have the green banner visible, it will jog their memories that you need a job and they’ll be more likely to reach out and give you a contact, posting, or referral. Some say this makes you look desperate. Maybe to some people but I found that vast majority of people are kind (especially in the pandemic) and can imagine the challenge/stress you’re going through. Some say it will put you at a disadvantage come offer negotiation time. Your (lack of) employment status will come up way before an offer negotiation so ignore this rationale.

The Resume

The resume is probably the most written about job search topic. There are a ton of resources out there to help you so I won’t go super in depth here, but I will share my basic approach.

Reverse Engineer It: This takes a good amount of time, but it’s worth it. I picked out 3–4 relevant-to-me job descriptions and then catalogued the skills that showed up most often. I then entered these into a column on a spreadsheet and matched them up with accomplishments from past jobs. These became my bullet points.

Maximize the Format: This resume will be both read (by people) and scanned (by ATS), so don’t go fancy, just be clear and simple. Some quick tips:

Put the job’s title below your contact info (better for ATS and seems more customized to the job)

Include a short paragraph on your unique value. This is a good section to fit in your personal qualities (e.g. strategic, creative, proactive, etc.) that can be picked up as keywords by the ATS.

List out key skills in bullet format. It’s an easy way to include ATS keywords that might not fit into accomplishment bulletpoints.

For each role, I included a sentence or two (max) about that role’s responsibilities and then 2–4 accomplishment bulletpoints.

Customize Your Resume: For each position that I’d drop for, I would tweak my resume to maximize its chances of getting through the ATS. Besides adjusting the title, I would alter the wording slightly using Jobscan. It’s a very cool service that lets you upload a job description and a resume and then it highlights words that you may be missing so you can alter your resume.

Applying to Jobs

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It’s great if a recruiter contacts you about a role or you discover one via networking, but otherwise you’re stuck with applying to positions that you find on job boards. These will have lower chances of success, but not zero so it’s still worth giving this method a shot.

Cover Your Bases: I found that by using 5 sites, I was able to uncover a bunch of relevant roles (locally and remote). None of them were comprehensive so I had to use all of them. However, I tried other sites and never really got anything unique out of them. My favorites were LinkedIn, Indeed, LinkUp, AngelList, and VentureFizz (more tech and Northeast centric, but getting more broad).

Apply First: Others probably feel differently, but when I identified a role I would apply as soon as possible in case the job would stop accepting applications. After I applied, I would scan my network and LinkedIn to find someone who could ALSO pass along my resume. Getting this help is important and a boost to get past the ATS. Some people are concerned that their contacts won’t get credit for the referral, but hey you need to be a bit selfish because, ultimately, it’s more important that you get the job than they get a referral bonus.

Stay Organized: I applied to a LOT of positions, sometimes with the same title at the same company. What kept me organized was a Google sheet with columns for company, title, status and the link to job posting. I also made sure to note for each row if I got an HR screener, first round interview, second round interview, etc.

Interviewing

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Interviews are valuable and you want to do everything you can to get to the next round. This requires some preparation, practice, and equipment.

Catalog Your Answers: I heard lots of questions across interviews, but I was rarely caught off guard. This was because I created, several jobs ago, a Google slide deck with common interview questions and bulleted versions of my stories in SOAR format (situation, obstacle, action, result). I tried to have at least two stories for each question. If I got a new question in an interview, I’d add it to the deck. I used this resource to prepare in advance of interviews. AND, I plan on keeping this document throughout my career which helps not only with interviews but also with resume-writing.

Bring the Energy: I’ve read several articles about the importance of the first five minutes of an interview in terms of forming an impression on your interviewer. I think that a key part of this is bringing a lot of energy at the very beginning when they say “hi, how’s it going?” I try to answer enthusiastically and smile a lot.

