How I Hunt for Jobs

• Process
• Resume
• Cover Letter
• Conclusion

I presently am finding myself in the unenviable position of needing to look for a new job. It is by no means an enjoyable task, and it is one that has taken me quite a while to really get the hang of. While I have never worked as a recruiter, I have, in my opinion, acquired quite a bit of wisdom about how this process works (in the United States anyway).

Process

For starters, I generally avoid job aggregators. Your typical fare like Monster, Indeed, Dice, etc. have never really worked out well for me. I am sure there are good jobs on there, and that people do get good jobs from those sites on a daily basis, but that’s never been me. I find that more often than not sites like those are overrun with third party recruiters. The posting that aren’t third party recruiters receive thousands of applications, a lot of which, again I am guessing, are automatically submitted by bots.

I instead stick to applying to jobs directly on company websites. This guarantees me that the post is a real job, and it helps me avoid scams. The tricky part here is finding the companies you need to go to, to look for open roles. There are a lot of ways of doing this. I usually start with names I know. From there I look at competitors. When that runs out I look up things like “Largest tech firms by market cap” or something similar. If big companies aren’t your thing I’m sure there are other similar Google searches you could perform to help you find places. It’s also smart to just keep a list of places even when you are not hunting. Stumble upon a neat looking software company? Write them down. You never know when you might need to apply for a job.

Another thing that I like to do is keep all of the logins I have for places I have applied to. I have seen a lot of people moan on the internet about this but, in my opinion, it isn’t that big a deal. I use KeePassXC. I have a folder devoted to “Job Sites.” There are downsides to this. A lot of times I end up getting two search results for a lot of my logins. One for the company and one for their career site. That’s a minor annoyance at worst. The other minor annoyance is that I commonly find that companies will delete my account or invalidate my password. I have no idea why this happens, but it does happen sometimes. The major advantage to this method for me, though, is that, as of this writing, I have over 165 companies that I don’t have to think of that I can look into applying to again.

Resume

Your resume is unquestionably important. Once you finish writing it, have more than one person look over it for you. I really want to stress that proof reading is vital here. You want it to be as perfect as possible to convey that you have really good attention to detail. Speaking of which, consistency is also very important. For example, if you are listing items for a position you have held, and one bullet ends with a period, then every bullet item needs to end with a period - for every position you list. Again consistency is key.

You should also be aware of formatting. I like to put an objective statement at the top of my resume and a short list of skills above my experience. This gives recruiters a quick area to glance over as they look for specific keywords/skills that are applicable to the role they’re trying to fill. Then your professional experience, followed by by your certifications. Depending on the specific field you are applying to be in, these may or may not be something you need to invest in. The final thing on my resume is my education. With the most recent degree first.

Finally, some things to avoid. I would avoid putting your picture on it. In the modern era, I almost feel like this has become taboo. I would also avoid a lot of fancy graphics or emojis. Your resume should stand out, but not be distracting!

Cover Letter

I don’t feel like there is too much to cover here. Again, have multiple people help you proof read your letter. The market, as of this writing, is really tough and you don’t want to miss an opportunity because you missed a period. I recommend you keep your letter to less than one page. These are things recruiters and hiring managers are going to glance over and maybe read, but if your cover letter is a two page wall of text, I can promise you they’ll skip it altogether.

Conclusion

The reality of all of this is that job hunting sucks. Its demoralizing and agonizing. It doesn’t have to be the worst though. With practice and patience, you can make it through the process and end up happy on the other side!