How to Land a Job During COVID for New Graduates

PART I: My Story

            The pandemic has forced change in the job market, interviewing, and how we do work. It was a tragedy no one was prepared for. One group underprepared were the 2020 college graduates, let out and hungry for work, but the field was barren. In May of 2020, unemployment claims peaked around 40 million. It just so happened that I graduated on the twenty-second of that month too. 

            To start, I’m not a very stressed person, at least, not with school. And when you grow up in a stable white family, school is pretty much the only source of stress as a kid. I wasn’t my high school’s valedictorian, but school wasn’t a challenge for me. I learned quickly how to manage my time, how to study, and how to make my teachers trust me so if I did actually screw up, I’d always be pardoned. But school is sterile, and really doesn’t really prepare you for out there. I won’t deny I’ve learned things, but I think school is best for social skills more than anything. So I spent most of my childhood being cool, riding the wave, and when the stress did actually come, I didn’t know how to handle it. 

            It was fall semester of 2019. Four months before everyone’s lives changed. The pressure was on. I was armed with the brand new LinkedIn profile I had to make for an assignment in my business communications class. Might as well make use of it, right? If you go into Samsung Notes on my phone and scroll down, there is a file called “Places I Applied To.” The first entry is for November 29th. The last is for January 15th. There are eighty job applications recorded. Word to the wise, if you lack experience, you’re probably going to apply for whatever job even remotely seems good, you’ll be filling out more applications than you can count, so it’s best to keep a log. That way when the recruiter calls saying they’re from Such-And-Such Inc., you’re not screaming in your head, “Who the heck is that?” Look them up on your notes and see what position you applied for with them. Then you can pretend you know what they’re talking about. In a month and a half, I did eighty applications. I heard back from about five. All were rejections. 

            If you scroll up my phone a little bit, you will find a file called “Applications Part 2,” because I felt the first one was getting too long and I was worried about file size. It runs from April to June of 2020, in the height of the pandemic. At this time, I also was taking a break from my part-time job in food service, out of an abundance of caution. There are one hundred twenty-seven applications recorded on this note, bringing our grand total up to two hundred seven, and I promise I didn’t record them all because I got lazy at times. I’d consider myself lucky if I heard from ten of them. This was where it got difficult. Hearing nothing is worse than being rejected, I think. You never know if they gave you a fair shot. I was looking to get into human resources. I was armed with my new bachelor’s degrees in business and psychology. But guess what? Under COVID, I was competing with millions of people, people who not only were jobless grads like myself, but far more experienced adults who were laid-off and looking for ways to make ends meet. How was I to compete? It felt like I’d done everything right. I graduated summa cum laude, I was on the executive board of a club, I was a two-time research assistant, a three-time teaching assistant, I worked customer service all four years of college, I did a consultancy through a class, and I had a human resources internship. What more would you have me do? I cannot summon more experience than I have unless you give me a chance. Except nobody wanted to deal with training costs. The clock was ticking towards graduation, my dad was putting pressure on me by saying I had expenses to take over. Now of course, I like HR. It’s a mix of administrative and interpersonal skills that I like, and I knew I could do it. If I did actually have an interview, the first few were so artless and my passion didn’t come through because I didn’t really have any for the job. Guess being a theater kid couldn’t even save me.

            Let’s scroll up my phone’s notes some more. That brings us to “Applications Part 3,” the final chapter. From late June to late July. Forty-four on this list. Running total: two hundred fifty-one. Could you tell I was starting to get a little burnt out? I’m missing a bunch of applications from that list too, I swear. It was a rhythm by now, part of my life. Do at least ten applications in a day if I could. From March through July, I had about ten interviews. All failures. I graduated, and I didn’t have anything to show for it yet. I did everything. Everything. I’ve had my resume reviewed about ten times by professors, career coaches, managers, and professional recruiters. They told me it was good. I had an account on LinkedIn, Handshake, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, Lensa, you name it. I used all of them, and now you can see where I may have lost track of some applications. 

