Fwd: 5 things I did that helped me snag 3 job interviews in 48 hours
Hey,
As I mentioned yesterday, I have some big news to share. Here it is: I got my first-ever "big girl" full-time job. And I start soon. Real soon. (Towards the end of this email I share more details about this. Stick around.)
After my initial phone interview, I was made an offer in just 10 days. (Not business days. 10 actual days. Depending on which study you turn to, and the industry, the average time for a job offer after an interview is anywhere from 16-40 days.)
Woah, hold up. Let's rewind. Several weeks ago, when I decided I wanted to get a full-time job, I applied to three dream jobs, at three awesome companies.
I applied to all the openings online, and didn't rely on any personal connections to give me an "in". (Simply because I didn't have any connections the companies I felt comfortable asking for a referral.)
And I heard back from all three within 48 hours for interviews.
This special email, not published anywhere else, shows exactly what I did differently, why I think it worked, and how you can do the same thing.
1. Build trust by cultivating an online presence.
My entire blog post from yesterday talks about this -- so I won't delve too deep here.
Having an online presence, even a general one, is key when you're looking for jobs, clients, projects, etc. By "general," I mean that not all of it must be relevant to your dream industry, especially not right off the bat. Just make it relevant to yourself as a person: create a LinkedIn and Twitter and personal site and so forth.
Sure -- I have LTCWM social media accounts, like my Facebook page. But long before I started LTCWM, I had a personal LinkedIn profile, as well as a personal Twitter handle.
Aside from getting your name out there, having online profiles builds legitimacy, and acts as social proof. Because you better believe that if a hiring manager goes to your LinkedIn profile and sees you have over 500 connections, it'll make them feel better about you than if your only Google result is your high school's graduation announcement. It makes you more of a known quantity.
Same goes for Twitter followers, or any kind of social media following. It shows people like you enough to follow you!
Start building this kind of presence and social proof sooner rather than later. I am not saying you need 10,000 Twitter followers to get a good job -- far from it. But let's face it, having a large following on any social media network looks good.
How you can apply this to your own life: If you do nothing else, get a LinkedIn profile. If you don't have a LinkedIn account yet, stop reading right now and make one. According to a 2014 Jobvite study, 94% of recruiters are on LinkedIn. But only 36% of job seekers are. There's a lot of opportunity there.
2. Establish authority in the industry you want to work in, starting now.
I've been unknowingly building authority in the online education space (and "learn to code" space) since the day I started the Learn to Code With Me site back in April 2014. I say "unknowingly" because I didn't really know what I was doing back when I first started the site. (And what a pleasant surprise it has been!)
The thing is, it takes a long time to build authority. You can't write one blog post and call yourself an expert. That's why you need to start NOW. Start putting your name, your "brand," out into the world. You may not be an expert yet, but that doesn't matter. Expertise comes with experience, and the very process of building online authority helps you develop that experience.
How you can apply this to your own life: What industry do you want to work in? Health? Fashion? Music? Book publishing? Cooking? Start a blog or podcast around it. Create content. Position yourself as a knowledgeable source on the topic.
You probably think if you want to do web development, or web design, you must cover that topic. Not true. In fact, when you couple two things together, it can make you stand out more. I like to call it "passion mashing."
For instance, say you couple your love of food with your other thing (web dev, design). Think about it: if you're a web designer, and have a foodie blog, and apply to jobs at companies like Grubhub or Doordash or Blue Apron, you'll stand out way more than the other web designers vying for the role who don't show a related interest.
3. Be extremely selective in the jobs you're after.
I was incredibly selective in the jobs I applied to. So selective that I only ended up applying to three jobs in the entire country (since I didn't mind relocating). And I heard back from all three within 48 hours for a screening interview. Depending on which study you turn to, the average odds of hearing back after a job application can be as low as 4-6%, or even less than 1% with big, lucrative companies (e.g. Google).
But when you're extremely selective in the jobs you're after, and you align with the opening (I cover this next in point 4), your odds of hearing back are much, much higher.
In my case, I only looked at openings in the EdTech industry, at companies that created online courses in some capacity. The roles that interested me were specific to technical content creation/curriculum development.
