Top 10 tips to separate from the crowd and land a new job.
Are you looking to take the next step in your career? Do you feel complacent in your current role? Are you interested in working in a different industry?
We all have different reasons for wanting to take the next step in our career, however finding and landing that next opportunity can be extremely difficult. I personally spent the better part of last year searching before finally finding a new role to take my career to the next step. The experience, however, taught me many lessons and best practices on how to find and secure a new job that I would like to share with you.
If you are seeking a career change and want to learn how to efficiently and effectively land a new job, keep reading for my top 10 tips to separate yourself from the crowd and land a new job.
Tip #1
Take a deep breath, be patient, and buckle up for the ride
Let’s face it, finding a new job is not easy. The process is time consuming, recruiters can be difficult to reach, and we have the most educated population in history all fighting for a limited number of roles.
At first, job searching will feel frustrating and every resume will appear to fall into a black hole. When this happens, take a deep breath and remind yourself that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and the right opportunity will eventually become available. Finding the right opportunity will likely take a significant amount of work, however in the end it will all pay off.
Be patient and buckle up for the ride.
Tip #2
Start building your personal brand on LinkedIn
Developing a public-facing professional brand is one of the best things anyone can do for their career. A well-built professional brand can help build credibility among co-workers, create business development opportunities with partners or clients, generate networking opportunities, or most importantly (given the context of this article) help potential employers learn about you.
One of the best of examples of success driven from personal branding is Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary has developed multiple businesses and revenue streams all built around his personal brand. Follow him on social media to see the type of content Gary creates, or read one of his books to learn some of the tactics Gary uses for promotion.
As an aspiring professional, one of the best places to start promoting your personal brand is on LinkedIn. Most of your co-workers are on LinkedIn, recruiters spend a large portion of time researching candidates on LinkedIn, and industry experts are constantly sharing valuable information on LinkedIn. Depending on your business or industry it can be beneficial to leverage other platforms as well (Facebook, Instagram, Medium, etc.), however LinkedIn is the best place to start if your goal is to find a new job.
Start building your brand by posting original and meaningful content regularly. At a minimum aim to post an original article, picture, video, etc. once a week. Daily posting is optimal, but requires a bit more time and effort. A majority of your content should be designed to position yourself as a subject matter expert in a specific industry. Post about industry trends, best practices, common pitfalls, etc. Occasionally mix in content from your personal life and some general content (e.g. tips for remote working) to keep things fresh. Make sure to include relevant hashtags with each of your posts so that others can find your content easily.
While you are building your brand through original content, start contributing to other people’s content. Search relevant hashtags and start commenting on and sharing other people’s posts. When commenting/sharing, try to provide additional value or insight, rather than just telling someone “great article.” The goal here is to start building your network and establish yourself as a domain expert. The more outreach you have, the more people will come back to you.
Tip #3
Search for internal opportunities
One of the easiest places to start searching for a new job is inside at your own company. If you are interested in moving to a different division (e.g. engineering to marketing), reach out to a manager in that group and let them know your interest. Ask if you can take on any stretch assignments to demonstrate your skills in that space or if they expect to have any new positions available. I would also highly recommend expressing your career development interests with your current manager. Managers generally do not like when their employees go behind their back, and generally a good manager will work with you to achieve your career development goals.
If you are ambitious and see an opportunity to grow the company (expand into new markets, develop new sales channels, etc.) don’t be afraid to propose a new position for yourself. Positions need to be justified, so start by creating a solid business plan around your idea. Make sure the business plan aligns with the strategic direction of the company as defined by the leadership team, otherwise you’ll run into heavy resistance. In the plan, identify current challenges the company is facing, define how the plan will improve the business (increase revenue, reduce cost, etc.) and finally list any organizational gaps that your company lacks. Large companies are generally slow to act on new business ideas, however at a minimum you might be given an opportunity to pilot and test your idea. A successful pilot could then lead to the promotion you were hoping for.
Tip #4
Network. Network. Network.
Statistics show that candidates are far more likely to receive a job offer with an internal referral than without. Whenever possible, search your network to identify people that would be willing to submit a referral on your behalf.
Friends and family are the easiest to start with and most likely to submit a referral on your behalf. Continuously search the career section for any company of interest that a friend or family member works at. Not only will they be able to submit a referral for you and put in a good word with the hiring manager, they may also get a referral bonus! Friends and family members can also interpret various job postings to figure out which roles you might be best qualified for.
Next, head to LinkedIn and look up former co-workers. See if any of them have taken new jobs or taken promotions at their existing company. If you made a good impression while working together in the past, a former co-worker is likely to submit a referral for you or put in a good word with the hiring manager for future opportunities.
Lastly, stay on LinkedIn and connect with recruiters and professionals at the companies you’ve applied at. For example, if you applied for a product manager position at Amazon, connect with as many Amazon recruiters, product managers, and directors of product management as you can. Ideally try to find any of them that shared a post about the open position of interest. Send each person a personalized note, express your interest in the position, and see if you can schedule a 5 minute call to introduce yourself. This active outreach will help you stand out and bypass the resume filters.
Tip #5
Remote positions can widen your reach
Is the job market limited where you live? Do you want to work in tech, but do not want to live in San Francisco? Do you enjoy working from home? Do you want to work and travel at the same time?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, I highly suggest including remote positions in your job search. More and more employers are open to full-time remote positions as they help reduce cost, expand candidate reach, and improve employee satisfaction. Remote positions can thus broaden your job search and provide access to thousands of additional jobs outside of your local market.
Tip #6
Design. Test. Evaluate. Repeat.
Many times in life, success only comes after learning from past failures. This holds true when searching for jobs. Chances are the first resume you send out will not lead to a job offer. Rather than send out the same resume for a year straight with no luck, continuously design, test, and evaluate your resume.