            Here’s where a glimmer of hope came in. In early May, I applied for a job within Robert Half, a staffing company that provides businesses with temporary workers. I emailed a woman about my interest in the position and attached my resume. The same day, she answered me saying how she’d be happy to help me in my job search. We planned a phone call for the following day at 3pm. I sat on my bed, phone in my hand around 2:55. I waited and waited, my afternoon wasting away until it was about 4:30. She wasn’t going to call me. I wound up emailing her some answers to a list of questions she gave me. Then she disappeared. Great, another failure. Except not quite. Like a horribly-executed twist in a film, this woman emailed me on July 1stsaying she had a job for me that she believe I’d be interested in. I was willing to take on administrative assistant roles at the time due to desperation, and she had provided me with administrative assistant at Stony Brook Medicine, temp job of two months duration for eighteen dollars an hour, five more dollars than I was making at my restaurant. I figured it was more in the ballpark of what I wanted to do and those big companies all want that sweet, delicious experience, so I told her I was interested, and sent her an updated resume. A few days later, this man called me saying he worked with the woman who originally reached out to me and that I was all set to start my new job on July 20th. To be honest, I was baffled because I never interviewed and I never had any contact with who was going to be my supervisor. Just given a job I didn’t feel like I earned. But it was money for a little while. It was on my campus as well so I was within close proximity of friends and the hospital was very fancy. I swear it was like a small town in there. The best and worst part about this job was that I was paid eighteen dollars an hour to wait for emails. My job was simple: wait for an email to come in from a doctor or their assistant that requested a meeting with the chairman, whose calendar I managed, then find an appropriate time and put the meeting on his calendar. The program administrator was more my direct supervisor than the chairman was, and she occasionally gave me busy-work like put these binders in date order, label these cubicles, measure the storage room for shelving units, but ninety-five percent of the job was wait for emails. In the meantime, I would actually do my homework for my graduate classes or apply to other jobs. This one offered cash, but no comfort. I knew as soon as September rolled around, I was going to be unemployed again, and another two hundred applications would have to be sent out. I would be so alarmed at the prospect of this that sometimes I would sit in the basement of my house, alone on one of the recliners, either staring into space while anxious thoughts bounced around or trying not to bawl from hopelessness.

            It was the first week of August. I was walking towards the parking garage at the end of a shift when I got a phone call. It was a recruiter from Family Residences, a not-for-profit with homes for individuals with disabilities and mental illnesses. She told me a position had opened up, that I may be a good fit. I was confused because I remembered back at the end of June, I took a ride to Bethpage to interview for the executive assistant position that I was sure I didn’t get. Did they really wait two months to tell me I got the job? No, they didn’t. This was for another job I didn’t apply to. One of my interviewers liked me enough to hold onto my resume and wait for an HR role to open up. The following week I had a digital interview during my lunch break, and at the end of my shift that day, my interviewer called me and told me he’d like to bring me aboard the human resources team. I said things, but I was speechless about how I felt. I hopped into my car, started slapping my steering wheel and I cheered, “Yes, I finally did it!” Eight months and two hundred fifty plus applications later, someone finally decided to take a chance on me.

            At last I broke into the field I was chasing after and I learned so much in the first few weeks. Everyone in the department couldn’t be nicer. I face new challenges every day. I’ve learned about data entry, reporting, modifying employee status, terminations, tracking, and providing technical support. It was the perfect stepping stone for breaking into HR. In sum, that was what happened in all the months I looked for a job on the surface, to provide context for the important part. What matters to me is sharing the answer to this question: what did you do to get the job?

PART II: Maximizing Your Success

            Something I don’t much like to see on LinkedIn are those posts about how excited someone is to be starting a new job and how blessed they feel and how happy they are. The problem being that they make it look so easy that it is natural to think, well, that person must be incredibly smart or lucky. In reality, they may have been searching for that job for months. When I posted my announcement about being hired, I wrote this, “I had no idea the stress finding a job would be, how long it would take, how exhausting the process is. It is not hyperbole when I say I sent out nearly two hundred applications. But, you have to keep going. I am so excited to say I will be starting as an HRIS Assistant for FREE in September.” I said this because I wanted to be honest with readers, that the job search process is not a cakewalk and if a CEO isn’t your best friend, it’s going to be a long ride. I didn’t want to spark envy or despair in my readers because I was lucky. I wasn’t. Persistence was the only real tool. 

