Navigating the Next: The Search for your Future Job
You polished your resume, created some sweet projects, and sent out a wave of applications last night. Boom — your phone starts vibrating, you see your email app pop up and . . . afli;sokjdlaskdjf.
Another FREAKING rejection email. If I’m lucky, I might get a more personalized rejection email. But more often than not, it’s the usual automated response emptily parroting “Thank you for your interest…blah, blah, blah” .
“Why do I even bother applying at all?”
Why bother? Like, really. This was what ran through my head as I started my quest to find a job out of college.
Many of you may be in the same position. Fear not — for I hope that this article can provide some insight as well as some hope for you throughout your job search.
How to Stay Organized
I can’t reiterate enough about how important it is to stay organized.
Seriously — it makes a world of difference in your odds of landing a job. There’s crucial information everywhere: from the moment you hear about a company you might be interested in, or receive a business card from a recruiter, or even find a job listing, or talk to your network. What good is this information if you keep it all in your head?
Finding a job is essentially a numbers game. The more you apply to, the more likely you are to land interviews. You should never limit yourself to just specific companies you might have heard or dreamed of. With an increase in numbers, however, comes a greater chance that you might forget something along the way.
That’s why I strongly recommend that you keep track of things related to your job search. Whether it be in a notebook, a Word doc, or, in my preferred way, a table/spreadsheet.
The main things that you should aim to track is:
- The Company
- The Position
- The Status of the Application
These three things alone help you quickly keep track of companies that you have applied for, haven’t applied for, or are currently in the interview process.
The following is Notion’s Job Application’s Template
Organizing your information in a method like Notion’s helps you track the information that might be crucial for you. When you go on an application spree, it’s all too easy to forget about a lot of the companies you’ve already applied for.
Some other useful things to track that haven’t been covered:
- Your Connection/Point of Contact(recruiter, friend that work’s there, etc.)
- Job Location
By being organized — you can approach your job search with much more peace of mind. No longer will you have to dig through emails to see where you are along the process, search for a recruiter’s name, or find a link to a listing that you thought you already bookmarked.
Being Persistent — but Not Annoying
Look at you. You’re organized, but you still haven’t received any interviews. Why isn’t organization helping me?!
Well, being organized is just the first step to improving your odds — but now you need to be able to make good use of all the information you’ve stored. The most important part about being organized is that it enables you to effectively follow up. Following up on your job applications might seem like common sense, but it’s really often overlooked by applicants.
If you keep track of your applications in a similar method to the one I showed above, it’s easy to see the application status as well as the last time you checked in with the company or recruiter.
I usually recommend waiting one to two weeks to follow up if you haven’t heard back. Don’t worry about annoying someone — in reality, it doesn’t hurt to follow up. Mistakes do happen, and you would be surprised to hear about how many applications get lost or forgotten about.
Don’t hesitate to email and ask about the status of your application so far — if anything, it can help you move your name up in the stack of applicants.
However . . .
Don’t spam the recruiter or do it in such a short timeframe from the date of applying or an interview — they need time to do their jobs too!
Now, I’ve just covered following up on your application, but you can also follow up on important encounters or meetings. For instance, reaching out to individuals you’ve met at career fairs, virtual workshops (yes, times have changed because of COVID), talks, or any of the like through an email or LinkedIn can be really valuable.
Always preface the follow-up message with a brief introduction as well as where you connected at for context. Doing so helps whoever you’re reaching out to remember who you are as well as creating a deeper sense of familiarity.
Just by remembering to jot your contacts down on your document or table (and following up with them!), you’re one step closer to getting your foot in the door at whatever company you’re interested in.
Where to Find Opportunities
So, now you’re thinking: I’m organized, I’m taking charge, but I can’t seem to find more opportunities.
Let me break down the application cycle/process as best as I can. I will preface this by saying you can find a job at any time of year — but there are specific seasons that might be in your best favor depending on where you are in your career.
This is most applicable for students looking for internships or new grad positions. You need to start early — I’m talking end of summer right as the current summer internships are winding down.
The fall is probably the peak season for recruitment — especially in tech. Oftentimes, students may be distracted with starting their new semester that they forget to spend their time applying to positions at the same time.
Do NOT make the mistake of waiting for the next summer to roll around before you think to yourself, “Oh! I need an internship this summer.” I’ve been there and believe me — that is not a fun path to be on.
Although I have little experience in searching for jobs during the pandemic (whew), here are some places I recommend when looking for job listings:
- Linkedin (just about everything)
- AngelList (startups)
- Jumpstart
- Github (someone usually aggregates a list of internships each year) — shout out to pittcsc :)
- Virtual Career Fairs, Panels, Meetups, Slack Channels, and Discord. This is a big cluster, but my main point to get across is that because of the pandemic, there are countless ways to still remain social and make new connections. Find online events, join online communities — who knows where they might lead you.
Now that you know some of the best places to find a job, here’s how you can make the most of them.
- If you find a listing: note it and go directly to the company’s website to apply. I typically prefer this rather than using the built in auto-apply option. Sometimes your information might be received in a format different than what you intended. If a company doesn’t have an application option on their website, find an email to reach out to.
- Look at your network: see if you can find anyone — whether it be a friend, previous co-worker, or alumni, that can help you get your foot in the door. If you’re really passionate about a place, you can find someone that works there on Linkedin and start a conversation to learn more about the company and their experiences there. Shoot your shot!
- If you feel under qualified: just go for it. You don’t need to hit every single requirement listed. Just don’t hit zero of them.
- Be patient. It’s a numbers game, and opportunities will continue to appear. Be on the lookout and try to sort the listings by “Latest/Newest” if you’ve already gone on application sprees. Try to be the early bird when it comes to applying.
- When you search on LinkedIn for possible connections, some individuals may advertise “We’re hiring” on their profiles. Reach out to them about potential opportunities! That’s a shortcut you should definitely take advantage of.
Final Thoughts
Pause. Take a deep breath.
The idea of looking for a job can be quite overwhelming, but you made it through this article! That’s a good first step.
Everything takes time, and success doesn’t just happen overnight. The job search can be quite a rigorous and time-consuming experience, so brace yourself early on.
Putting some of my tips into practice won’t guarantee that you’ll land more interviews. You’ll still face rejection or never hear back from companies at all. It’s normal and (honestly) inevitable. However, I hope that this article will leave you feeling a little more prepared and confident in your search for your dream job.