Design
Reflect on all your most recent accomplishments and consider which ones align best with the position you are striving for. Create a short list of the most important achievements and include them in your resume. Use as much data as possible in your resume to demonstrate the results of your efforts. Use leading indicators (e.g. number of leads generated) to showcase tactics, and use lagging indicators (e.g. revenue impact) to demonstrate results. For example: “Led a social media campaign that generated 1000 customer leads, resulting in a 10% increase in product category revenue.”
Once your resume is updated, ask a few people to review it. While it may look perfect to you, sometimes an extra set of eyes can identify areas for improvement. Family members, ex-coworkers, and friends are all good resources to start with. Some companies and recruiters will also offer free resume review sessions and can be great resources for feedback as well. In general you want to learn if your accomplishments are impressive, yet easy to understand. Is the formatting readable and clean? Does the resume tell a good story about you?
Test
Start applying for jobs. Apply for a variety of jobs that you believe you are well qualified for. Apply for jobs that are in a different industry. Apply for jobs that may be in a different line of work. In the beginning, it’s okay to apply for a large quantity of jobs even though you may not get a call back for the majority of them. This is part of the learning process. Take notes on which roles, industries, etc. respond to your application and which ones do not.
For the jobs that do give you a call back, capture notes on how the conversation went and how you spoke about yourself. How well did the job description align with your expectations? Did the recruiter/hiring manager invite you to the next round of interviews during the call? All of this information is important for the evaluation phase.
Evaluate
After the first month or so, evaluate what has worked and what has not. Did you receive more call backs or second interviews from a specific industry or job title (e.g. product manager vs. senior product manager)? Did you receive any call backs at all? Did any of your accomplishments really stand out to the recruiter/hiring manager? Did you struggle coming up with answers to specific situational or behavioral questions?
Repeat
Take everything you learned from the first round of job applications / interviews and re-design your resume. Add more detail to the accomplishments that captured a recruiter’s attention. Add performance and result data to any accomplishments lacking this information. Remove or replace any irrelevant accomplishments.
Once your resume has been refined, start applying for jobs again. This time, try to be a little more focused with the types of roles you apply for. The goal now is to submit quality applications rather than a large quantity of applications. For example, if you received interview invitations for product manager roles but did not receive a single call back for digital marketing manager positions, consider only applying for product manager positions.
Finally, reflect on what changes seem to be working and which ones are not. Continue to re-design your resume and job application strategy as necessary until you achieve a high success rate of receiving interview invitations.
Tip #7
Do your homework
Once you receive an interview invitation, make sure to do your homework and research the company, the position, and the interviewer.
Research as much as you can about the company. The company’s website is a great place to start to learn about the company’s core product offerings, key markets, and recent press releases. Crunchbase and Owler are great resources to learn about annual revenue, competitors, financing rounds, or acquisitions. First and foremost, this information will give you an idea if the company aligns with your career interests (i.e. company maturity, industry, etc.) More importantly, however, this information will help prepare you for the interview. It will provide good talking points and help craft educated questions for the interviewer.
Glassdoor and Indeed are two great resources for learning about a company’s interviewing process, typical interview questions, benefits, reviews of the company, average salaries, and many other valuable pieces of information. The interviews section of these websites can provide a general idea if the interview will be more of a conversational style interview or if it will include structured behavioral questions. Spend a decent amount of time researching these websites and you will get a good understanding of the company/position before even speaking to an employee at the company.
Lastly, be sure to look up and connect with the interviewer on LinkedIn. Browse their profile to see their job history (titles, employers, and accomplishments), and send them a personalized note expressing your interest in the position.
Tip #8
Prepare for virtual interviews
Video interviews have replaced standard phone interviews at many companies and will likely be used at least once or twice throughout the interview process. If you are asked to participate in a video interview, make sure to properly prepare. Ask a friend or family member to join you for a test call so you feel comfortable with the platform (e.g. Zoom, Cisco WebEx, BlueJeans). Join the interview call 15 minutes early to double check the audio and video on the platform. Find a room with good lighting, put on headphones to block outside noise, ask your child to take a nap, send your spouse out shopping, and give the dog a bone. Do whatever you need to do in order to minimize potential distractions. Lastly, no need to put on a suit, but make sure to dress professionally.
Tip #9
Always negotiate a job offer
Congratulations, you’ve finally impressed the interviewing team and landed a job offer! While the offer might already be better than your current salary, always, always, always negotiate a job offer. The employer made a concentrated decision to extend a job offer and does not want to see you walk away. Employers also know that many candidates will negotiate job offers so they purposely extend a low offer with room built in for negotiation. Salary, vacation days, sign on bonus, company stock, and flexible working arrangements are all up for negotiation. If an employer cannot meet your salary requirements, see if they can enhance the offer with some of these other benefits.
Before you negotiate, research the average salary and benefits package of your position. If the offer is lower than the industry average, be sure to mention this in your counter offer. Also be sure to provide a rationale for why you should receive a better offer. For example, do you have extensive experience in a specific industry or working with a specific technology?
Tip #10
Celebrate!
If you made it all the way through the interviewing process and accepted a job offer, celebrate! Landing a new job is not easy by any means. You deserve to celebrate. Have dinner with family or close friends, enjoy a glass of wine with your spouse, or take a short trip somewhere. Regardless on how you prefer to celebrate, make sure you reward yourself for a job well done!
Final Thoughts
Searching for a new job is not easy, however these tips should help simplify the process. Keep your head up, stay motivated, and go earn that new position. You deserve it!
Feel free to reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn if you have any questions about the article or your personal career development.