Perfect “Tell Me about Yourself”: This is by far the most common interview question and is during that very important first five minute window. I suggest practicing your answer a lot. Also, if you just give a chronological job history, you’ve wasted an opportunity. Do some of that, but keep it to the barest of highlights and make sure to explain your career arc and how that all fits into this company and this role.

Be Nice to HR: These folks are the gatekeepers to a hiring manager interview and often have a seat at the table during candidate evaluation discussions. Build your relationship with them during email exchanges and phone screeners. Sometimes, they will even become advocates for you and point you towards other roles within the company.

Use the Right Gear: I have two tricks for Zoom interviews. I use a laptop stand to raise my laptop so it’s eye level and doesn’t look up my nose. BONUS: I use it, with a bluetooth keyboard, even when not in a Zoom interview so I don’t get a crick in my neck from looking down at my laptop. I also use a good mic and speaker combo so I can hear and be heard clearly (my favorite is the USB-corded version of the Jabra 510).

Staying Active

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While you’re looking for a job, definitely make time for your family, friends, getting in shape, and taking care of projects and errands you’d never tackle otherwise. Use this time! Otherwise, look for opportunities to keep you feeling productive, make some cash, grow your resume, and expand your network.

Consult: I did this in two formats (a project that I developed on my own with a client and I also worked as independent contractor for a former colleague who runs a consulting firm (h/t Carbon Design). Consulting is a good opportunity to get paid, pad the resume, maybe learn a new industry, and make some contacts. You don’t need much to do it (I did it as a sole proprietor) and you can then deduct your ACA healthcare premiums during this period of self-employment (can’t deduct COBRA so be careful).

Create: Find something you can create to make an impact and also highlight in your interviews. During the 2020 election season, I created a political organizing web application to solve an unmet need I had surfaced. This was not only fun and a great way to channel my election anxiety, but I was able to talk about it in interviews as it related to the type of work I was pursuing. NOTE: I ran out of time before the election so I never published my site, but it’s waiting in the cloud to polish up in the future.

Mentor: You have a bunch of expertise from your past jobs and though you’re not employed, you can put it to good use by mentoring others. I was able to mentor a startup (Lilu massage bra for breastfeeding and pumping — check them out if you’re a new mom!) via the MassChallenge accelerator program and really enjoyed it. It was only a few hours every other week, but was fun, super interesting, you can make a real impact, and the program grows your network).

Staying Sane

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Looking for a job is stressful. Looking for a job while unemployed is extra stressful. Looking for a job while unemployed during a pandemic is extremely stressful. It’s super important to figure out ways to get support during the process. Don’t go through it alone or without tools to help you.

Journal: I am not a journaler or a big writer, but I found some value in writing down some of my thoughts in a journal. This Vertellis journal is a really cool, mostly blank book that provides prompts to help you reflect, plan, and be grateful. I didn’t use it often, but when I did it was helpful.

Lean on and with Family: Whether it’s a spouse, kid, parent, or extended family member, they love you unconditionally and are there for you. Share your frustrations and successes. Remember though, spouses are in a really weird spot where they are depending on you to get a job but really can’t do much more than provide support. They can’t interview for you or make that networking call. Be extra kind to and understanding of them. They’re in this with you, but without the ability to impact the speed/result.

Reconnect with Friends: Your friends also care about you and want to see you succeed. They may feel awkward asking about your unemployment so let them know your situation and how they can help at all (maybe they have contacts). At the very least, they can be a good support system so reach out and use your situation as a catalyst to reconnect a bit.

Make a Group: Friends and family can make a big difference while being unemployed, but they may not be familiar with your industry or function. I found a lot of value in weekly video chats with a group of 10–20 fellow local-area unemployed people. We formed after meeting in an outplacement program and were able to commiserate over companies ghosting us, lengthy applications, and complicated unemployment insurance forms. It was also a place to share success, get advice, and to generally not feel alone in this process. Find other job-seekers if you can (via LinkedIn, outplacement programs, etc.) and set up something simple via Zoom or Google Meet.