Looking for a change or for a new job? Not sure how to start? Want a complete Job hunting process with best Practices? Don't worry! In this article you will get easy to follow guidelines that will land you your dream job. So why wait? Read on!
This article is for those who are currently looking for a change and for those who don't have a job and looking for one, for experienced as well as fresh graduates.
This article is based on my learning over the past few years in the IT industry, leveraging expertise of some best recruiters in the industry, numerous interviews I conducted and methods I and my friends implemented when we looked for new opportunities.
Please remember that there is no substitute for hard work, but sometimes a hardworking professional or a fresh graduate might wonder why opportunities don't knock on their doors. In today's cut-throat, competitive world, just hard work isn't sufficient; smart work is what it takes.
Beginning with resume preparation and continuing through your marketing of yourself for your dream job, it takes some processes and practices.
Here I will explain in detail every step involved. For ease of understanding I have broken down the process into 3 parts.
I. Employer identification
Every experienced professional as well as a fresh graduate knows what kind of job they want, in other words their Dream Job; take 15 minutes and jot down everything you want from your dream job (like where it should be, what should be the salary).
Identify employers (companies) you see as a best fit to your expectations that you have identified. The companies list can be huge. Now we need to filter them out. How? Collect 5 types of information on each company and they are: website address, contact information, contact person, their expertise (like technology they are working on) and current openings.
Now make your preferences as if you are ready to relocate. Are there any issues? If not then filter out those companies that don't fit.
Again filter out those companies not working on similar expertise as yours (for example you are an experienced Java professional and looking for the same kind of job and a company says they do not have projects related to Java).
Now you have a company list according to your preferences. Let's head for the current opening section in more detail:
- To get current openings of a company the very first information source should be their website.
- Job Portals, newspapers, magazines and friends are very important resources for current openings in the companies you enlisted.
- Sometimes you won't find current opening information on a company's website; it's not because they aren't recruiting, it might be because they are recruiting through a Consultancy. So gather current opening information from consultancies.
II. Marketing
Now you have a list of openings in your selected companies. Now What?
1. Before marketing yourself, follow two things that are extremely important.
Resume
A Resume is like the packaging of a product (you) that one sees and perceives about the content inside. So you should take care of the following things while preparing a resume:
- Meticulously prepared and should be error free.
- Experience and education should be in chronological order.
- Must explain how you benefited your current and last employer (for example sales increased 20%).
- Last but not the least, include keywords. Every company searches millions of resumes by keywords. Include keywords related to your expertise, but at proper places (for example while mentioning your project you can include technology keywords or even better you can have a separate Expertise section also).
For a sample resume please click here
Cover letter:
This is you first window through which you are going to interact with your future employer. Extreme caution must be taken while designing a cover letter.
- No grammar mistakes please.
- Include all keywords mentioned in the current opening requirement because from the thousands of Emails that a company gets every day, it is impossible to read every one; so what a company may do is filter them out on the basis of keywords mentioned in opening with the keywords mentioned in the cover letter.
- Please note that a resume may be designed once and can be reused as-is several times but the cover letter should be different for every employer. Like the keywords may differ depending upon the requirements mentioned in the opening.
- Do let your potential employer know "why you are best suited for this job?"
- Do not make the reader sleepy. Keep it short, let's say 2-3 paragraphs.
For a sample resume please click here
2. Networking
Networking is one of the important factors that could provide you numerous ways to reach your potential employer.
We all know preferences are given to those resumes that are referred by the company's own employees. So let's be friends with that sweet employee. You can significantly increase the chances of being noticed.
Join sites like Siliconindia.com, linkedin.com etcetera. There are numerous similar sites also that are for professionals.
3. Job Portals
We all know about this. Apply to the relevant opening that you have listed through these job portals. Take extreme caution when applying, such as to modify you cover letter for keywords and do not apply more than once.
Please follow the model below to increase your chances of getting an interview call:
![job hunt process.PNG]()
C# Corner offers a Job Board where you can post your resume or also apply for existing jobs.
Post your resume here
Search available jobs here
III. The Interview
So finally after much effort in getting an interview call you are just one step away from your Dream Job. Things that should be taken the utmost care of in an interview are:
- Always arrive at least 15 minutes early. This will provide you necessary time to look around, read the company magazine, in short to familiarize yourself with the surroundings that will help to kee you calm.
- Always wear formal attire. Even before you actually say something, your attire has already spoken a thousand words.
- I know it's your dream job so you must have a good knowledge of the company, like origin year, founder, management personals, expertise, strength, turnover, etcetera. Just reminding you :)).
- Always get permission before going in.
- A firm handshake with greetings in a stable voice (not nervous) shows the level of confidence.
- It's OK if you don't know a question, don't panic. The interviewer isn't expecting you to answer each and every question.
- Do not disrespect your previous employer.
- Do negotiate the salary if you feel it's lower than what you deserved.
- It's a nice thing to prepare some questions to ask the interviewer in the interview end.
- Collect the interviewer's contact information, like email.
- Reassure the interviewer that you are the best suited candidate for this job with a firm handshake.
- As soon as you come out, either leave a handwritten note for the interviewer (for example "it was a great experience") or email it to the collected email, to show your thanks. Hand-written notes are more effective.
- If you do not hear anything from them the next day, follow up and enquire about the status.
I hope you will benefit from these guidelines. Here are some more interview tips: Interviewing "Must DO's and Please DON'Ts"
Happy job hunting!!