Navigating Your Job Search in the Modern World

If you’ve found yourself looking for a job, don’t fret. Many great companies hire in any economic climate. You just need to put yourself in the best possible position. Here’s how:

Start with your resume

Even though the resume may be a dying breed thanks to LinkedIn, most employers are going to expect that you have one for now. A best practice is to keep a master resume that you update monthly, one that tracks everything that you do – since most of us can’t even remember what we had for lunch last Tuesday. In reality, you probably haven’t touched it since last time you looked for a job, so here are some tips on what to focus on as you dig into it:
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Keep it simple – Most recruiters and hiring managers won’t read the bulk of your resume, so simplicity is key. Keep it to one page if you can. Google Docs has a number of free resume templates that might help. Find them here.
Make it easy to reach you – Include the city and state that you live in. Many companies won’t consider non-local applicants, so make sure it’s clear that you’re local, or minimally that you’re open to relocation if you’re not local yet. Even most remote positions require that you’re located somewhere in the United States. Also include your email address (something professional that’s some form of your name, not the Yahoo! account you created in high school that has inappropriate references in it), phone number and website or portfolio (if applicable).
Include the important stuff – Start with a summary about you and what you’re looking for in a new position. Remember that you’re not writing a job description that contains laundry lists of things that you’ve done. This is your opportunity to brag. Highlight what you achieved, ideally with specific metrics. If you have a college degree, list it – but if you didn’t complete the degree make that abundantly clear or it could cost you the job at background check time. List all of your relevant experience (jobs you did early on in life that don’t relate to your current career field should go), making your titles, companies and the dates you were there clear. Not everyone that will view your resume has heard of all of the companies that you’ve worked for, so provide a one liner about them. If you’re no longer with your current company but you didn’t leave long ago, it’s fine to leave ‘to present.’ No need to create a potential barrier to getting to that initial phone screen where you can explain why you left. Use a skills section, if for nothing other than SEO. This is more important if you’re in a field where tools, frameworks, languages, etc. are used to distinguish candidates and/or signal your areas of expertise.
Leave out the non-important stuff – While you want to list your city, it’s not necessary to include your physical address on your resume. Also leave out any social media links that may include you doing or saying anything that might not meet HR standards (think vulgar language, paraphernalia, even drinking). If an employer is going to find it, they’re going to find it, but no need to lead them to it.
Do the final polish – When you’re done editing and have had someone you respect and trust proofread it, save it as a PDF (don’t send Word documents, and certainly don’t send .ODT or .pages documents) and name it something like ‘Clark Griswold Resume.’ If you just name it ‘resume,’ it will get lost in the Downloads folder of someone’s computer.

Make the jobs come to you

No one does search and indexing like Google. You may have come across what was initially branded ‘Google for Jobs’ without realizing it. It’s baked into the Google search experience. To find it just search for a job title and a location. An example would be “software engineer jobs in los angeles.” The result will have this Jobs header at the top with three tabs.

If you’ve been laid off or your company has shut down, then your job search is public. The first thing you should do is post on LinkedIn and any social media platform that you use that you’re looking for new opportunities. Your own network will always be one of your most valuable tools. If your job search is private, or if it’s public and you’ve already alerted your network, your next step should be setting up alerts for jobs that might interest you.

If you click through the “X+ more jobs ->” button below the top three results, you’ll be taken into the main Google for Jobs interface which was recently more integrated with the main Google search screen. Jobs even has its own tab next to Images and News now.

Now you want to run a search for every job title that you might be interested in, in any geographic region you’d be open to. As an example, in addition to “software engineer jobs in los angeles,” you could also search “programmer jobs in hollywood” and “developer jobs in culver city.” Alternatively, you can use a boolean search that will catch all versions of locations, titles and keywords that might interest you, i.e. “(remote OR telecommute) (engineer OR developer OR programmer) (javascript OR node.js) jobs.” For every search you do, you want to set up an alert. You’ll find that toggle at the bottom left of the page. That’s accomplished by clicking the Follow button on the top right of the page.

In addition to job titles, locations, keywords, you can also use this to target specific companies. Let’s say you’ve always wanted to work at Snap and you’d be willing to take any type of job there to get your foot in the door. You could search “jobs at snap in los angeles” and save that alert.

Once you have all of your alerts set up, you can manage them in the Following tab at the top of the page. There you can set whether you want to receive the alerts daily or weekly. Depending on the urgency of your job search, you may only want to see them once per week.

