Refined job hunting tips from the trenches

The steps that were most effective in landing me the perfect job

The resume

It is really important. My resume is top-notch. I took the time to have my college career center, an HR professional, my professors, my internship supervisor, my classmates, and even my family look at it and give corrections. In total over the past year or two I have been working on it, I updated my resume at least 15 times based on feedback from at least eight different people.

It was worth it. In my case, I did not get a job. But, another HR manager in the same company liked my resume so much that I was offered an interview for another position. This position was a perfect fit for me. So it turns out that the job I accepted was only offered because of my resume. All of the other great stuff like personal website, LinkedIn, portfolio, and blog adds weight and proof to the information on that fantastic resume.

Asking Professors or other well connected people for job leads

I applied to over 40 jobs through Linkedin and company websites. I also participated in over 10 phone interviews and three in-person interviews for positions from these sources. For the most part, they were a waste of time compared to quality of leads from people in my network. Seriously, in terms of pay, company quality, and location, leads from my network were three times as good as leads from a career website. If I had to do it again, I would spend more time on network leads and less on applying to job board leads.

Interviewing well

Since I have a strong background in improv comedy and performing in front of an audience without a script, interviewing was a breeze. I also participated in a mock interview at my career center. If you have less experience, practice.

Korean Update:

Today I relearned a few things from yesterday. And now, I understand them a lot more. Maybe the information is not new, but the feeling of, “Oh, I got it!” certainly is.