- How To Get A New Job
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- #021 - The 4th Ever Q&A Edition
#021
Introduction
If you’ve been on LinkedIn for more than 20 minutes, you might’ve noticed a debate or twelve around how qualified you have to be to apply for a role.
60%? 80%? 100%?
And there’s some discourse (a generous term for it) that if you’re 100% qualified for a role then you shouldn’t apply. Because there’s no room for growth.
Hmm.
I’m sure this advice comes from a well-meaning place. Well, I’m not sure, but let’s make an ass out of you and me and assume.
LeBron James, one of the very few best basketball players of all time, was a free agent in 2011. Should he have said, “You know what?” I’m 100% qualified to be a basketball player, so I’ll go and do something else. Netball, maybe.”
Should Lionel Messi have given up on football after leaving Barcelona?
Should Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have stopped composing after Don Giovanni?
The point is that even masters of their craft - who are as qualified as you can be - have room for growth. Plenty of room for growth.
To say you shouldn’t apply for something you’re 100% qualified for because you won’t be able to grow in the role is a bit silly at best and irresponsible at worst.
Okay, onto the Q&A:
The 4th-Ever Q&A
“I'd love to know what your most underrated or maybe least-talked-about job search tip is!”
I think it all comes down to Robert Greene’s 13th Law of Power:
“When asking for help, appeal to people’s self interest, never their mercy or gratitude.”
It’s time to view your job search through the above lens. Whether you’re out of work and looking for a role, whether you’re in work but looking for a new role, whether you’re looking for a new role in your same company, you’ll be much, much more successful in your search if you appeal to the self-interest of others rather than just focusing on what you want.
When it comes to your CV, you’ll tailor it to the role rather than just listing everything you’ve done.
When it comes to interviewing, you’ll make sure the interviewers are hearing what they need to hear to put you through or hire you, rather than just telling them about what you need and what you want.
When it comes to reaching out to recruiters and hiring managers, you’ll write the message you’d want to receive rather than a five-paragraph essay that concludes with you asking for 30 minutes of a stranger’s time (for free).
We’re all self-interested. It’s okay. But if you can make sure your job search strategy is to appeal to the self-interest of others rather than coming across as self-interested, you’ll get more interviews, more offers, and be more likely to get the job you really want. (Which means your self-interest will be fulfilled anyway.)
To be clear: I don’t mean you have to pretend to be something you’re not or that you must sacrifice all (or any of) your boundaries just to get a job. How does this work out when you’re dating? Yeah. Not well. Same thing here.
“Can you give advice on how to justify the quick job jumps for shorter stints of less than a year, where the reasons were layoffs?”
Like it or not, when you talk badly about a former employer, it doesn’t come across well. It might even be a dealbreaker for some recruiters or hiring managers. So, like the plague, avoid that.
If there were layoffs, say that. “Unfortunately, my role was made redundant and so I had to look for a new role.” You could add that you felt disappointed because you were on track to achieve [x] and that you were enjoying [x], but you probably don’t need to say much more than that.
In general, don’t talk badly about a former employer (or manager) and don’t over-explain. And if they don’t ask you about these quick jumps then don’t talk about them.
Lastly: if you only had a role for a few months and you were then laid off, you might make the decision not to put it on your CV at all. If you feel better doing that, do that.
“Some applications ask you to upload a CV and it will fill out some details automatically on the form. You can then correct them or add some extra details. Other applications will ask you to fill in this long form with extensive details and attach a CV. As an applicant, I fail to understand the point. Is the recruiter going to look at my CV or at all the details I typed in? Do I really just have to copy and paste stuff from my CV because they don't have an auto-input to ATS or am I expected to write additional information only?”
Oh, jobseeker. I hear you. Loud and clear.
As a recruiter, I don’t see the point either. I’d rather people just submit their CV and that be it. We don’t need any more information to decide whether or not to interview you. I’m sure the majority of recruiters would agree with me. I imagine a lot of us only look at the CV anyway.
If it were me, I’d just copy and paste the info from your CV. (You’re tailoring it to the role, right?) You don’t need to say anything additional. You can attach a cover letter if you really want but I’m sure you know by now it’s not a necessity.
Also, I’ve seen content advising you not to apply to roles if the company uses a certain ATS (applicant tracking system.) I think this advice is akin to trying to “beat the ATS.” In other words: it makes no sense.
If you want to apply for a role, apply for it. To want to apply for a role and then not apply for it because of the ATS the company uses is, once again, silly at best and moronic at worst.
