Job Application: Do's & Dont's

Applying for jobs is a very tiring & tedious process and the same happens at an HR/Hiring manager end. They usually review thousands of applications to find the right fit, so how do you stand out of the crowd?

Read the Job Description & Requirements well: It’s very important for candidates to know whether they really fit the role or not, if you don’t fit the role at all don’t waste your time applying for the job as you will never get a revert but in case you think you might pick some of the skills they require – Read the point no and follow those steps. Just for your information – I had recently posted a VP Engineering role online and trust me 50% of the resumes that I received were fresher’s or students in their final year.

2)   Cover Note: I have seen many job applicants making separate cover notes and attaching it with the email. Rather your cover note itself can become your email body. Do not mention things that are already there on your resume rather market yourself. Tell the Recruiter

• Why you fit the particular role.
• How passionate you are – Tell your story
• What have been your major accomplishments in life.
• Mention your Github, Stack overflow, LinkedIn and other social media links,
• If you have an online portfolio or website or blogs that you write share it with them.
• Do not share your mark sheets, passport copies and other such documents until you reach the final stage.
• Keep it short and sweet, you don’t need to write essays, no one has that much time to reach through everything

 3)   Resume: It’s very important to have a good formatted resume. It is like a marketing deck of your company. Its needs all the required information about you to pitch it well in front the hiring managers. Many HR/Hiring Managers look at your profile for not more than 10 seconds and they make a decision whether to shortlist or reject.

-      Resumes should not be of more than 1-2 pages max. Not kidding I have come across resumes having 6-40+ pages as well, no one in this world has that much time to read.

-      I usually prefer PDF’s, but even if it’s a word document make sure it’s well formatted.

-      Choose standard and professional fonts, do not make it look cluttered (Until & unless you a designer) and unprofessional

-      Summary, Education & Certification, Experience, Accomplishments, etc. You can also create an online web version of your resume – I like using https://www.visualcv.com/ - They also have good free templates that you can download as well.

4)   Job Application: Reach out the decision makers directly. In case of startups reach out to founders/ Co-Founders, etc. directly and tell them why you fit the job. There are multiple plugins & websites available to find email addresses online, connect with founders on LinkedIn, send them a personalised message on LinkedIn. Following up with HR/Hiring Managers/Founders is the key because if I were to give you my example I get nearly about 500+ messages on LinkedIn weekly and about 1000+ resumes on my email address. I can’t respond to each and every one. Sometimes I might even miss out on good candidates but people who follow up will always get a response from me because I know that person is really interested and looking out for something.  

5)   Mass Mail: Do not mass mail your resume to a lot of HR’s together. I have also received resumes from people who have added 100+ HR’s in the cc and sent their resume. I never look at those resumes that doesn’t give me a good first impression of the candidate, it seems like the person is really lazy to send personalised email & it’s also disrespectful.

6)   Personal Brand: Build your personal brand, write & share things that you have done on social media, reach out to people, get guidance, have mentors, network with founders. I know of candidates who are really good at writing but they don’t share their work just thinking about what people will comment or think about them. It really doesn’t matter! Keep sharing your work, write about things that you love doing and it can be anything!

 7)   Interviews: Please read about the company before going for any interview in any company. I have come across this literally everyday where candidates come for an interview and they really don’t know anything about the company and some have not even looked their website once. You should always read about the company, infact you should go through their product/service and come up with some of your ideas that you think might work for their product or things that you think should be a part of the service. Dress well, ask the right questions, be curious, etc. Interviews are the best time where you can explore a lot of avenues if you leverage it well.

 That is all if you need more information or any guidance feel free to reach out to me [email protected] or you can ping me here on LinkedIn.