10 Tips for Being a Successful Candidate in Finland

How can you be a successful candidate in Finland and land that career-defining dream job? How can you navigate through companies’ recruitment processes, and stay on top of their minds? Let me share some tips that will help you get there.

1. Perfect Your CV

You would need to have personalized your CV towards every role you are applying to. Most of the time this is not the case. Having a good universal CV is a great way to spread out your applications. This is great if you are sending your CV to a recruitment agency from which they can get a full understanding of your skills and experience.

2. Create or Have an Online Presence

Not having an online presence isn’t an option in the modern age. People who don’t have an online presence can be regarded in worst cases as having something to hide. Transparency is the key; we want that from companies and workplaces, so is it an unfair expectation from companies and recruiters?

3. Be Consistent and Up to Date

Nothing is worse than having your CV up to date and your LinkedIn profile being behind by months or even years. Having an online presence means taking care of your profiles and keeping them up to date. This will reflect consistency in detail-oriented behavior.

4. Be an Active Participant

What does being an active participant mean in the recruitment process? There is a slight line of doing it just the right amount and being too active which can deter the decision to hire you. Doing a follow up after an interview is a great way to show professionalism. It also gives you the chance to clarify some things that bothered you in the interview or after it. You could even go as far as asking about a challenge the company is currently facing, and then formulating a solution in an email to them afterwards.

5. Upload Your CV

Uploading your CV to different job boards and recruitment agency websites doesn’t mean you need take the first position they hand in for you. It is a good way to put yourself out there and show that you are ready to listen about new opportunities. You never know when your dream job might come knocking and from where. For a great CV check out our blog about it.

6. Don’t Apply to Everything

This is one rule I’d follow most of all. It is clear for recruiters if you use the same application text everywhere. In worst case you might end up applying twice to a same place by accident. It will speak volumes of you and get you discarded in 99% of the cases. Unless you have exceptional skills in some specific area.

7. Do Your Homework

By homework I mean getting to know the company and employees if possible. There are few things which show more commitment than asking relevant questions in your application and in the interview. You might have come up with a solution to one of their problems already. Telling about it in the interview will make you shine compared to the rest of the applicants.

8. Dress for the Occasion

Dressing right for an interview is way easier these days than it used to be. It is not so much of a shot in the dark anymore when you can see people’s online profiles. Always dress little better than they dress and you are fine. Dressing up too much or too little can have negative reactions. Moderation is the key in everything!

9. Respect the Recruiter

Respect here meaning that don’t follow up too often or too many times and give some time for the decision. Some things take time in business life and especially if you are in a process for a challenging role. A good recruiter will let you know as soon as they know more about your process.

10. Don’t Be a Sore Loser

There are many things affecting the recruitment decisions in a company. It could be there was a better fit for the current position or somebody more senior applied. This doesn’t mean you should get too upset although it might feel you have given it your all. Remember that the recruiter saw your potential otherwise you wouldn’t be in the process.

Originally published at blog.agilesearch.se.