“I would love to learn more about the behind-the-scenes process after an application is submitted and essentially goes “into the cloud.” How do recruiters screen resumes, and what is the process of scanning for keywords, etc. for the role they are filling.”
Someone who’s interested in the craft. I thought this day would never come.
All us recruiters might look at CVs/resumes a bit differently but the thing we have in common is that we need to see the requirements for the role on your CV. If they’re not there - because you don’t have them, because you forgot to put them there, because you didn’t communicate them properly - then we won’t and can’t put you through. I mean, what’s a hiring manager going to think if we submit people who are clearly not qualified? (It will be a confused thought at best, I promise.)
Sometimes we might use CTRL + F to find keywords on the CV, especially when there’s a specific software that’s needed. So, again, make sure it’s on there. (Seems obvious, I know, but you’d be surprised.)
We don’t only look at job titles, of course, but it can help us when they’re ‘normal’ job titles. I don’t advocate lying about your job titles but feel free to change them to something a bit more understandable and in line with the role you’re applying for if needs be.
Also, the reason that recruiters supposedly spend 6 or 7 seconds on average looking at CVs - I have no idea who came up with this or how they could possibly have measured it - is because most people who apply for a role are not qualified. If a software engineer is applying for a Head of Marketing role, we don’t need to look at the CV for more than about 2 seconds.
As recruiters much wiser than me have said, your goal is to turn a few seconds into 30 seconds into asking you to interview. Seeing as the only point of submitting a CV is to get an interview, you must have this in mind at all times.
“One topic I would like to see/would appreciate advice on is how to stay positive throughout your job search while miserable at your current workplace.”
Being miserable at your current workplace can sap your energy. You spend all day somewhere you don’t want to be and doing something you don’t want to do and then, when 5pm mercifully rolls around, all you want to do is log off and go home and watch TV all night because you’re exhausted and need to switch off.
Then you go back the next day and do it all again. Then the weekend comes around and you spend it trying to escape from your weekday misery. The last thing you want to do is search for another job.
It reminds me of a quote from Tim Ferriss: “Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”
That’s exactly what you’re doing here. And I don’t blame you, to be clear. I totally get it. I’ve been there. Saying that, here’s a few things I’d suggest:
Dedicate some time to job-searching and decide on what success looks like for you.
Whether it’s an hour every day, or 2 hours on both Saturday and Sunday, or something else, having some dedicated job-search time might help you feel a bit less miserable in your current job because you know you’re actively and consistently working towards leaving.
To then be like Neil Armstrong and take it a step further (get it? Maybe?) means you decide on what success looks like for you. Yes, getting a new job is the goal here. But that won’t happen every day or right away. So maybe your weekly goal is to apply for 5 roles, to reach out to 2 people at every company you apply for, to reach out to 3 people in your current network to re-connect, and to comment on 10 LinkedIn posts.
Whatever it is, again, it’ll probably help you feel better because you’re taking back control.
Only work your core hours and only do the minimum.
This is also known as “quiet quitting”, I believe, which seems outrageous to me. Doing what you’re paid to do in the hours you’re paid to do it means you’re quietly quitting? Okay, bro.
If you want to leave your current workplace, there’s no need to go above and beyond. Save your energy for applying for new roles. Only do what you absolutely must do and only do it in the hours you’re paid to do it. If this feels uncomfortable, well, welcome to setting and enforcing boundaries.
Get everything you can out of the experience.
If you’re in a toxic workplace then perhaps there’s nothing to learn (except that you don’t want to work in a toxic workplace). If you are and you can’t afford to just quit, the above two steps are vital. Do them ASAP.
If you just don’t like your job and the company, then you might as well learn everything you can while you’re still there. Take the good, discard the bad, meet with people who might be able to help you going forward. Learn and do whatever is going to help you in your next role.
Indulge that self-interest!
In Conclusion
Almost 2,500 of you now. Wild. I’d love to do an in-person event at some point but we’re probably a ways off. The Q&A Live events will suffice for now.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week of job-searching.
You got this.
Cheers!
PS Here’s last week’s newsletter if you missed it: Why Didn’t I Get The Job? The Most Common Feedback I Get From Hiring Managers
PPS Any of my fellow UK-dwelling folk seen the new John Lewis Christmas advert? Didn’t feel very “John Lewis Christmas advert” to me or my girlfriend. Or are we just haters?