Blog: The Top 3 Things No One Else is Doing to Get the Job they Want
By Alane Boyd, Co-Founder, Workday Ninja
Finding a new job is stressful enough but competing against hundreds, maybe thousands of qualified people can make it even more taxing. Standing out in a sea of applicants is crucial no matter the job market, but it will be important now more than ever given the current job market landscape.
I’ve been hiring in the tech industry for over a decade and even in the most competitive job markets and in hundreds of resumes submitted for positions, there are always only a small handful of applicants that stand out. There are a few key steps applicants can take to make themselves stand out and it does not include dated methods like in-person resume drop-offs, connecting with them on LinkedIn, or sending a follow-up email.
Whether you were recently laid off, trying to make a career change, or want to change positions within your current company, these four tips will help you land your next big role.
Three things to make an impression on a hiring manager
1. Submit work examples for the job you want.
Don’t have specific job experience but know you can do it? Great! Create examples of what you would do if you had the job. So many of our very best hires did not have specific job experience but showed through amazing examples that they would be fantastic at the job.
One of my favorite hiring stories is from years ago, “I once had a waiter who applied for a social media coordinator position at our company. He had zero experience working for an agency, working in social media, or designing anything but in his application, he created a fake business called Suds and Buds. It was a Washeteria and Bar so you could wash your clothes and have a few beers at the same time. He made fake social handles for all of the popular sites and created graphics to go along with them. He even created check-in deals. We fast-tracked him through the hiring process. He couldn’t even type when we hired him. We trained him on everything he needed because we knew he had the skills to do the job.”
Here are some approaches in submitting work samples that you can do for specific positions:
Applying to a Management Position
-
Create a brief slide deck on how you manage your team and your expectations.
-
Put together examples of how you support your team, what it's like to work with you, or the results your management style has had.
- Remember: This is for the job you want, not necessarily the job you have now. If you don't have samples, create them for what you would do if you had the job!
Applying to a Software Developer position
- Submit a code sample! Employers want to see the types of code you write. Having a sample helps show your skills.
- If you don't have a usable code sample, make one!
Applying to an Operations position
- Record a video (Loom works great) of you walking through an amazing workflow automation you created using Make.com or Zapier. Remember, you don’t have to have your camera turned on. It can be a recording of your screen only.
- Record a video of how you use Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, Trello, etc. of how you have streamlined team communication, quality control, and project management.
- Create a how-to for using a Work Management System so you can show how you communicate change management to team members.
2. Better describe your work experience
Change your perspective on the work you currently do to better articulate how it relates to the position you want. Even in non-tech industries, the way you describe your job can be completely related to the job you want to be hired for.
If you work for a traditional publishing company, and want a job as a project manager, instead of describing your work as:
I work for a traditional publishing company. I communicate between departments about print designs. I manage client communication.
Describe it as:
I work for a publishing company:
- I communicate internally between several departments using Slack and Asana.
- I use Slack for more immediate needs for questions between coworkers, set up reminders on messages I have received if they come during busy times, and set up a channel between the three managers I go to often so we can always be on the same page.
- I use Asana for my daily task management and project communication, and I have created templates for tasks that come up often.
- I manage client communication through our internal messaging system, HelpScout.
- I manage all client-related activities through our Pipedrive CRM, keeping a copy of every HelpScout ticket associated with the client record in Pipedrive.
I am a waitress at a restaurant. I help answer the phone and take people’s orders. I do the restaurant’s marketing.
Describe it as:
I am a service professional at The Local:
- I use three software systems to manage all incoming customer orders: Waitr, GotDelivered, and TouchBistro.
- I constantly multitask between team and customer needs.
- I manage customer disputes, online reviews, and upselling.
- I’ve managed reviews through Google, Yelp, and Facebook and have been able to remove 11 negative reviews.
- I create all marketing, including printed coupons, mailers, social posts, etc. through Canva.
Hiring Tip: If you don’t have experience in a specific software platform mentioned in the job ad, check to see if that platform has a free version! If they do, create an account and start using it.
3. Have ideas and don’t be too scared to share them when being interviewed.
Do research on the company Ideas can stir up conversation and make interviews more of a discussion rather than a straight interrogation of questions about your work experience. There is a caveat to this: If you have ideas for improvement, you must have ideas on how you would execute them. Anyone can have ideas, and most likely, your idea is something someone else thought of. The difference is if someone can execute them so include that in how you would implement it if you got the role.
BONUS TIP: It is okay to take a role you want that will be a step back in order to get the experience you need to take 5 steps forward in the future.
A step back can mean financially or in your title. Although it can feel counterintuitive, these roles can serve as a foundation, giving you the knowledge and skills needed to advance rapidly when it is combined with all of your other experience.
Bio: Alane Boyd is a serial entrepreneur and high-growth founder with over two decades of experience in the tech industry. Alane is the Co-Founder of Workday Ninja, a growth strategy company in AI and automation. Her entrepreneurial success includes scaling her first hybrid agency and software company to 8 figures and exiting it in 2018. Her recent engagements include speaking at XChange, BrainTrust SaaS Vault, Entrepreneur, HuffPost, Goldman Sachs, and SXSW. Connect with Alane on LinkedIn.