            Here I want to provide a truthful job search experience. I want to tell you everything I did to get myself a full-time job in the field I wanted with a half hour commute from home. I want to tell you how I went from being told to have a good day from bored interviewers after an abridged discussion to getting a job offer from Amazon. Because when you go out there, college doesn’t prepare you for this. It’s pretty overwhelming. Step one is persistence and resilience. You can’t cry over every rejection. Trust me, I’ve been there and it is a waste of time. Not everyone will get back to you. Not everyone will even see your application, buried under a hundred others in cyberspace. If you didn’t get the job, then it wasn’t meant to be. Next. The more applications you send out, the more people will see you. Law of probability says someone will notice as the sample size gets larger. Now that that’s made clear, let’s talk about the college Career Center. Yes, the place that your professors tell you to go to and you see emails and posters for it, but you don’t go. Two words, go there! I went to mine a few times, but I never really took advantage of all it had to offer. My renewed energy for my job search started when I had an open discussion with one of the career coaches and he told me what I could do with my LinkedIn to make the most out of online networking. From his advice, I joined my university’s LinkedIn alumni group. Then I threw caution into the wind. With a few thousand as an audience, I put up a post saying I was a recent graduate pursuing HR and that I would love to hear from HR professionals about their experiences and how they broke into the field. Notice how I didn’t beg anyone for a job, I made it about them. Say how much you would love to learn from a respected expert. Within a week, I had a senior vice president from ViacomCBS and a manager from Amazon in my network. I had phone calls and Zoom calls with these people. I asked them if there were more people I could speak to to learn more and my network grew even more. I now have over a hundred connections, all spurring from a simple request that tested the waters. And once you make these connections, don’t forget about them. You can’t expect immediate results, rather imagine it as planting seeds. Catch up with them once a month, like and comment on their posts, keep up with their company news and ask them about it. That way if something does open up, you’ll be among the first on their minds. When I did actually land my full-time job, I sent thank you notes to some folks in my network letting them know how grateful I was for their advice, once again sowing seeds for future opportunities, one of which turned into an invitation onto an alumni panel. 

            Another tactic I adopted was spreading my reach. As I mentioned, I had profiles on several different sites. LinkedIn has been great for networking and employers contacting me directly. However, I had the most success with Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter with finding job titles I wanted in good locations and hearing from responsive employers. Nevertheless, have a whole bunch of profiles. Some employers only use certain job sites. Some don’t use any, only using their own websites for applications. Sometimes a smart Google search can bring up lists of jobs close to home or out-of-state, depending on what you want. You want to have complete profiles on here, outlining your job experiences just as well as they hopefully do on your resume.

            Speaking of resumes, yes, what are we sending to these people in the first place? I went to the Career Center a few times during my undergrad years, and it was always for resume review, mostly because business class after business class made a Career Center-reviewed resume an assignment. I’ve had my resume looked at about ten times from coaches, professors, mentors, and actual recruiters. Of course there is no correct way to write a resume and I cannot exactly speak to the creatives who should have colorful resumes showcasing their talent, but there are some things resumes should have in common. Let’s get one thing out of the way, no one cares about your GPA. I have only seen GPAs as a job requirement for internships and rotationals, but seldom full-time jobs. If your GPA is a modest 2.7, don’t put it on your resume. Past professors of mine have said to not even bother with it unless it’s a 3.9 or 4.0. Because just making it through college is an accomplishment, all grades aside. Employers just want to see you have the piece of paper. They know college teaches you thought and problem-solving, not how to do the job. 

            My resume starts with an objective statement. I’ve heard mixed reviews on them, but I find it to be a nice little opening message saying who I am and what I’m looking for, confidently. Because education is basically just a check box for them, I have it last. Instead I have my skills first, as a quick list advertising what I can do for you. Nothing complicated about it, just listing all the programs I know and all the soft skills I have. Then is the meat of it, the work experience. Everything should be symmetrical and easy for them to navigate. The position title, the company name and location, and date from and date to should be immediately noticeable. Don’t have too many experiences to overwhelm them; choose your top four. Don’t write too many bullets with them either, around 4-6 should do it, and try to keep each bullet on one line if possible. More readable that way. Now for the fun part, what to put in there? Let’s say you were a cashier. You could say how you served a hundred customers a day and you rang up items, but that’s not really what they’re looking for. Sure, you want to give them an idea of what you did, but you also want to show how you added value. What does this mean? Well, what made you an asset to the team or the store? Maybe you learned functions faster than everyone else, maybe you got a raise or promotion quickly, maybe you provided outstanding customer service, maybe you were trusted to train your peers. And this is just pulling things from a cashier job. Don’t underestimate the skills food service and retail jobs give you either. So many candidates lack people skills. Start your bullets with varying active verbs that exude confidence and initiative.

