Despite all the change, some things never change.

This is a post for all the young people out there who are trying to get a job during COVID.

You are no doubt thinking right now is a hopeless time. A time where there are probably more people than jobs - and you’re up against a market saturated with over qualified candidates that, at least on paper, you feel you stand no chance against.

Well, consider this a little ray of sunshine. 

From someone who right now is recruiting rather than cutting and who just gave a role to a person who was underqualified, relatively inexperienced and at the start of their professional career - to give you hope that if an opportunity pops up, you still have every chance to land it. 

Despite everything, the fundamentals of getting your foot in the door haven’t changed -  it will always take a special mix of effort, perseverance, networking, magic and luck for everything to work out.

Here’s what worked for our latest recruit.

1 - Don’t apply for everything but look beyond what you thought was the place to look.

To start, whilst there  may appear to be less options out there, are you looking in the right place? Look outside the world you may have pictured yourself in. As an example, many creative service companies are really feeling the pinch right now. It’s an unfortunate time to start your career in advertising at an advertising agency. 

But tech and software companies like Xero (and Yellowfin) are thriving as digital transformation accelerates. These businesses are expanding their internal creative services capability - think sideways, keep looking, and you just might find a new fit.

2 - Don’t sell yourself, become easy to buy.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone recruiting you - in the buyer's or customers shoes as we say. If you can’t compete on experience, be aware of and play to your strengths. 

It might be your approach to solving problems, your energy, or your sense of humor that sets you apart from the pack.  Make it as easy as possible to give someone like me a sense of what you will be like to work with - because how you stack up ‘on paper’ is not all that counts.

3 - Everything communicates

From the cover letter, any questions you may have, the way you perform in any interviews, Zooms, emails or discussions, every touchpoint is a moment to shine - or a moment to fail.

Consciously and subconsciously, we judge people by the questions they ask, the way they communicate, the words they choose in an email. All are signs to future interactions (more so in the current video world as we have less to go by).

4 - Remove the Jargon

In your CV, your profile, your website, your emails - keep the language simple so people are not confused where your expertise lies. ‘Digital Whisperer’ WTF is that anyway? Refer point 3.

6 - Network

The world is getting smaller and Melbourne is a small town. Our latest recruit was referred by a colleague where she had worked 3 months. Every path you cross could lead to a new opportunity. 

5 - Be Honest and transparent.

As much as you play to your strengths, be aware of your weaknesses. 

Not knowing something or not having experience is fine as long as you are honest and have an approach to learning. It’s okay to not know an answer. Exaggerating, BS’ing or claiming what you haven’t done or don’t really know always comes undone with a bit of prodding. 

6 - Don’t apply for jobs you are seriously not capable of being able to do

Refer point 5

7 - Be a “Is this what you want?” type of person.

This is a big one for me and I suspect most people out there: I am always looking for people that come to me with a solution rather than ask what that solution should be. 

Even if it is wrong, it is a starting point and becomes a foundation for discussion. Failure (for lack of a better word) is fine so long as lessons are learnt and the business provides an environment where ‘failure’ is accepted.

8 - Luck happens. 

Luck happens to those that put themselves out there. Our latest recruit was lucky she happened to intersect with someone who was prepared to give her a break and put the effort in. But mostly she was lucky that the hundreds of other applicants didn’t do a better job through the process. And that’s not really luck, is it?

Hiring someone at the start of their career requires someone like me to make a decision that we want to work with YOU above everyone else, and we trust that you are capable of tasks you may have not yet done and will learn quickly. For this reason, most of your ‘experience’ is in many ways useless. 

As an example, doing social media for your mates startup does not make you a social media strategist or expert. Your job through the process is to give someone like me the best indication of what you will be like to work with. Will you learn quickly? Will you have a go? Will you... The list goes on.

All business comes back to ROI and exposure to risk. And hiring someone relatively inexperienced is both an investment due to the time involved teaching and the risk that if it doesn’t work, it can end in lost productivity on one side and tears on the other. 

But I have been in this game long enough to know that when you get it right, the benefits can be profound and lifelong on both slides.