If you google, there are lot of tips and articles from professionals on this topic. By no means I am an expert on this topic, but I would like to share with all of you, what I did personally, to land my first job offer.
First of all if you are a student I would suggest getting help from your university career center to tailor your resume and cover letter for the job role you desire. For clear, concise statements get help from the university writing center.
Make sure you have up to date LinkedIn profile. I personally consider LinkedIn the most important tool in the job search process, because it helps you portray your skills and also to get in touch with the right people.
Later, set up job alerts with your job specific keywords on all possible job hunting websites, like for e.g. — LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Monster, Dice, AngelList etc. Don’t forget to setup job alerts on individual company websites as well.
Now that you have your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn and alerts setup, time to proceed with the application process.
- Apply to the job positions through the job portal.
- Connect with recruiters, talent acquisitions, HR’s of those company on LinkedIn send them personalized invitation (300 character limit).
- Look for people with connection 500+ usually they will accept your connection request, but make sure that you send them personalized request.
- Once they accept your request, reach out to them on LinkedIn or their personal/ work email mentioned in the contact details section of LinkedIn with proper job position title and requisition id, write a short and succinct message asking them to help you connect with the hiring team/ manger/ recruiter. Also, this time attach your resume/ github profile/ portfolio displaying your job related skill-sets.
- Look up for people on LinkedIn in those companies in those particular teams and or with similar job titles, don’t be afraid to reach out to the Managers, Supervisors, Team leads and or even VP or Directors of those particular teams and or group.
- Connect with your former friends, alumni and reach out to them as well.
- Follow up with them after about a week, follow up for 2/3 weeks and if they respond then proceed accordingly, else just reach out to new people or move on to the next job position.
- Repeat steps 1 through 7 and Keep trying — NEVER GIVE UP! till you get the job you want.
Key points to remember during the process —
- Don’t just apply and wait, try to get in touch with HR/ recruiter/ talent acquisition/ any person in that particular team or with similar job title at that company.
- Be polite and patient with people as they are helping you out and you need them. Sometimes they might just forget to reply, so just follow up. There are following types of people:
a) Who check both LinkedIn and their mail and they are not in the right position to help you.
b) Who check both LinkedIn and their mail and they want to help you but usually forget to reply back as they are busy.
c) People who just check one of the two and same as above two points - Send email/ messages to people usually in the morning around 9/10 am as per their time zone. Never send mail/ messages during night time, you can draft those mails and send in the morning. Avoid sending messages/ mails to them a day before and a day after a public holiday.
- Do not bug anyone again and again, respect them.
Sample personalized LinkedIn connection requests —
Hi John,
I am Gaurav. Recently, I applied to xyz (Job ID.) position with abc company. I would be grateful if you could help me get in touch with the hiring team. I have xyz related experience.
Regards,
Gaurav
Thanks for reading the post if you like it please do clap. Feel free to post your comments and suggestion. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, I would be happy to help if I can.