            Then I have my education, my masters and bachelors programs separated. School name, graduation or expected graduation date, location and degrees earned or in progress is what I have in addition to my awards and teaching assistant roles. If you’re struggling to fill up the space, you can include volunteering you did, clubs you’re in, classes you’ve taken, projects you’ve created. You’d be surprised how much there is to pull from. Be careful with length though. My Career Center told me to stick to a page, though recruiters I’ve spoken to are okay with a page and a half, but rarely want over two pages unless you’re a med student with a CV. They don’t have all day, after all. This is the best parts of you on paper, so you want to make it confident and succinct. One crucial thing to remember about the resume is that it’s always changing. When you’re ready to put it down, you may pick it back up again next week. Some useful job function may pop into your head that makes you go, “That sets me apart. Employers will like this.” It’s a document that evolves with you.

            Every once in a while, an employer might also want a cover letter from you. Yeah, I hate writing them too, but if you’re applying for the same types of positions over and over, you can basically keep a template and swap some words around. While you write this, have the job description in front of you. Speak their language. Start with a formal greeting. The point of this letter is to convince a recruiter why they should care about your resume. The opening paragraph should introduce you, who you are, and your profound interest in the position at their company. Then summarize why they are a good fit for you and you are a good fit for them. In my second paragraph, I bring up my most relevant experience and go in-depth about it for about 4-5 sentences. Bring up skills that match the job description. Following that I list additional qualifications I have in bullets. These are basically one for one with the job description. The job description says “must have excellent time management skills with the ability to multi-task,” so you should write in your cover letter something like “Possesses strong time management skills and ability to multi-task.” You have what they want and it shows you actually looked at the job description. Then I close by reaffirming my interest, summarizing again why I am a great fit, and that I look forward to hearing from them soon. Pop in a nice “sincerely,” your name, and your contact information again so they can see it everywhere. While the resume can be between one and two pages, I would never make the cover letter longer than a page. Again, this is an invitation to read your resume so the meat of who you are should be there. 

            Let’s say you did all this. Then you get the call or the email, saying this is so-and-so from such-and-such, we were impressed by your credentials and inviting you to an interview. Choose the time that works best for you. In my experience, interviewing takes practice and it’s tough the first several times. There will be interviewers who are too nice, lulling you into a false sense of security, some who are stone cold and don’t look impressed the whole time, and those right in the middle. And of course in our modern era, there are four types of interviews I’ve come across: phone, online without an interviewer, online with an interviewer, and on-site. 

            Many companies like to do a phone screen/interview before meeting you in person. Usually, these are very basic questions like, tell me about yourself, why did you choose your major, why this position, why this company, and maybe a question or two from your resume. It is very difficult to go through all the nuances of interviews, but I will do my best. I will go over all the types first and how to approach them, then jump to the types of questions that can pop up. But before going on the phone, something to keep in mind. All interviews should require a bit of preparation. You don’t have to go crazy before a phone screen as much as the others, but you should go into any interview knowing who the company is, what they sell, what their mission statement is, what their values are, the job description of what you applied for, questions for them, and how you fit into all of it. This can all be pulled easily from company websites or third-parties like Glassdoor. You can even have notes in front of you on the phone.

The big thing about the phone is that they can’t see you. You don’t have to bust out your suit and tie or your blouse or skirt, but there are things to keep an eye out for. The interviewer of course can hear you. They can’t see your smile, but they can hear it. Sound enthusiastic and motivated on the phone. Every answer you provide must be relevant to your work experiences and their company, don’t stray from that. A common phone interview question is as I said, “Tell me about yourself,” and recruiters have told me this question traps people. Candidates hear this question and start talking about their families, their pets, their vacations, their hobbies. My sincerest apologies, for the sake of the conversation, they don’t care about that. This question should prompt your elevator pitch. Your thirty second summary of what you’re about and why you are a great asset to any company. Your love of hiking doesn’t do that. When I answer this question, I say I am pursuing a masters at Stony Brook in HR, I graduated with bachelors in business and psychology with a 3.9 GPA, that I love HR because it is the perfect marriage between the data and analytics I love for business and interpersonal skills, training, and empathy you learn in psychology, and one thing about the company and how I fit into it. Very important note for any interview, if they ask you and they will ask you if you have any questions, you better ask them some questions. Saying, “No, I’m good,” basically means you haven’t looked into their company and you don’t care about it. You don’t want to ask too many questions but recruiters max out at about 3-5 questions. I bring extra just in case some of them are answered over the course of the interview. Pulling in language from their mission statement, values, annual report, recent social media posts, or the job description is a plus and it’s a way to show them you did your research. When you conclude the call, tell them how thankful you are they took the time for you and that you want to know the next steps. Don’t demand it, but make it a polite question. As an added bonus, if you know the recruiter’s email, send them a thank you note, appreciating them taking the time for you, and that the call affirmed your interest in the role and why you know it’s a good match. Don’t be afraid to follow up if you don’t hear from them for a while either. If anything, it shows your eagerness.

