Applying to jobs is one of the most monotonous and infuriating tasks we all have to do in our careers. Zipjob says a “good’ application to interview ratio is 20-30%! That’s Insane! If other tasks in your life had s 20-30% success rate, you would give up on them. And that is just to get the first interview. You then have to get through the rest of the recruiting funnel, like additional interviews, assessments, and final negotiations.
Here are some tips and tricks we use to hopefully increase those odds.
Develop A Plan
If you are seriously looking for a new job then you need to treat it like it is a part-time job itself. You should block off a certain time each day to work on applying or looking for a new role. For example, when you wake up in the morning you can spend 30 minutes looking for jobs and applying. It also helps to have Saved Searches and Job Alerts (see below) and you can go through those and look through what new roles have been posted since the last time you checked.
Find Your Resources
The best place to start would be places like LinkedIn or Indeed. These sites usually have the broadest range of roles that you would be searching for. Other sites that you should look for are job boards specific to your industry. Finally, you should also follow companies or managers at companies on the types of teams you would like to work at. A lot of times they will share new roles that open at their company.
Master the Search
One skill that will improve your application process is learning how to search for the role you are looking for. If you go to a site like Indeed and LinkedIn and just type the job title in, you might get a LOT of results. But the quality does not match the quantity.
For example when we searched
we see 58 jobs. Most of them are generally in the area that we would expect. But some of them are of no interest to me. For example, we see a few Compensation Analyst roles. While this might in the same Job Family for what we are searching for, this is not really what we are interested in.
Now if we change the search to:
All we did was add quotes around the title and this changed the search to find text that contains exactly those two words together. It dropped the search down from 58 results to 2. But the two results that appeared were exactly in line with the type of roles that we would expect.
Now, this might be too limiting for your search but you can always build on this search phrase. For example, we expanded the search using OR. Now the search is:
“Workday Analyst” OR “Workday Manager” OR “HRIS Manager”
This is looking for any of those three options as written.
It might take some testing and adjusting but we recommend using the more general search to get an idea of what Job Titles people are using to post their jobs and what matches what you are interested in. Then you can use those titles in a more specific “quote” search so that you focus your efforts and limit some of the unnecessary noise.
Advanced Search and Filters
After you hit enter for your search you then also are provided some filter options both on Indeed and Linkedin. It might be helpful to narrow your search down here as well, especially by Job Type (Full-time, Part-time, Contractor, etc.) or sort by Date Posted, or even location.
Indeed also has an Advanced Search if you want to narrow down what you are looking for in your job search.
Tracking
Another crucial aspect of applying for Jobs is tracking your applications. As you apply you need to keep track of which ones make it to the next stage, which ones you received a rejection notification from, and more importantly which ones you already applied to.
It is important to track to see which applications are a “success”, which means getting a phone call from the recruiter. We believe it helps to know which titles recruiters on the other side of this search think
Automation and Reminders
Job Alerts – Most job search sides have some sort of email alert to let you know when new jobs are posted on their site. Follow the “Master the Search” steps above to get your exact job search down to what you are looking for and then set it up for alerts.
To set up Job Alerts on Indeed you should see a section on the right-hand side of your search where you can put in your email and “Activate” the search.
After you search on LinkedIn you will see a toggle you can switch on to turn on the Job Alerts.
It is recommended to search set up specifically so that you only get emails for jobs you would be interested in applying for. Otherwise, you will get email alerts every day with 100s of jobs (most of which are irrelevant) and you may miss the ones that are a good fit for you.
Indeed Resume/ Apply with Linkedin
Another tool Indeed and LinkedIn both provide is the ability to set up your resume on their site. Indeed Resume has the ability to have resume searchable so companies can find you. Personally, we have not gotten any interviews from that functionality (maybe we are using it wrong). The benefit we see from using these resume tools though is the ability to “quick” apply. This is a set up both sites have where you can use the resume already loaded into their database to apply to the role with a click of a button. While this may not always be the best way to apply this convenience does help speed up the number of applications you can make and save you from filling out your education/experience for the 100th time.
Networking
Another aspect of the business/recruiting world that can greatly improve the chances of getting you an interview is networking. This does not necessarily mean going to events. You can easily network by reaching out to people in the industry and roles you are interested in and see if they have time to talk about what they did to get there. It is also important to connect with people and groups on sites like LinkedIn and follow and engage in conversations related to your field. Having people who know you in the field means they will keep you in mind when roles open at their companies and employee referrals tend to give you a better chance of getting you in the door.
Helpful Links
https://support.indeed.com/hc/en-us/articles/204488950-Getting-started-with-your-job-search
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