Times have changed, as so is the process of recruiters. During our own screening process at twimbit.com, I observed what mistakes candidates were making. There were so many applications that only a few things stand out and help make our decision.
Don’t take me wrong but modern application portal are like tinder apps where best profile makes the difference. And there are trivial things that account for it.
I can confidently say that these things won't just be appreciated at our company, but anyone. I pointed these things out and mentioning them here. Surprisingly, you don't need to do a lot of changes, just minor mentions and corrections and you are good to go.
We will call them the 5 P’s -
Platform 🚉
Profile 😎
Profession 🧑🏻🎨
Portfolio 💼
Purpose 🚀
Many of us don’t realize but recruiters tend to stick with one recruitment platform. The main reason for this is the chaos it creates when you need to manage the application and visit various platforms regularly. Although there are many platforms, but they share the same process flow. You apply to an opportunity; they screen you and the process starts.
Now if you carefully understand your odds of getting more opportunity will increase if you have profile on multiple platforms. This information can be just copied from one another with minor adjustments. For you to respond and apply to positions is easier than recruiter stumbling around on various platform.
2. Profile 😎
You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when you have a lot of choices, the cover does make an impact. In this case a recruiter on an average must screen 50 applications every day. This makes it difficult to go and check for individual profiles and read about them. It really helps in making the decision if there is something that stands out. These traits can be as simple as putting up a decent profile picture, writing a greeted intro, mentioning your skills, hobbies etc. You can arguably say that these things are mentioned in my resume already, but the catch is that a recruiter won't even reach till your resume and go with a better choice.
Here is a small example of 2 applicants, which one do you think stands out.
You will quite agree that the first one is more appealing than the second. It has a nice picture, a good bio, mentioned skills and of course past experiences.
Also don’t forget to mention appropriate external profile that count your experience. eg. Developers should mention there Github, Kaggle, hackerank or designer there behance, dribble etc. and your personal website is a huge must these days.
3. Profession 🧑🏻🎨
You should clearly mention the profession you are in or the one you want to pursue. Don’t leave it to your fate and the recruiter to decide. Usually when we look at an application, we are actually trying to find commonalities between what we need and what the candidate already possesses. Also, don't confuse your expectations between full time, intern, part-time and freelance. You yourself know what you deserve and what you are capable of. Minor hustling is OK, but dream castles not. Mention what you aspire and only go for the opportunities that meet your expectations. These things make it easier and faster for recruiter to decide.
4. Portfolio 💼
You may not have experience in the position your applying for, which is completely fine, but you should have at least done something in past in that field. A recruiter definitely wants to have a taste of your work style. For developers going for technology stack-based opportunity, should mention a sample project or an open source contribution which can show their work. Designers should have their mood boards or past work mentioned. A cherry on cake can be, if you are an influencer of your domain like a speaker, blogger, opensource maintainer. So, keep on trying these things and cataloguing them on your portfolio.
So next time you are working on something keep them logged somewhere. A best practice can be writing a blog about it. Others can learn from it and recruiters can see your work.
5. Purpose 🚀
Apart of the tabular data you have added to your application there should be oozing passion. How can you do that? by adding your personal swag in your work. This is applicable to all the above-mentioned points. To start, write your goals on a paper and whatever you write in the application field, think about how your goals match with it. Also ask your friends to review your application and ask for their first impression (but don’t ask the people that care for your feeling 😓).
Wrapping up 📜
If you do all these things properly your application can truly be reflection of you. Good things don’t come easy and bad time doesn’t last long. Be patient and humble to each opportunity. Also be experimental with your application if something doesn't sounds right try out something else. You should keep on trying new ways to make your application stands out.
I hope this note would have helped you and you can reach out to me for any queries or advices.
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