Alternatively, no one calls and you get an email invite to a virtual interview without an interviewer. These haven’t been too popular in my life, but I’ve done a few. It’s a way for them to see and hear you before calling you on-site. To be honest, these are my least favorite because you’re talking on and on to nobody and you can’t tell if you sound good or where to stop. These websites will prompt you with a question, give you some planning time, then record you for about a minute or two. They will usually give you more than one try at it as well. This is more like a real interview than the phone, so you should have some notes and stories ready to go. I will get more into anecdotes with the other two types of interviews. 

So you survived the phone call. A few days later you get an email inviting you to the next interview. You thank them in a response and you choose the time. It’s a virtual interview with an interviewer who will meet you. With the current climate I am sure will persist, these are great to save on travel expenses. You should treat a virtual interview the same you would an in-person, only they can only see your face and shoulders. First, let’s talk about the technical aspects. There’s an art to setting up your laptop/desktop camera. Make sure your background is clear of clutter. I know someone who did an interview in front of a rack of alcohol. Not a good look. You still want to dress for the occasion in business formal/casual. And yes, you can keep your sweatpants on, just make sure you don’t stand up at any point. I knew someone who’s done that, too. You also want to make sure your camera is eye-level. Most desks are not. What you can do is take some books and stack them on each other to raise your laptop even with your face so you’re not caught at an unflattering angle. Now let’s talk about light. You want your face to have more exposure than your background. I usually sit in front of my open window, so natural light is on my face, and the background fades away. You can also position a lamp behind your laptop to do this as well. Last is framing and eye contact. Your head should pretty much take up the entire height of the screen, not too far away. You can lean in too, to be more interested. The most irksome part though is eye contact. Although your interviewer is on your screen, your camera is above them. Keep eye contact on your camera, otherwise it looks like you’re looking down. Some recruiters are more aware of this than others, but I have known some that are bothered by apparent “lack of eye contact.” Before we get into questions, let’s go over in-person.

You may be called to come on-site. Less often now, but still a possibility. Biggest difference here is that the interviewer can see the posture of your whole body. Even if the firm has a casual dress code, come in business formal. And once you enter the building, even if you’re in the lobby waiting twenty minutes for the interviewer, I advise against checking your social media or playing games on your phone. Once you’re in there, all eyes are on you. You never know if the receptionist will make a passing comment to your interviewer. Another golden rule is to always arrive fifteen minutes early to the interview. Arriving too early makes the interviewer feel rushed for keeping you waiting, and coming late is well, disrespectful. They’re not going to care about your bad traffic excuses. Here you have to pay a lot of attention to your posture and grooming. Shower, do your hair, remove the chipped paint from your nails, and come in clean. Lean in slightly toward the interviewer to be engaged and maintain eye contact. Try not to fidget and be aware of your usual ticks. Nod and make verbal agreements when the interviewer is talking about the company. 

