job search learnings

⛓️‍💥 You may not be able to find the job description/posting online anymore if you get invited for an HR screen or interview, and the posting can help you prepare for questions like

• What are your salary requirements? (Probably best if you keep your request in the posted range, if there is one, or at least acknowledge that the posted range is X-Y but you're looking for Z.)

• What interests you about this role?

• Tell me about a time you did <responsibility in the job posting>.

(I just print the posting to PDF and save it in the same folder as the Word and PDF resume I used to apply to that posting.)

💡 I also find it helpful to reference my responses to any open-ended application questions when going into interviews because whatever I wrote was usually pretty good stuff 😉and helps me prepare for what the interviewer is likely going to want to discuss. 

(I copy the questions and my answers into a file saved in the same folder as the job posting and resumes for a given application.)

🤓 Come into HR screening calls and all interviews knowing something about the organization. 

• In addition to reading through the organization's website, you can ask your favorite chatbot to give you context on competitors, customer reviews/complaints, employee reviews/complaints, and other info you're curious about. 

• Not every interviewer will ask you questions that allow you to show that you researched the org, but you certainly don't want to be the recipient of such a question and have nothing to go on. 😅

📄 Have answers prepared for both:

• why you're interested in working for the organization, 

• and why you're interested in the role you applied for.

🙋 Have questions prepared that show you have an interest in the organization and that also get you information you need to feel like you know what working there would entail if you did get an offer. And make sure your questions are appropriate for a given interviewer; recruiters don't always have technical or business details and team members don't always know business strategy or how certain HR procedures work.

• Okay question: Why do you continue working at Org X?

• Better question (IMO): I noticed many Glassdoor reviewers mentioning there is a pretty flat hierarchy at Org X and that they like the camaraderie with their peers and the learning opportunities provided by the organization. These are appealing to me! What else do you think makes Org X stand out as an employer?

• Okay question: How are you using AI at your organization?

• Better question (IMO): I read on your organizational blog that there have been a few initiatives to incorporate AI at Org X in both customer-facing and internal workflows. How are you measuring success with these AI initiatives? What are you learning?

• Okay question: What does onboarding look like at Org X?

• Better question (IMO): What does success look like for the person in this role at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and 6 months? What support can the person in this role expect to receive?

🧘 Stay calm. I don't know what it was in this job hunt, but I occasionally got some weird interview questions that there was just no way I could have prepared for. (I also got surprised a couple of times by (apparent) requirements of the job that were not in the job posting and that I hadn't practiced speaking to ahead of time.) I just took a deep breath and did my best, which is all anyone can do. (And it usually went fine!)

👉There are of course other basic interviewing practices that still hold true as well, but I trust you can find those or already know them (dress at least business casual; keep children, partners, pets, and other distractions out of your space if you're doing a virtual interview; don't plan to "cheat" (use chatbots to look up answers live); practice; etc).

*Yeah, see that huge asterisk? The need for cover letters depends on industry and role, so keep that in mind. 

But when I'm searching, I see only three reasons to include cover letters (and they only come up rarely):

1. The job posting specifically requests it (even if the application form does not have the cover letter field as required - tricky tricky!).

2. The online application form requires a cover letter be pasted in or uploaded.

3. Some 'translation' of my skills and experience may help the reviewer see me as a viable candidate if the job posted is a stretch but I'm excited about it.

Unless I'm doing #3 (or have a feeling based on the organization's careers website or the job posting that the cover letter is actually important to the reviewers), I use the same format: Briefly summarize the org's key values in my own words and show how those values align with my values and experience, including examples. 

It doesn't take long for me to generate a cover letter (maybe 20 minutes) after the first time since most orgs have pretty similar values published on their websites (yikes). I usually make three values paragraphs, bookended by brief opening and closing sentences (there are examples of openings/closings on the internet; adapt some to be in your voice). 

I also make sure the header and overall font and color scheme match my resume.

The job I ended up getting an offer for was one I applied to because a friend sent me the link (not a referral, just a link, and it still worked out!) - one of several she sent my way. She knows me really well so the ones she sent me were good matches for my skills and experience.

Which means it was a good thing I was honest with my friends about what happened and that I was looking!

It's one thing to tell my friends, but I debated for a long time if I wanted to post on LinkedIn that I was looking, and how to tell that story. 

• There are about a million ways to share this update and request to your network for help in your search on LinkedIn, and I'll suggest that the only iffy way is to diss the employer who RIFed you (assuming you're in the market for the same reason I am). 

  • Some people do go the negative route and it works out fine for them. It seems risky to me in a job market that's always about playing the numbers (aka seeming appealing to the maximum number of potential employers), whether it's an employers' or a candidates' market.

• As long as your tone is neutral or positive about your former employer, or doesn't mention your former employer or the reason you're looking at all, you're probably solid on how you frame your notification to your network.

I've had people I haven't spoken to for years offer tangible help after I posted on LinkedIn (referrals, companies they know are hiring) as well as offering emotional support. 

It can also be hard to share this with people you don't know as well, but I've had a few good conversations and leads from folks who heard me say at a party or event that I was looking for work! I certainly didn't go on at length about my feelings or anything, but just let it flow naturally into the conversation as appropriate.

tl;dr: Take the referrals you can get, with much gratitude to the awesome humans who do them for you. Keep your network apprised of what you need.

I've been super grateful and lucky that multiple people in my network have been willing to refer me for jobs at their current or past companies. (Seriously. Shout out to the people who've been willing and able to do this for me!)

However, in this market, having referrals for jobs that I'm at least 80% qualified for (and in most cases, 90-100%) has not produced as much effect as I think it would in a better market. There's just so much competition for each role that likely multiple candidates for each role have referrals, or other candidates without referrals just exceed my experience/skills in terms of what the hiring manager is most excited about.

I still keep those companies where I have buddies who can give me referrals on my list of job boards to check (if I can't subscribe to them for new postings); it can't hurt to have a leg up, even if in this market, it doesn't always help as much as our referring buddies would probably like.

Networking (which can lead to referrals) doesn't have to be exhausting or difficult (and I say this as an introvert). 

• Sharing on LinkedIn that you're looking for work (and providing reasonable updates on your journey) is networking. 

• Asking your friends and neighbors who they know to be hiring is networking. 

• Looking up what orgs your friends and acquaintances work for and reaching out to see if they know of any openings for <job title you're seeking> is networking. 

• Attending classes or professional events is networking (as long as you talk to someone, lol).

In my opinion, anything where you are creating or building on a relationship that has at least something to do with work (even if that's only vague understandings of what each person in the relationship does for work) is networking. I suggest not overcomplicating it, especially if you hate the stereotypical version of networking like I do (aka big networking nightmares - er, events).

And as you may have experienced yourself, in a market like this, even networking and referrals are not great indicators of which candidates are going to make the cut. But it's also been true for a long time that networking and referrals are not always a guaranteed "in". 

• Maybe the hiring manager doesn't care about referrals.

• Maybe the hiring manager doesn't know your referring buddy and so shrugs off their referral.

• Maybe the organization already has someone picked out for the role and just has to advertise it because rules.

• Maybe they have a crappy ATS that flags your experience and skills as underwhelming when they definitely aren't. 

None of these situations are unique to now, and you or people you know have been able to get around them before if you or they have gotten a job with a new organization in the last 10ish years, so don't worry about them too much. (Plus worrying doesn't change anything!)