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Land that dream job in eight steps
Updated: Mar 21
Welcome to the FS community, your resources for education, financial and career opportunities to integrate and thrive in Canada.
Being in the job market and experimenting with job applications before moving fully into entrepreneurship, I found the formula for landing the perfect job. Today, I want to share the formula with you. While there is no perfect system and job application processes differ in industries and organizations, these steps helped me land consistent interviews and offers.
So you saw that dream job posting and based on the job description, you are qualified. What's next?
Get a Referral
Get a referral by networking strategically. Check out my piece on how to network the right way. While a referral will not guarantee you the job, your application has a better chance of being noticed by the hiring manager/committee which is half the battle.
Write a Concise Cover Letter
Address the skills and qualifications in your cover letter in point format. State examples of how you meet majority of the experience and skills in the job description. Don't waste time with filler words mentioning your skills, your life experience or why you are changing careers, go straight to the point-show they why you are qualified by highlighting examples of how you gained that experience and skill and the results.
Address the Cover Letter to an actual person
This step might be tricky because most job postings do not indicate the name of your supervisor/manager. But sometimes, the posting will mention the title of the reporting manager. You can also assume whom your manager will be. For instance if you are applying for a manager position, you will most likely report to the director of that department. Do your research- check the staff directory or LinkedIn for names or google "Director of specific department, name of company." If you simply can't find any information, ask your referral. You could still address your letter to the "hiring manager" or "hiring committee" but adding a name shows you have done your research and the hiring manager is more likely to consider your application.
Copy and paste the job responsibilities into your resume
Then tweak it to match your experience. It seems counterintuitive to be creative in your resume to stand out. But in this day and age, that's not what companies are looking for. They want to see that you have already done this type of job and you have the skill. Plus your resume would most likely pass through an ATS-Applicant Tracking System, then a Recruiter or HR personnel, and then the hiring manager or committee. At each stage, applications get weeded out. The ATS especially weeds out applications that don't have the job description keywords. So if you want someone to most likely read your resume, make sure you have the keywords and the best way to get that in is copying and pasting the job description points into your resume. Once you are done, get someone to proofread your application at least twice-you don't want any grammatical errors to kill a potential job opportunity.
Submit your application directly to the organization
Even though you find the job on sites such as LinkedIn or Indeed, submit the application either directly on the company's website or through the email on the job posting. Don't submit through LinkedIn's Easy Apply or Indeed. You don't want to take any chance on missing out any crucial requirement (if they want the application in one document, if there are additional questions or documents to submit). For example, when I was hiring for a role and I made note in the job description for a cover letter and resume, alot of people who submitted applications through LinkedIn did not submit a cover letter. Unfortunately, I did not consider those applicants because they missed a crucial requirement stated in the job posting.
Send an email to the Hiring Manager
Once you submit the application, send a quick email to the hiring manager or the person you will be reporting to. This is exactly why I do not consider applications where I have no idea who the hiring manager is. This email is is not for the hiring manager to respond. Infact, they will most likely not respond. This email is for them to remember your name. While the tweaking of your resume and cover letter is to get through the bureaucratic steps to the hiring manager, the email is to get noticed. The email should be short and direct- a quick salutation, let them know you applied for the specific position and how you look forward to speaking to them more in an interview.
If you get a call back or email for an interview, Focus on the actions you can control.
Prepare according to the technicality of the job
The way an accountant would prepare for an interview would be different from a programmer. Don't spend too much time going through behavioural & situational questions as they can never fully prepare you for the interview. There are usually surprise questions that tend to throw you off. My preferred method is to research the company, the department, trends in the company and industry, how the job aligns to the department and organizational goals. Focus on 5 stories you can bring from your previous work experience and skills and figure out how you can tie that into the job responsibilities. As long as you can narrate your stories in the STAR format-situation, task, action, results, you are good to go.
Determine how much time to spend on an interview assignment
How much time do you spend on the task? This depends. The problem is you will never really know the type of answers the hiring organization is looking for except it is a purely objective task. Since you do not know, do what you can within reason. Ask yourself, how much time can I spend on this task that will not make me upset if I do not get the job or move to the next stage? If its three hours then dedicate no less than three hours. You can only control your part, you can't control how they will react to your assignment.
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Once you complete the interview stage, pat yourself at the back, take a breather and move on. You did an amazing job. Remember that the only truly amazing dream job is the one you create for yourself. There are other countless amazing opportunities out there. Move on to the next one and complete the process again until you sign that offer!