So now that we’ve talked about the anatomy of these interviews, what do you actually do to succeed? This component took me a long time to get the least bit competent with. You’ll notice I’ve said confidence a lot in this piece and that’s really a big component. If you’re not confident in yourself and your abilities, why would they hire you? They don’t want a pushover. And this is why personality matters more than grades. If they train their employees, anyone can be trained to do the job, but the right attitude has to be there in the first place. You do not want to be too relaxed and cocky however, lest you come off as uncaring and condescending. Now of course confidence is one thing, and content is another. Maybe you did some research for your first round interview, but you want to make sure you are a surface-level expert. Read their company page, read news they may have been featured in, know their mission statement, know what their core values are, know what they do for the community, have that job description near memorized, and have around seven questions ready to go that draw from company specifics, corporate culture, and the position. I like to bring in notes and questions with me, but it is a toss-up whether interviewers like when you do that. Up to you if you want to take that chance. Just don’t bring pages and pages with you, just key words. Then you want your anecdotes, stories drawn from your work experiences that can basically be repurposed to answer any question. Did you say stories? Yes, I did. Don’t talk for an hour, but you want to share with a stranger something you did and what was the result. Many firms, including Amazon back what is known as the STAR Method. This stands for situation, task, action, result. Situation: framing what the problem was. I’ll use an example from my internship with Broadridge. The situation was that I was put on a team of five to find an operational deficiency and use the semester to pitch a researched solution to management. Task: what you had to do. What challenges and constraints did you face? My example, I found that their warehouse was disorganized and they needed a centralized system to keep track of their leads and orders. So, I led my team in finding a solution to this problem. We decided to pitch a digital warehouse management system, and conduct research on its benefits, costs, implementation, training, etc. Action: what did you do in response to this task. How did what you do highlight your teamwork, initiative, leadership, or other qualities? For me, it was my idea so I wanted to own it. I led my team, delegated tasks, cheered them on when morale was low. I really wanted to use the opportunity to become confident with presenting and my energy was infectious on my teammates. And we completed the project on time with positive feedback. Result: talk about what was achieved, something you learned, how it benefited the company. Management was pleased with our project, felt it had a lot of merit. They even decided to purchase a warehouse management system not long after we presented. And I learned a lot about project management and working with a team long-term. Altogether, you talk for about a minute or two, trying to fit in buzzwords from the job description. Master your stories, know every detail in case the interviewer asks for follow-up. You don’t need twenty stories. Just having five to eight should suffice to answer any question if you choose wisely. 

There are three types of interviews I have encountered. They are what I will dub as basic, behavioral, and situational. I would say that is in order of difficulty. The basic interview is what a smaller firm is most likely to conduct or what to expect from a larger firm’s first round. It tends not to dig very deep. This is where you’ll get questions like “tell me about yourself,” “why did you chose that as your major,” “what did you do during your time at Company A,” “where do you see yourself in ten years,” and “what are your strengths and weaknesses.” These might not require as many anecdotes, but these are common questions you should always be prepared to answer. And if you can, always relate it to the job description and company values. Does your major align with their values? Were your responsibilities at Company A similar to what you’d be doing here? Just as a bonus, don’t panic about the weakness question. Never say you don’t have one, because no one’s perfect. When you do share one, don’t act like you’ve done nothing about it. What do you do to actively combat this weakness? How have you improved? The most important thing is again, confidence and staying on track. 

Behavioral interviews are where your anecdotes really come into play. These questions tend to start with “Can you tell me about a time when…” They might ask about a time you took a risk, a time you dealt with a difficult peer, a time you dealt with a harsh deadline, a time you were a leader, a time you had to make a tough decision, and more. These possibilities should be generated in your head and practiced beforehand. Rehearse by yourself or with a friend or relative. Work on sounding natural although you’ve used the same stories over and over. Use that STAR Method and demonstrate how you added value to the company. Why you are a superstar to have on any team. 

Situational interviews are a little more experimental and more popular with large firms. Your specific anecdotes won’t do you much good here, but what you’ve learned from your experiences will. In this interview, the interviewer gives you a hypothetical scenario you may face on the job if you were to get the position. Something like, “Tasha and Rob have the same position. If those in that position met certain criteria, they were entitled to a bonus this year for their performance. Rob received it in his check, but Tasha did not. You notice Tasha was short in her hours to receive this bonus. She comes to your office to inquire about the bonus, how do you respond?” Then you would say what you would do, then the interviewer will add-on to the scenario depending on your response and ask a follow-up. Maybe you say you would explain the criteria to her and that she did not meet it. Then the interviewer might say that Tasha grows disgruntled and talks to you rudely. This type of interview keeps you on your toes but your experiences in conflict should guide you and match policy and company values. It helps the interviewer know how you might behave in the role. 

So you concluded your interview. You thanked the interviewer for their time, went home and sent them a thank you email that affirmed your interest. Even if you do well, you may just not fit into their culture. But remember, you are interviewing the company a bit yourself, that’s why you ask questions of your own. The company’s values should align with yours too. It should be where you want it to be in terms of industry, role, benefits, compensation, location, and you decide where you want to give and take. If there’s one thing you should take away from this, it’s that job searching is miserable. It’s long and laborious. I like to say looking for a job is a job. But, we have to do it. Be confident, be resilient, be communicative. Companies are hiring. Recruiters are looking. A perfect stranger could be your next opportunity. And once you land that first job, it gets a whole lot easier.