Tips for job seekers 🗣️
Four hard-won tips for candidates, from being on both sides of the virtual job search 'table'. (Audio; 6:07)
This post was first published on the agile Teams WordPress blog on February 28, 2021. As of July 12, 2024, all agile Teams content has moved here to Agile Analytics and Beyond. Minor edits have been made to support audio voiceover for the podcast.
Within the past 12 months I've moved from a diversity-conscious hiring effort, to a COVID-19 related layoff and job hunt of my own, to a new role where I immediately began hiring for 8 (!) open roles. Here are four sets of hard-won tips for candidates, from having been on both sides of the search and the virtual Zoom table on software and analytics related positions.
1. Experience Required
If a job description requires experience, there might be some wiggle room on how much, but experience IS required.
If you can't honestly answer a screening question or justify to an internal recruiter that you have approximately the requested years of experience in software or the targeted technical field, don't waste your time or the recruiter's.
If you decide to contact them anyway, your first message should convey your self-awareness that this particular role isn't a fit, and ask if they might have similar roles at your experience level, now or in the future. If you’re really not sure what the gap is, you could ask if they can suggest specific courses or experiences you could pursue to be a better fit for future.
2. DMs Welcome
If a hiring manager or recruiter posts on LinkedIn and says this, believe them and act on it.
You are not maximizing your opportunity if you ignore that offer, and blindly apply on their website without taking them up on that offer. Not many people do, and it’s a simple way to set yourself apart.
Pro tip: Don't just send an empty connection request or a DM that's all about you and not at all about them! Instead, send a thoughtful, tailored, brief message that shows you care about their company and role and how you think you can add value ... not just finding any old job ... and ask if they can share any guidance on applying.
3. DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion)
3a. If you don't care about DEI and don't want to bother learning why it matters [really? it's 2021 and you still don't get it?], or worse yet you're actively opposed to it and aren’t shy about saying so:
Don't waste your time or theirs applying at a company that does care. We will read your social media posts and see your 'likes' on racist and bigoted comments, and your application will go nowhere. This isn’t ‘cancel culture’; it's consequences. Those of us who do care simply cannot allow you to poison the well water for the diverse team we’re trying to build.
[“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time” – Maya Angelou]
3b. If you do care about DEI, check out the company's profile and posts and executives and see if their values align with yours:
No pronouns in profiles?
No posts or supportive comments?
An overwhelmingly homogeneous (white cis male …) set of leaders, executives, and Board members?
Token DEI representative, or recently departed BIPOC staff who posted that the company’s commitment to DEI was only window dressing?
In these cases, please ask yourself, do you REALLY want to work there?
3c. Show that you walk the talk: If a recruiter or hiring manager lists their pronouns or otherwise indicates that they care about DEI, be prepared to talk about what you do & have done to be inclusive of others, and convey your appreciation of why it's important. Pro tips:
If you don’t yet have concrete examples of times you’ve actively worked for inclusion and equity, look for ways to extend your understanding and put those concepts into practice. This is especially true for a people management role!
If you identify as a member of one or more under-represented group – or even if you don’t – please keep in mind that good DEI is intersectional. For instance, it’s a good practice to list your pronouns even if you aren’t LGBTQIA+ - it helps to normalize the practice. If you aren't sure of someone's pronouns, use 'singular they' (yes, it is grammatically acceptable) or ask politely.
4. Credibility
4a) What you include: If you can't speak to a skill or technology when an interviewer asks you about it, don't put it on your resume. There is no surer way to torpedo your credibility with an interviewer than to be asked, and have your bluff called. Explicitly rating your proficiency as 'beginner' or 'introductory' is a good way to address this if you want to list more skills, but don't list those you can't talk to at all.
Pro tip: To bolster your credibility, identify in your accomplishment bullets which technologies you actually used.
4b) Proficiency ratings: If you list yourself as an 'expert' in a core long-lived technology (e.g. Java) when you can count your years of experience on only one hand, or rate yourself as 'expert' on many technologies, your reader is likely to question your judgment. If it's a key skill for the role, odds are going to be that you will be interviewed at some point by someone with more experience and expertise than you. At the first reasonable question you can't answer on something you rate yourself 'expert' in, your interview is essentially over.
Better:
be modest; under-promise and over-deliver, or don't self-rate your proficiency at all
show years of experience rather than proficiency
Comments on these tips are welcome!