Better job hunt process

With layoffs sweeping the world to help increase shareholder value and short term CEO gains, many people are finding themselves out of work. Many of my friends and former coworkers have been affected by these dark times.  I have had many conversations with people about my job hunt process. This converstaion has been repeated so much, that I have decided to just write a post about it and send someone a link rather than explain for the millionth time.  

Update your master resume

Have a master resume that you can use to apply for a very specific job that you want.  If there are a couple different positions you want, you can create more master resumes. For me I have three because I can do a lot of things (thanks startup expierence). Not everyone is going to be that veristile, so only have one master resume for the specific you job you want.  For me my go-to is program manager.  

Use AI to tweak your master resume.  Any mainstream AI will do (not grok). Feed it to following prompt “I am creating a master resume that will use to apply for many jobs. Critique it on a 1-10 scale with what i can do to improve each each. Have suggestions for ATS and recuriters who are skimming it”. You will recieve a lot of feedback. Try to get your score up to a 8.5-10 on your various sections. Don’t let AI bring you down a rabbit whole of small gains that won’t make a difference.  I have expierenced this too many times while modifying my resume and I don’t want it to happen to you. 

For reference, ATS (applicant tracking system) is what lazy HR people use for keyword tracking to shift out people who don’t have enough specific keywords or phrases on their resume for the position they are applying for. It’s also the way most resumes are caputred and you can see where you are at in the hiring process. ATS is the main reason everyone online says to tailor your resume for a specific job, which you are welcome to do. But for this, we are taking a general resume approach.  

Save your master resume to both DOCX and PDF formats.  Use the DOCX file to apply for jobs in general unless a PDF is requested. In college, I was always taught that it was best to send a PDF because it couldn’t be modified, fonts would transfer over, and/or some other reason that doesn’t make sense in the real world. Turns out (like most things I learned at university) this was a lie. Docx format is best because it parses data better. Parsing is reading raw data and breaking it into structured, usable pieces. A Docx file apparently has the best way to parse this data from a resume to the ATS.

Where to apply?

Jungle - Jungle is a great way to search for jobs intentionally and have them emailed to your inbox as often as you like.  It was recommended to me by a close former coworker and I have gladly incorperated it into my job search routine.

Hiring.cafe - Hiring Cafe was founded on the very principle that linkedin and indeed aren’t delivering for job seekers. Which, I fully agree. Hiring Cafe scrapes the internet for jobs that are posted directly on companies that are hiring websites. No job board. I will usually search for specific for “Simple applications” or “easy apply” only. These applications don’t require uses to make an account to submit their resume. Once I finish the simple applications I will move onto the “time consuming” applications that require an account and all of my information that is found on my resume, but for some reason the ATS requires me to type it out completely in the most ineffiecent way imaginable. 

In general, linkedin and indeed are usually wastes of time if you are applying with their “easy apply” systems.  I recommend using these websites to search for jobs, then applying directly on the company’s website. It will take more time, but it will yield better results as it is more of a direct connection.  Same with ziprecruiter or monster if you even bother to check those.

Are you a good fit? 

One thing I have found is company’s will have a job title I want, but the job description doesn’t match what I am looking for in a position.  When searching for a job I use the “-“ symbol to remove any search results with those keywords in them. Some that I have in my search critieria are: 

• -construction
• -rockstars (companies that say they hire rock stars are looking to burn people out)
• -fast paced (see above)

So if there is a field or red flag that you want to avoid, use the “-“ symbol. 

After I find a job in the search results I still want to know if I’m going to be a good fit. I don’t want to go through an interview process for a job that I know I’m going to hate. This is basically my own version of prescreening.  I have given my AI of choice a list of my career goals, what I like and dislike in companies, and fields I don’t want to work in.  It is set on a x/10 scale of how much of a job I’d like. Then it will say “Good fit” or “Bad fit” depending on the job. I then copy the job description, paste it into the AI and have it rank where I would be.  I try to keep it only showing the x/10 and the level of fit. I don’t need a lengthy explaination unless I ask.  This makes my hiring process more intentional. Seeing a 10/10 good fit also makes me helpful. It also cuts down on the amount of rejection emails I recieve.  

Those are my job hunting tips. I hope that they help you find the job of your dreams 💫