Changing Sides - 4 Application Tips by a Young Recruiter

When I applied for jobs, I often asked myself questions like: ?What do these recruiters want to hear from me?“ or ?How do I increase my chances to convince them?“.

This sounds like a good start. But in my opinion, these questions will not be a game changer for job search. When I changed my perspective - from an applicant to a recruiter - I realized that the solution is way easier and at the same time way more complex as it seems to be. The points of interaction with a company representative are quite limited and each of them leaves an impression about me as a person.

So how careful should I be? What should I say, and what should I hide? And the answer is quite simple - I should be the same person as the one that walks around the streets, randomly interacts with friends, brushes her teeth in the evening and occasionally looks himself into the eyes when facing a mirror. It should be the person that lives authentically the life that he is living. It should be Me. 

And nobody will be happy if I am not myself during a process of getting to know a future home in which I will spend a significant amount of my life time. Neither me, nor the company has an interest of me being unhappy in my role.

Looking at our generation of people that are considering to apply for their first jobs or just accepted one, here are some tips from a young recruiter who has been on your side, just some couple of months ago:

Tip 1. Share your dreams and aspirations.

The highlight of every recruiter during a screening is the moment when he or she can listen or witness the passion and soul behind the words that an applicant is expressing.  Everyone that stands out from the crowd has a long-lasting impact - and that can be literally anyone who shares their dreams and aspirations. When sharing your dreams and aspirations, you demonstrate who and where you want to be in the future but more important, you allow entrance in your processes of thoughts and reflections that you have made throughout your life time. Although we are living in a material world, your inner self, where you are rooted and why you want to become this future self, will give insights about the person you want to become.

Some Tools that dive into this topic:

1. How to Create a Vision for Your Life
2. How to Find Your Purpose and Define your Vision
3. The Book - The Big Five for Life by John Strelecky

Tip 2. Go Deeper. Reflect on your personal drivers/values.

If these are your dreams, why do you chase them? You could also aim for something different? Or why don’t you stay in bed and watch Netflix all day long? 

An essential point to understand for a recruiter are your personal drivers which motivate you to act and aim for your goals. These drivers or values are your personal fuel that will make you wake up the next day, go the extra mile, care about what you do and take care about the people around you. And these are all traits that a company values about an employee.

Think about situations where you truly showed that you care, that made you emotional in a positive or negative way, and that made you smile even on the next day.

Your personal drivers are a stable foundation of your daily activities and they influence why and how you are.

Tip 3. Transfer. Find the overlap between YOU and your future company.

What is driving you and the company? If you analyze the job ad on a deeper level, how do you see yourself doing this every day? What would motivate you to do the job, and more importantly, what will motivate you to wake up the next day, when you are facing challenges and setbacks within your job? Why will you keep doing although you are not achieving what you aimed for?

How can you find out all of this information?

Bad news: Probably not in the job ad.

Good news: There are tons of other options.

1. Ask in your cycle of friends whether they know someone with this or a similar job you can talk to.

And if you cannot find anyone: 

1. Contact an employee with that job title on social media and ask him for a short call. Everyone likes to talk about what he is doing.
2. Research not only on the company website. The web is huge and there are blogs, videos, and reviews like kununu or Glassdoor that can give you another perspective about the company, the employee perspective and the job.
3. Call the contact person in the job ad. You cannot find a number? Call the company main line and find it out or write the person on social media.

When you get invited for an interview:

1. During an Interview: Challenge everyone you interact with about all aspects you need to know to understand the overlap between your personal drivers and the ones that you need within your job. For example: Who will be my leader? What drives her or him? What does the interviewer think which traits are needed for this job? How can I be successful in this job?
2. After an interview: Write follow-up questions in a mail if things are not clear to you.
3. If the drivers needed for this job to be successful and your personal drivers are overlapping, THIS is what pushes you and your company in the same direction.

Tip 3 is all about information gathering!

Tip 4. Sell yourself authentically.

Okay…So if I should be myself authentically, why should I sell myself at all?“

Theoretically this should be the same. Practically, you only have limited amount of time and resources, so make sure to speak about aspects of yourself that are relevant for your understanding of the job and company. That means, focus on the thoughts you have made about who you are, what motivates you about the job and why you are suitable for it.

Be a story. Not a factsheet. Everyone knows what can be seen on your CV, but nobody knows the stories behind it. And this is what you can focus on. What have you learnt during these activities in your life, which thought processes where triggered? What are your personal drivers and how do you think do they overlap with the ones needed for this position? It’s time to show that you did your homework. (Tip 1.-3.)

This is it!

Written down it sounds so complex, but it is simple at the same time.

Because increasing the chances in finding the right company and getting the right job for YOU is nothing else than facing yourself in a mirror and being true to yourself and your surrounding.

?

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash