Improve Your Job Search Results
I’ve been searching for a job since June 20. I quit my last job on April 1 and took some time to finish the freeCodeCamp curriculum and polish my portfolio. In the first two-and-a-half months of my search I submitted 85 application, got 2 interviews, 1 phone screen that couldn’t end fast enough and a few phone calls from recruiters. But in the last week, I’m 3 for 3 on getting a direct response and in 2 cases set up a phone-screen. What changed?
I know that best results come from using your contact network to boost your job search. But I have worked remotely for the last 5 years and I’m switching careers, so my network hasn’t provided many insider scoops. Maybe you’re moving to a new city where you don’t have any contacts, or maybe you’re a recent grad who hasn’t had time to build up a business network. You need another method to differentiate your application and stand out from the crowd.
The Wrong Approach
Of the first 15 applications that I sent, all of them were positions within my former industry where I felt like I met the majority of the job qualifications. All of them were sent with well-researched cover letters, customized to the company and a resume that was tweaked to match the job description. From those I received exactly one response — a rejection. This is when I realized how hard the search was going to be — I was qualified for each of those jobs and had relevant experience and STILL couldn’t get a response.
Then I tried a volume approach — I somehow thought that if I just sent enough resumes my response rate would improve. So I applied to any local company where I met any of the qualifications, remote companies, startups…The only thing that improved was my rejection rate. I got my first interview from this group (yay!), but it was clear they needed someone more experienced (boo!).
Next I started responding to recruiters, and while I finally got to talk to some human beings, this approach mostly resulted in a lot of false hopes. Though to be fair, I did meet one exceptional recruiter who went over my resume and offered suggestions for improvement, was open minded about my career change, and ultimately scored my second interview. Still, something needed to change…
Quality not Quantity
So if being qualified didn’t work and playing the numbers game didn’t work, how did I improve my success rate? Like any good programmer, I approached this as a problem to solve — where is the error in my application process? I believe in my ability as a programmer, but I needed to convince the person on the other end of the job application of that fact. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that as a new developer, few if any, of the projects in my portfolio have much relevance to a prospective employer. So my solution was to create small apps written specifically for each company I applied to and include them in my cover letters. The best part was that the cover letters ended up writing themselves!
Results
The first position I tried this for was with a company that specializes in data visualizations. Their website showed the types of amazing infographics you see occasionally on the web that stop you in your tracks. I knew that if I got an interview I would need to be able to answer specific questions about D3, so I decided to brush up by coding my own data visualization. I spent a full day on it — enough so that it had some polish, but not too much to feel bad if it went nowhere. It also gave my cover letter an easy narrative that was personal and specific to the company. Within an hour of submitting it I had a response asking for a phone interview!
The second position was for a startup, and I found their interview challenge (create an invoicing system) in a year-old GitHub repository. They actually didn’t have any openings listed, but I completed it anyway and submitted a link along with my cover letter, explaining some of the decisions that went into it. Again it made for a compelling letter that wasn’t just a rehash of my (lack of) experience. The owner wrote back the next day and explained that they weren’t hiring, but invited me to connect on LinkedIn for when they were ready.
The third position was for a remote developer job. Their application process was more free-association than I’m used to (If you were a superhero what would your super power be?) but the final question was “Tell us about your favorite front end project”. Having just finished the Chingu Voyage cohort, I had an easy answer to the question. I gave them a link to our project and wrote about working as a team and how much I learned. Again I got a response within a day to set up a phone interview.
Stay Positive
This approach may not be for everybody — if you already have a professional portfolio, you probably don’t need to do this. But newbie developers need every edge we can get — so write some code and provide those companies with a concrete example of your work. We’re aspiring developers after all, so creating mini projects should be FUN. A great resource for ideas can be the companies’ GitHub page — what projects are they (or their developers) showcasing? I’ve spotted everything from bot projects to take-home interview challenges in those repositories. Between Heroku and Glitch and Surge and gh-pages, it’s easy to get a small project up within a day. I’m still searching for my first job, but just getting those responses has restored my positive outlook.
