I've Helped 160 People and Myself Land Their Dream Job. Here's 3 Easy Ways To Land Yours.

Back in 2013, when I was an over-ambitious little freshman, I started to research all the possible internships I could apply to as a first year college student. There was none. But that did not stop me from learning more about the process.

I am the first professional in my family-- I didn't really have anyone to teach me how to navigate the job search process. I learned everything from hours of research, reading, and networking with older professionals. It's how I eventually fell in love with career consulting, and how I eventually chose to a career in Human Resources.

When it comes to employment, I have a vertically integrated experience with the process. I have been a job seeker, I help people land jobs, and I help companies hire people. Within the last three years, I've applied to ~75 companies and landed ~50 interviews, helped 160 people land a dream job, and looked at over 600 resumes to hire for several technical positions. From my personal experience, my role as a career mobilizer, and as a Human Resources professional, I've found three easy ways someone can strengthen their candidacy.

1. Tailor Your Resume and Cover Letter.

Most people don't. They're not tricking anyone. I can tell, and recruiters can tell when someone "resume dropped" their company almost instantly. It sends the message that they don't care enough about the company.

A tailored resume is like wearing a tailored outfit. Your physique is the same in both cases, but one does more justice for your "look" than the other.

How can you avoid the "unfitted" look? Research. Find information from white papers, blog posts, social media, financial reports (10-Ks), interviews, etc., then mention those specifics in your cover letter. But always make sure what you're mentioning ties back to your skillset, how you can add value to the company, or something personal.

Another way to tailor is to explicitly state the skills required/ job responsibilities from the job description in your resume. It's underrated, yet an easy way to indicate that you've done your research.

You should have a different resume and cover letter for every company, role, and job description. It's good to have a "master" resume which contains all your relevant experience, but use it as a point of reference when creating the resume you're submitting to a company. For example, let's say you're applying to financial analyst position at Boeing and Lockheed Martin. My bet is you have a "financial" resume that you will submit to both. The problem is even though both job titles are the same, there may be key differences in the job description, and in the companies' culture that you're not taking into account in your resume. In reality, you need a "Boeing financial" resume, and a "Lockheed Martin financial" resume.

A tailored resume and cover letter makes your resume stand out from those who just submitted untailored resumes, and it shows that you took the time and effort when applying for a job, and that you're serious about your candidacy.

2. Practice Interviewing.

Interviews only measure how well you can interview. They measure nothing else as causally. This means that in order to get better with phone screen interviews, in-person interviews, or group interviews, you need to practice.

As you interview, you may begin to notice that your interviewers, with the exception of a few deviating questions, will ask you the same questions over and over. This is great because it means you can prepare ahead. Glassdoor and TheMuse cover some of the most used interview questions.

Write down your response, read it, and rehearse. If you're comfortable (I know, we all hate the sound of our own voices), record yourself and actively listen to your responses. Look for places for improvement, and try again. Eventually, you can make them sound more natural.

Once they sound natural, begin to involve other people. You can:

• Schedule a mock-interview with your school's career counselor or a private career consultant.
• Use your friend (but buy them a meal to show thanks!)
• Interview at actual companies.

I used a mix of the above techniques, but really relied on the last one. For fun, and for my psychology research, I would apply to companies I did not intend to join to practice my interviewing (bonus points if you can get feedback from the recruiter). I noticed that when I later interviewed for my dream companies, I interviewed much better because I practiced in an actual environment.

3. Get Experience, or Make Your Own.

One of the things I absolutely hate the most about job searching is that many entry level jobs these days require experience, and in order for someone to get experience, they need an entry level job. It's vicious circular reasoning that I frequently ran into when applying for jobs, and when working with my clients.

There are three ways I can recommend to someone to out-maneuver this ridiculous requirement. You can:

1. Provide free work for non-profits.
2. Take on unpaid internships, or paid jobs from more "obscure" companies.
3. Create your own projects (e.g. a fake marketing campaign).

I opted in for the last option. When I was looking for a data visualization internship over this summer, many of the jobs I was applying for needed someone with prior experience in the field. Recognizing that I am a humanities major, I had to learn a more technical skillset to interview with these companies. The semester prior, I taught myself R (a programming language), found untouched data sets on the internet, performed data analysis, and wrote it up as a research paper. When I put that experience on my resume, I suddenly began receiving interviews.

There are some jobs that might be harder to create projects for, but it's possible with a little creativity. And hey, if you can generate your own projects, you can also put "self-starter" as one of your skills, too!

Closing Thoughts

To summarize:

1. A tailored resume gives you a better "look" as a candidate. It shows you've done your research, and that you care.
2. Interviews only tell you how good you are at interviewing. Answer the most common interview questions, rehearse, and practice with others.
3. Gain a little more experience. Take any opportunities you can to bolster your experience, and if there's none, create your own.

These are just three of many tips I have to offer. I'd like to make this a weekly post series for job hunters, so if this article was helpful, let me know so I can publish more!

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Kunal is one of LinkedIn's Top Voices. You can follow him on Twitter (@KunalKerai) or send him any wonderful insights you may have to [email protected].

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