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So I graduated recently and I'm looking for a job, and I started reading about best practices,
I noticed the common advice for job seekers is astoundingly similar to dating advice women get, the amount of gaslighting and victim blaming is amazing, and they tend to contradict themselves every two sentences. The whole thing is making me angry and disgusted honestly, and I know it won't end up well for me because each time I tried to play these games I ended being hurt.
I'm wondering now where I'm supposed to get advice that will land me a good job and make me repulsive to bad job as I have no experience with this at all.
Do you queens have any recommendations?
85% of jobs are secured through nepotism, so don't get down on yourself. Start networking asap
A few tips:
Create a short email intro that has personality and gumption. Don't bother with cover letters anymore.
A killer resume. That means starting with power verbs and really tooting your own horn. It's a formula: Power verb + action you took = result. No more than 2 pages.
Companies who ask for or require free work (ex. write a week's worth of social media posts so we can see your talent) are shady and best to avoid them. Create a portfolio instead and direct ppl there
It's a numbers game. Apply to a job even if you only qualify for 50% of the requirements. Apply to lots of jobs and use interviews to practice thinking on your feet, talking about your experience and advocating for yourself
The best tips I ever got for job interviews were to prepare and pivot.
Preparing means
a) doing diligent research on the company and position you are interviewing for and tailoring your CV, cover letter (if you need to send one) and replies to interview questions to them. If you know who will be interviewing you, also do research on them. Find out what their exact positions are, how they got there, hell, even stalk their social media. You never know what you may have an in common and can slip into the conversation.
b) preparing replies for the most common interview questions and prompts beforehand (you can look up lists online). I don't mean think about them, I mean compose answers, write them down and practice saying them until they sound natural. Make sure every reply refers to an impressive/important/relevant station in your CV, a person or event you mentioned or or a skill or strength you detailed there. Prepare short anecdotes about your strengths, weaknesses, problems you solved etc. You can be a little creative there as long as you are not obviously making stuff up or telling things they can easily check.
Pivoting means using their questions for your own agenda. Use every single question they ask you to either highlight your strengths and important information in your CV (using your prepared replies and anecdotes) and move the conversation there, show off the research you did on the company and position or to prompt them to tell you something about the position or company. This is especially useful for unexpected or stupid questions they ask you. Also: if you get them talking, you have time to recover and regroup. I'd even go as far as saying that their questions don't matter, use them as prompts to tell and ask them what you want to tell and ask them. It takes a little practice but it's absolutely worth it.
"What would your first 30 days in this position look like?" Say some nice, generic things and tell them you read about their great onboarding program on their website and ask if they can tell you more about it.
"Where do you see yourself in 3/5/10 years?" Again, generic answer about how happy you will be to still work there and then ask them about staff development and training programs they mention on their website. Ask the interviewers how long THEY have been working there and how they ended up in their current position.
Regarding intentionally stupid/stress questions ("Tell us why we shouldn't hire you" / "How many golf balls would fit into your car?" "If I gave you an elephant you couldn't give away or sell, what would you do with it?"): They are doing this on purpose to see how you react. If they are antagonistic questions about your weaknesses: tell them something they already know and not a word more. They want three years of experience and your CV shows that you only have two and a half? Tell them that and only that. Regarding stupid/funny questions: answer how you would solve that problem if you had the time (measure the interior of the car and a golf ball, do the math...). Argue why you would do the things you do. There is no right answer here and they are not expecting one.
If you are looking for something to read, I can really recommend Gorick Ng's "The Unspoken Rules". It's excellent.
I'm in the same boat, only I graduated several years ago. I do have job, but I've been searching 3 years now for another one. I get interviews, but no luck. It's very frustrating.
I use job apps, but you have to weed out the bullshit just like with dating apps. Only with job apps, the filters are better.
I wish I had advice for you, I can only say that I hear you. Finding a decent job today seems like an impossibility, and the bar for how you have to present and "sell" yourself so you'll be allowed to work for a company is ever rising. I truly feel like I'll need to be self-employed somewhere down the line, but currently I need the stability of a regular job, and it's really not a great position to be in. Sadly, unlike dating, we cannot choose to be the equivalent of single (= jobless).
Everyone's advice is spot on.
I would add googling Quizlet for interview questions and answers. Often specific companies questions are on there and tests are on there too.
Q. 1st 30 days ?
Walking with purpose around the facilities, to catch failures/mistakes before they occur.
Q. How would your *** describe you?
they'd say that you multitask, organize, and deal with high stress situations better than any of your experienced coworkers.
Is there a particular aspect of job hunting that you need some guidance on? I’m curious about where you found the tips that reminded you of dating advice.