What I changed (and learned) that helped me get hired last week

I had been applying to jobs for months without much success.  Now that I’ve landed a new role and have a clear understanding of where I was falling short, I want to share my experience in case it helps you avoid my mistakes and get ahead.

   Here is a summary of tips from my experience and what I learned with context:  

     
1.        Apply on the company site (Mass applying on Indeed and LinkedIn was a dead end)    
2.        Tailor using AI (Highlighting the right skills and experiences uniquely for each job application was the trick, tool recommendation below)    
3.        Follow up (Stay active and engaged during the hiring process with a personalized message)    
   

Like many people, I was applying to dozens of jobs weekly on Indeed and LinkedIn, mostly using the Easy Apply features they have.  I thought they were created to help people more successfully apply to jobs, but I’ve found they really just help you apply to many more jobs faster, which also increases frustration when they don’t hear back.  In my case, I applied to probably 100 jobs and only heard back on 1 role.  -Roughly a 1% response rate.  

I did a lot of research about how to improve my applications and found many articles and discussions on different subs about tailoring a resume to match the keywords on each job.  It made sense in theory, but it sounded like it would slow me down so much that I’d miss out on good opportunities.  

A friend tested out a few different AI tools (ChatGPT, Jobflow, Teal, etc.) for her job search and recommended one that did a really good job of tailoring, and I started using it for my applications.  I was surprised how well it took my skills and experience and enhanced them to match the jobs I applied to.  I thought AI would be more of a keyword trick, but it seemed much more intuitive than that and only took around 30 seconds to get an updated resume for each application.  Many people use ChatGPT for this, which is okay, but that's a lot of copying and pasting and formatting if you do this process for every job. Jobflow doing everything for me felt like magic.  

The thing is, I didn’t see how I could upload a unique resume for different jobs on Indeed - they make you apply using the same version on file. So I started visiting the employer site after searching for jobs on Indeed, and then applying on the company’s site using my tailored application.  I did the same after finding jobs I liked on LinkedIn.    

What I lost in the time it took to go through a longer application process, I gained in a vastly improved response rate! I can’t say if it was the fact I applied directly on the employer’s career site, that I tailored my application to match their jobs, or both, but I applied to probably 20 jobs with this method and already heard back to interview with 5 of them. -A 20% response rate, which was night and day from what I was seeing before.  

I didn’t email or DM recruiters about my applications, but I did follow up right away with a personalized email to everyone during the hiring process, including the recruiters who did a phone screen and then after each interview.  After a week from the time I interviewed, I also emailed to let them know again how interested I was in the roles and reminded them of how great of a fit I am based on what they were asking for.  I feel like this type of communication helped lead to a positive outcome as I received 2 offers in the past week and accepted one of them!  

It can be tough out there.  It took me months to break through. Stay positive, focus on showing your strengths as they match up for each role on your applications, and remind the hiring team of that during the process.  I hope this helps someone!  

For anyone interested, the tool that helped me get hired is https://www.myjobflow.com/  

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