You may not be familiar with the e-learning landscape, and curriculum developer roles, but let me tell you: this is really niche. So niche in fact that I only collected 26 openings in my tracking sheet. Most of which I wasn't really interested in.
As you can see above, the three roles I applied to were at Udacity, Lynda, and Teachable. Soon after, things began moving so fast that I stopped updating the tracking sheet. (I am sure you may be curious if you've read this far in the email - the job offer I ended up accepting was for the position at Teachable.)
If you build an online presence, develop trust and authority, AND are so selective—applying to jobs you believe in, at companies you believe in—your odds are hearing back are really freaking high.
It's also important to note that when you hear back from multiple companies, all interested in talking with you, it's a total confidence booster. As a result, it shifts your mindset from "I NEED A JOB I'LL TAKE ANYTHING I CAN GET" to ensuring the company/role is a good fit for you.
Because you better believe that after hearing back from Udacity, Lynda, AND Teachable in such a short amount of time, my priority became finding the right fit for me. And shouldn't it be that way?? You're interviewing them, too.
Even more, the confidence of knowing you have multiple options will shine through when you're being interviewed. Which only makes them want you more.
Being selective is a win for so many reasons.
How you can apply this to your own life: Be intentional with the jobs you're after. Being selective means having confidence in yourself and what you can bring to the table. When you lay the groundwork by building authority and an online presence, you'll have that confidence.
4. Align your values with companies you want to work for (and show it).
This goes along with selectiveness in the jobs you apply to -- but I think it's so important that it needs its own point.
One of the most important things to look for when applying (selectively, of course) to job openings is value alignment with the company. This means that your personal values/mission, and interests, and goals, fit with the company you want to work for. If you can provide hard evidence that they do (as opposed to just telling them in a cover letter/interview), it goes even further. Show, don't tell!
For me, I am passionate about online education and empowering people to gain digital skills so they can improve their careers and lives. It's what drives me. It's what fires me up.
When I sent in my job application, and even later in the interviews, I didn't really need to say a darn word to prove that. The hiring manager could easily take a quick look at my site, or social media profiles, and figure out that that's where my passions lie.
And, for me, this passion fit perfectly with the goals of those three companies (and the role I applied to itself). They all had something to do with helping people learn to code, or do something technical, and e-learning in general.
Even though I didn't necessarily "check all the boxes" on their lists of job requirements, that underlying passion spoke a lot louder than a few missing skills.
Because what does any employer want? A person who is passionate about the product/service they're creating. People who have that interest and passion will be better employees in the long-term. They've got a leg up on the person who has all the skills but couldn't care less about the mission.
How you can apply this to your own life: Again, it's another reason to be selective in the jobs you apply to, and only apply to those you care about and have a value alignment with. This way, you don't have to force passion. You don't have to pretend you loooove the product. You'll be authentic, and it'll show.
5. Personality and cultural fit
So, you've done everything else up to this point: you have authority and an online presence, you were selective in the jobs you applied to (meeting the most basic job requirements), and you made sure that your values and interests aligned with the company.
The final ingredient, then, is personality. In virtually every working environment, you need to be agreeable—easy to get along with. Because it won't matter if you get every single technical interview question right if you have a crappy personality, or seem difficult to work with.
Skills, technologies, programming languages, etc. can all be taught and acquired. But a personality? That's tough to change. And hiring managers and recruiters know that.
In all of your exchanges—email, phone, Skype, in-person—remember this.
Sure, I could cover the basics—smile, make eye contact, sit up straight, know your answers to the tough behavioral questions that are commonly asked. But instead, I want to share a little technique I learned while working at LA Fitness one summer during college, selling gym memberships: people feel much more comfortable when the other person has similar mannerisms, behaviors, tone of voice, and use similar language as them.
Is the person interviewing you more outgoing, talkative, and energetic? Embrace your outgoing side. On the other hand, are they more soft-spoken and deliberate about every word they choose? Then be calm and thoughtful when you interact with them.
Now, I am not saying to complete ditch yourself and mimic your interviewer like a robot. What I mean is if you tend to get a little excited when meeting new people, and show it strongly (which is something I tend to do), tone it down if the interviewer is on the quiet side. (Or ramp it up if they're not!)
