8 Steps to Landing Your Dream Job in a Pandemic

Published in

Getro

7 min readSep 2, 2020

Written by Melissa Moore of Getro.org

While the public markets have improved to pre-COVID levels, layoffs have continued to rise in tech, impacting over 70,000 people since March of this year. Even industry giants like Salesforce, Shopify, Glossier, and Invision experienced the economic impact of COVID19. The transition to a fully remote workforce has forced many companies to lay off employees whose jobs were critical for an in-office experience and address the declining economy. The latter has caused a decline in sales and marketing which affects the roles to support those functions. People and businesses have cut non-critical expenses.

But, there are still many startups hiring. At Getro.org, we keep track of and surface jobs from the network of companies using our software. In our community-driven efforts to help people get back to work, we have developed tips for how to stand out in a competitive job market informed by our own experiences as a hiring organization and those of our partners.

#1 Match Your Skills to The Company’s Needs

Recruiting is a matchmaking process between a company and a candidate.

Evan Walden, co-founder and CEO at Getro, says, “We design roles based on an opportunity or a problem that has come up where there’s a real need. A role is opened because something new is happening, or there’s a problem that needs to be solved.”

As a job seeker, list down the specific skills and qualifications you currently have, and see if it matches what the company is needing in their hire. Your priority throughout the process is to communicate why you’re the best person to solve that challenge for the company. Review the job description carefully and honestly assess if your background matches the organization’s needs. However, even if you don’t meet all the requirements, you should still apply.

#2 Run Your Own Highly-Targeted Jobs Pipeline

Think of your job search as if you’re running a sales pipeline. You’ll want to stay organized and generate a lead list of the top 25 companies that you’d like to work for, then start looking at their open roles that best match your skills and background. Map out your network and see if someone you know can refer you or would be willing to introduce you to someone who works at that company.

Rohit Srinivas, Talent Partner at Getro, says, “Diversify your strategy and be resilient. Focus on applying to a good number of jobs, track them, follow up, and check in on them throughout the process. Get on Twitter and LinkedIn — make sure to clean up and update your profile — and try to connect with folks from the companies you’re interested in.”

#3 Explain Why You Care in Your Cover Letter

“An impressive application adds value. Understand why this company exists, why you care about their mission and show that you’re aligned,” Evan says.

Write a concise, one-page cover letter (yup, they still exist!) about why you care about the hiring company’s mission and share some insights that may not be obvious from reading your resume. It’s also an effective way to showcase your writing skills and clarity of thought. If your background isn’t the perfect match for the job requirement, your cover letter could get you to that initial phone screen. Here are some examples of great cover letters.

#4 Emphasize Outcomes in Your Resume

On your resume, showing results and outcomes are table stakes. Contextualizing these results and outcomes are just as important. You’ll also want to specify:

Your last company’s size
Growth targets you’ve hit
If you’ve managed people and
The industries and stages of the companies you’ve worked for.

Hiring managers are looking for fit and are matching your background to their open role. They’ll be looking for the impact you’ve had in past roles and your growth trajectory.

Sutton Kauss, Getro.org’s head of talent and former VP of People at Conversocial, says, “As a hiring manager, I’m filling in some of the gaps on your resume. I’m making up a story based on what I see. What have you contributed to? A lot of people will skip out on the details when that would really help somebody who is reviewing the resume create a story and have more background on the person to see if they’re a good match.”

#5 Prepare and Show Why You’re the Best Fit

Before the interview, write a short bulleted script about your bio, highlight specific achievements, and practice it aloud. Communicate your strengths and explain why you’re a match for the role and how your background matches the interviewer’s needs. Be ready with specific examples of what you’ve done in the past that fit the responsibilities in the job description.

Sutton adds, “If you are looking to make a pivot in your career and you have not worked in this industry or function before, a really easy, fast way for you to come up to speed on the terminology and the language and be in a better position to talk the talk is to read job descriptions. Read hundreds and hundreds of job descriptions. And for every word or term you do not understand, look it up. Learn it and figure out how to apply it to what you’ve already done before.”

#6 Ask Thoughtful Questions

Once you’ve landed the initial phone interview, make sure you get the most out of that time and save some time to ask thoughtful questions. Asking specific, thoughtful questions shows that you’ve done your research, care about the company’s mission or problem they’re currently tackling, and are invested in adding value. Some questions you can ask are:

What are some of your biggest challenges right now?
How can I add value to the team?
How can this new role help drive growth in your company?

Evan says: “I would recommend asking questions around what the outcomes of the role should be. Also, try to get at the value system of a company.”

Some key questions to ask to get to this answer are:

What does a typical day look like in the job?
How do people treat each other?
What is the meeting cadence?
What do people care about, and how does it manifest through action?
How do you resolve disagreements?

Remember that a hiring manager wants you to do well in the interview. They have a need to fill within the company, and it’s in their best interest that you’re their solution.

Ultimately, your end goal is to get to the next step of the process: the second interview, and then to the third round, until you get the offer.

#7 Interviewing is a Two-Way Conversation

One personal tip I have is to treat every phone screen or interview as a two-way conversation. The interview is a way for me to learn about the company, to see if they’re a good fit for me, as well as if I’m a good fit for them. Just as much as you’re trying to impress them, they have to impress you.

During the interviews, you should be evaluating if the company and role is a good fit for what you’re looking for. Understand their culture, mission, and values and how they like to work. You should also get alignment on your salary expectations, seniority of the role, and location early in the process.

#8 Be OK With Rejection, and Keep Going!

When a company decides not to move forward, try to remember that it doesn’t measure your worth as a person. It simply means that your skills and background may not have exactly matched their needs at this moment. If you took our advice and created a pipeline of your top jobs, this is just one out of the dozens on the list. You also wouldn’t want to start a job that turns out not to be the best fit in three to six months and have to go back to square one.

With every job interview, you’ll begin to learn what’s important to you and how to adjust and iterate until you find that one dream job.

Conclusion

The job search process is hard. It’s filled with uncertainty, ambiguity, and often, disappointment. You owe it to yourself to mentally and emotionally prepare for the experience, and view it as an investment in your future.

To stay disciplined and positive without feeling overwhelmed by the experience, always remind yourself what a “dream job” might be for you. Connecting to your purpose will help keep your energy up and your spirits high.

It’s also important to remember that you have agency and choice. You control where you apply and what you accept, which is one of the biggest benefits of a job search.

And finally, understand that it’s okay to feel discouraged temporarily. That’s a natural part of the experience. What’s also a natural part of the experience is becoming a better and better interviewer with each new conversation, which will put you in a stronger position for other opportunities.

Getro.org is a community-driven, pro bono initiative that introduces top talent to hiring managers in the tech industry. We share vetted talent with our hiring managers’ network through a self-serve platform, a weekly newsletter, and curated intros.

This project is sponsored by Getro.com, the platform powering job boards and private talent networks for top VCs, foundations, and professional communities.