Looking for a new position can be a very frustrating process. You have the right education and experience for the position you are interested in. You go to a job board or two and send in your resume to a number of positions that you feel qualified for and - nothing. Sometimes you get a rejection notice, sometimes they tell you that if you’re a match they will be in touch, and sometimes you don’t hear anything. How can you use strategy to better your odds?
The first thing to understand is that job boards are often filled with posts by placement agencies. Placement agencies often enter fake jobs in order to get your resume into their files. So not every job that you see listed is an actual current opportunity. Placement agencies also are generally unfamiliar with the specific technologies that the hiring company is looking for. Because of this, they are looking for very specific key words and if there isn’t a direct match, they won’t forward it on even if you have experience with technologies that are considered substitutes. Placement agencies are also generally connected to the HR/recruiting department at the hiring company, but do not have direct contact with the hiring manager. This means that if there are any clarifications that need to be made it's more difficult for a placement agency to get the information they need. Placement agencies will generally only store a single version of your resume. If you are open to a number of different types of opportunities, it may be very difficult to get them to work with you. It’s important to note that not every placement agency is like this, so if you have gotten good recommendations about an agency you should approach them directly, and not for a generic job board.
Searching for jobs directly on companies job boards may provide better options, however, it is a bigger hassle because you have to search them each individually. Today, a good number of companies post their jobs on LinkedIn, so looking there would be better than a generic job board. Another advantage of LinkedIn is that you can see if you know people at the company you are interested in. Most companies offer referral bonuses to employees who recommend someone to hire. So it is in their best interest to not only help you, but to push a bit to make sure you get the interview. You should generally approach your contact at the company before sending in your resume, as opposed to informing afterwards. This allows them to give you a referral and often the ability of following up, as well.
The most important aspect of the job search is your resume. It is very unlikely that you will get an interview if your resume doesn’t match the listed requirements by at least 80-90%. Recruiters often get hundreds of resumes for each position they post. They review each resume only a few seconds to see if it matches the requirements. Most people, at least in the technology field, are qualified for multiple types of jobs that they would be happy to do. A single resume cannot adequately cover multiple acceptable positions as well as multiple perspectives on their experience. A resume is not meant to be a dry, fixed list of your past experience. It is meant to be a marketing document that accurately portrays how you are a good fit for a particular position and convinces the company to invite you for an interview.
What does this mean from a practical perspective? Read each job post that you see and understand what they are looking for. Make a copy of your resume and start to modify it. The first thing is the job title that they are looking for. Your CV should have an objective, where you state that this is what you are looking to do. Look at your experience and see if the job titles that you have listed there are a good lead up to the job that you are applying for. Previous job titles have to accurately represent what you did at a previous company, but do not have to have the exact title that the previous company gave you. As an example, if you were not an official team lead, but you mentored less experienced employees on your team, performed code reviews, defined workloads for the team and similar, you can write you were a team lead. It’s important to note that during the interview you should mention that while practically you were in a team leader position, this wasn’t an official title. That way when they call your references, they won’t be surprised to hear that you were a senior engineer but did not have the “team leader” role. However, if you didn’t actually manage people, don’t write that you were a manager. You can say you did matrix management, which is being responsible for giving tasks and having them done without being responsible for managing the person. Another example is if you had your own small company and are now looking to be an employee, don’t write on the resume that you were the CEO and President. CEOs generally don’t get hired for sales or programming positions. If you did sales and are looking for a sales position, for example, write that you were a sales person for the company.
The bullet points in your job experience should also be customized for their relevance to the job description and hiring company. If you have a few years of experience in a certain position, and some of that was very relevant to the position you are looking at, make sure that those points are listed. As an example, I worked at a place for 3 years and during the course of that employment I spent a few months developing a decision support system. I applied for another job at a company whose main product was a decision support system. My bullet points for my experience specifically mentioned that system and because of that I got the interview (and a job offer which I didn’t take). Remember, you have to be able to talk it up, including examples of this experience.
Listing technologies is a double edged sword. On the one hand, if you don’t have experience with the technologies listed in the requirements, you likely will not get the interview. On the other hand, anything that you put on your resume is fair game for them to ask you about. So if you add technologies that you don’t have real experience, you will probably be asked for practical examples of how exactly you used them. It is good practice to include your level of experience with each technology, so that the interviewer will know how much to expect that you will know.
Finding a job is a lot of work, and the more effort you are willing to put in, the better chances you have. In summary, while your resume must be accurate, it should be looked at as a marketing document that is customized per job that you apply to. Good luck in your job search.
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