How not to apply for a job on Linkedin

Here at Dataro, we are always hiring and that means sifting through a LOT of applicants. In the past year I have personally sifted through thousands of applications for roles in product, marketing, customer success, sales, and tech.

Of those applications, I can think of no more than 10 that genuinely impressed me! Ones that made me stop in my tracks and email them back right away. The vast majority (well over 99%) just never landed. But here's the thing. I know in the vast majority of instances there were some very talent people who applied, people who really tried, who really wanted the role, but whose application just didn't get them past the first round. I'm writing this article to help those people.

Below are the things I think you need to stand out (especially if applying for a role at Dataro). It is extremely hard to land your dream job and I hate to think great candidates miss out for preventable reasons.

Full disclaimer I have no training in recruitment or hiring, this article is solely based on my experience as a founder.

Know the numbers

It's important to learn about your competition - and right now there is a lot of it. For a remote role with Dataro in the US, we receive between 500 and 1,500 applications. The reality is, we are only able to interview the best 20 candidates from this pool. This means, unless your application is in the top 1-2%, you won't make it past the first round. While we are an awesome company to work for, we are not a household name like Google or OpenAI so I'm sure the numbers look even more competitive at these companies.

Put yourself in the employer's shoes

The is what the employer sees when you apply via Linkedin. Before you even get to the Resume (which I will have to scroll for), it's important your Summary and Role reflect the role you are applying for.

If these don't align with what I'm expecting (here: Product Manager at Company Name), then it's unlikely I will go any further. Surprisingly, these don't clearly match in up to 20% of applicants.

Make your Resume stand out

If there is one place where everything starts to blur together, it's the Resume. Every single one follows a very similar format. Please, show some of your personality - add colour, change the format, make it beautiful. Make me stop and think you have thought about this.

Also, PDFs only please. If you upload a DOCX file, Linkedin has to scan it for viruses and forces me to refresh the page. On many occasions this does not work and I don't get to see it.

Go the extra mile

At the bottom of each role we post the following message:

This really helps us to see (1) if candidates actually read the full job description and (2) if you really care about the role. Easy Apply has made the application process far too easy. If you want a job, prove it!

For every 100 applicants, roughly 25% send through this paragraph and only <5% send a video. This means a lot of candidates either don't read it or don't care.

If you want an easy way to stand out. Send a video.

Make it count

I love reading these messages. They always show passion, but are rarely convincing and almost always too long. You can absolutely show your passion and make a strong pitch for the role in 1 paragraph. Here's how NOT to do it:

Don't waste words telling me how you applied for the role. Get straight to the point.

It's great that you believe you are a good candidate, but the important thing is that I believe it too. Prove it to me!

What a good letter looks like

Short, punchy and proof. It is important you can grab the readers attention quickly. Once you do, provide some metrics or proof points as to why you are a good candidate.

This person got it down to two points. One proof point on shipping products (important for a Product Manager in this case) and another on having experience as an early hire at another startup (important for a startup like ours).

But at the risk of everyone providing 2 dot points before applying for a role at Dataro. Remember, it's not all about 2 proof points, it's also about standing out so I'll leave you with one of my more memorable applicants who used humour to highlight their collaborative skills.

I hope this helps you on your way to landing your dream job. If this happens to be with Dataro, check out our company page on Linkedin or at https://dataro.io/careers/. You can always reach out to me directly on Linkedin too.