Overall, it puts the other person at ease. I mean, if you're an introvert, have you ever been around a person who was just too much and it exhausted you? Or vice versa, as an extrovert, have you ever around someone who was so soft-spoken, you kept wondering if they didn't like you? Interviewers are people too, and it's no different. So, be mindful of their personality type and energy level.
The same line of thought can be applied to all interactions, like email, before you even schedule your phone and face-to-face interviews. Is the recruiter/HR person/point of contact more professional in the way they write, using full sentences and proper introductions? If so, write that way too.
Or is the person super casual, starting off the email with a "Yo!" or the like? Be more laid back, then. Aside from getting along with the interviewer, this also helps you seem like a better cultural fit.
How you can apply this to your own life: Be observant of the behaviors of people. Interviewers, but also others that work at the company. Mimic it in relevant ways—emails, language used, etc.—and you'll more likely come across as a better cultural fit. (Which is a huge factor when it comes to making a final decision—how well the individual fits in with the rest of the team.)
Again, don't reinvent yourself just to fit in. And also be aware of the fact that if the culture is very different from who you are, you probably won't enjoy working there, anyways.
----
To recap, here are the five things I did to land an interview at the 3 jobs I applied to:
- I had an online presence
- I had some level of authority, and credibility, in the industry I wanted to work in (EdTech)
- I was highly selective in the jobs I applied to (industry + company + role)
- My values/interests/goals aligned with the companies
- I showed I had a rockin' personality and fit in culturally
If you do these things, too, you'll be getting interviews and offers left and right.
But guess what? Absolutely none of this would have been possible if it weren't for my strong online presence that aligned with what these companies were all about—educating people online.
If you want to have recruiters and hiring managers clamoring over you, the most important thing you can do NOW is to make a website that shows who you are, what you can do, and that your values are aligned with the companies you'd like to work for.
A website it like your homebase. Sure, social media accounts are important - but you're confined to the platform. Not on your website.
And my course Portfolio Dojo shows you how to create a website your dream client or hiring manager will care about. I'll tell you more about the course on Monday. But if you can't wait, click here to find out more AND take advantage of the early bird discount price.
Have a good weekend,
Laurence
P.S. Okay, so I teased at the beginning of this email that I would be divulging more about my new job and life change! Here ya go: aside from starting a brand new full-time job at Teachable as a "Product Educator" (a hybrid role that works between the marketing, customer care, and pretty much all other teams) I am also moving to NYC. In eight freaking days.
This is my first time "publicly" announcing this new job and the relocation. (I haven't even posted about it yet on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or what have you - so yay, feel special!)
P.P.S Finally, I want to address something about my job qualifications for the roles I applied to. Because I KNOW people are thinking, "But I don't meet every requirement in the job listings I want!" or something along those lines.
Sure, there were some listings in my tracking sheet that I met all, or most, of the requirements for. There were others, though, that had a lot of boxes I didn't check.
For instance, for one of the roles I applied to and was being interviewed for, the recruiter told me how everyone else in the role had master's degrees or PHDs in CS (or something related). Not to mention, they wanted video production experience and formal instructional design training.
Of course in my head I thought, "Ah!! I only have a bachelor's degree...in history!!" But I quickly snapped out of it. And they even told me that they could overlook those missing skills since I was so enthusiastic about the work.
Your degree and the university you attended really doesn't matter for most roles. Knowledge, experience, passion, value alignment, and cultural fit matter more.
I crack a smile whenever people assume I have a technical degree, or now more often a degree in journalism (given my recent contributorship on Forbes). Nope, not even close. Again, I studied history and minored in economics. Remember: once upon a time I wanted to work in economic development...in Southeast Asia.
No, I don't have a relevant degree. Nor did I attend a top-tier university (like lots of my future coworkers). Nor do I have "years of experience" (which is another job requirement to not freak out over, because if you're an awesome candidate, it won't matter that you have two years instead of four).
But what I do have is an online presence, credibility, and unwavering passion in one area, with evidence that shows it (my blog, writing on other sites, social media profiles, the Newbie Coder Warehouse group I started -- you get it, my overall online presence).
Stop doubting yourself and panicking because you don't meet every requirement on a job listing. And stop finding reasons why you can't get a job, and instead focus on why you CAN.
If you do the five things I outlined above, you'll be in good shape.
