Looking for a job? My condolences.
But not all is lost! Three learnings & resources from my last journey.
I failed with my startup adventure and decided to go back to work. And make no mistake: job search is a torture, almost as bad as online dating.
The amount of bulls*it flying around is immense. This is true for both job postings and the CVs.
See, everyone else is a genius too! Germans have a great saying: Papier ist geduldig. Paper doesn't blush. Sometimes LinkedIn posts/CVs by people I know make me wonder: am I dreaming or is this real?
I feel bad for recruiters that shuffle through these worthless words. But also: How on earth are you so slow declining candidates? So poor.
And who invented these idiotic forms on your website that makes me repeat the information already on my CV? You don’t really want me to apply, admit it!
Who is even looking for a job?
Good people have jobs. What is left are students searching for their first job, unhappy employees looking for a change and the unemployed.
Talent pool is tiny and that’s why we have headhunters. Their job is to remind the good employees they are unhappy.
I am sure you are good and I hope you are happy. But just in case you ever look for a job and it won't just find you, here are a couple of things I wish I did better:
1. Start writing down your achievements.
Remember that 3 month ad-hoc special super project you did in 2017 and was great? Me neither.
What about that thing you organised in 2019? What exactly were the problems? How long did the project last? Haha, sure.
How did you convince your boss to pay or do something they did not want to do? What was the situation? Emm....hmm.
What about that time when you completely disagreed with your team? Remember what were you thinking? What happened next? No idea, let me think...
Write things down even if you think you will stay with your company forever. Your future self will say, wow, great that I wrote this down!
Maybe you never need it: but the at least you self-reflected.
2. It is all about the network, stupid.
What matters are the contacts you have. They know you and you know them, so your CV is secondary.
Imagine someone you respect saying: hey, there is this guy I know and you two should talk! You would at least look at my CV, no?
I am convinced that the best jobs are given away within a network. The best things happen to people in a network. Just look at politics.
Not all networks are equal. Work and discuss with as many people as possible; adding random contacts on LinkedIn is useless. I think Twitter is the best for this, but nothing beats meeting people live.
This is all obvious and I feel stupid writing these lines. But networking is hard and easy to neglect. I have been excellent in neglecting it in the last 10 years.
3. It is a numbers game.
Ok, so say your network is still work in progress. "What do?" Shoot in every possible direction! Remember that pile of CVs on the recruiter’s table?
Yes, it’s a lottery; you should buy as many tickets as possible. Even if you are a genius with a nice CV you will need luck that exactly your CV catches the eye.
Especially if it’s the hiring manager sifting through them: this is one the “oh dear” tasks that come on top of the regular crap they deal with.
Resources to support you
Here is a good article about salary negotiation (US biased, but still useful). I never named a number first, but always asked about a range. Even if they specifically asked.
Here is a list of 98 companies I was looking at, mainly focused on Berlin, Munich and Zürich.
At the interview you should always have great questions. Here is my collection:
1. Smart question about what they do, so they know you know.
2. Smart question about what they did recently, so they know you are up to date.
3. How does the future look like for [company]?
4. What is the biggest priority now?
5. What will be my biggest challenge?
6. Why do you think I should join?
7. How would my performance measured?
8. What are my development options if I do my job really well?
9. What would you change [in the way your company is run]?
10. How does your team work together?
11. Why is this position open?
12. How is overtime treated? (but careful here, you should not appear lazy!)
An award for the most creative job descriptions goes to Pleo. And for the worst HR system to Porsche.
And finally, my stats as of 26th of Nov:
Period: 17th of Sep '21 - 8th of Nov '21 ( 7 weeks, 3 days)
Interviews: 3 (10%)
Rejections: 13 (43.33%)
No reply: 14 (46.67%)
Total: 30
Good luck and let me know if I can do anything for you.
Follow me on Twitter or check out lindyrecipe. if you want to cook something great. 😇💅