Google for Jobs will have you covered on all of the major and minor job boards (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, etc.), and it will also find postings on companies’ websites. If you do the upfront legwork, Google will do the heavy lifting and bring interesting jobs to you.

Apply Carefully

Depending on where you find the job posting, the format for applying will be different. Let’s just cover some general rules.

Don’t ever list your current salary. In many states it’s a violation of labor law, as what you make shouldn’t have any effect on what you’re worth in a company’s environment. Listing it will put you at a disadvantage when it’s time to negotiate, or potentially cost you the opportunity to interview.
Don’t ever list your desired salary. If you list a number that’s higher than what was originally budgeted for the role, you may scare them off – but if you have an opportunity to prove your value first, there’s always a possibility that they’ll stretch the budget for you or even raise the grade for the position to accommodate your comp ask. If you throw out a number that’s lower than their range they may think you’re underqualified, and if you end up getting the role you effectively just took a bunch of money out of your own pocket. Your desired salary could also change once you learn more about the opportunity. If it’s more hours than you thought, your number could go up. If it’s your dream job, your number could go down. Either way, you put yourself in a tough spot if the employer has this number ahead of negotiations.
Formal cover letters are rarely necessary. If an employer specifically asks you for a cover letter, you’ll want to provide one – as you don’t want to look like you can’t follow directions. Oftentimes employers will use dated applicant tracking systems, so if the form you’re filling out looks like it was designed in the early ’90s, it’s probably safe to ignore the field where they ask you to attach a cover letter. If there’s a field that allows you to explain why you’re a good match in a few bullet points, you should take full advantage of it. This is your chance to sell your experience back to the job description and include any relevant industry experience you may have.

Prepare well for interviews

So you’ve gotten yourself an interview. Great work. Now it’s time to prepare for it so you can take full advantage of the opportunity. Whether it’s a phone call or meeting with an internal recruiter, HR or the hiring manager, general prep rules will apply.

Do your homework on the company – This should include their website so you’re familiar with their entire product or service offering, but you should take it further. Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo the company to find out the news, good or bad, see what they’re doing on social media, how their stock has been performing and see who their competitors are. Find their Form 10-K and Investor Relations page and understand their main revenue drivers. Often the 10-K has a helpful description of the business and how it makes money in the first few pages. It should be evident that you did prep homework because you’re able to speak intelligently about the company, their industry, even their leadership. This due diligence is also important because it may lead you to something that makes you question whether you’d be interested in working for the company. If that’s the case, you should bring up the topic during the meeting to give the interviewer a chance to address it. Even if they can’t, at least it was good interview practice and an opportunity to network.
Check out the interviewer – Visit their LinkedIn profile, learn about their background, see if you share any personal interests, are members of the same group or follow any of the same companies. This gives you a potential ice breaker and minimally puts you in a position to show the interviewer that you did your homework on them. The interview is about you, but interviewers are flattered when candidates make it about them too – plus it shows that you’re thorough and prepared.
Know the job description forward and backward – Job descriptions are often laundry lists created by hiring managers or even HR, and they’ve often been recycled from previous job postings. They typically paint a picture of the perfect candidate for the role, so don’t worry if you don’t have experience with everything listed. If there are things listed that you don’t have exposure to, or haven’t even heard of, do some homework on them. At least you’ll be able to say that you dabbled with them and would be interested in diving deeper. This shows initiative and helps you demonstrate the fact that you’re a quick learner.
Prepare questions – You might think you have all of your questions memorized, but when you’re in the interview it’s easy to draw a blank. Write them down ahead of time, and if it’s a video or face-to-face interview, write them on a notepad. If you have them on your phone, tablet or laptop, it might look like you’re checking your email – which is a bad look in an interview. When an interviewer asks if you have any questions, reference your list. Even if they’ve answered all of them throughout the course of the conversation, let them know that and compliment them on being thorough. Also, find something to ask, whether it’s about the environment, culture, tools, technologies or dress code. Not having any questions makes you seem unprepared, unengaged and/or uninterested.

Make the most of the interview

The most skilled candidates can cost themselves the job by making simple mistakes during the process. Here’s how to avoid doing that.

Dress appropriately – Unless you’re interviewing with an anti-corporate company that will be offended by nice clothing, you should aim to be dressed at least as well as the best dressed person that might be in the room with you. If there’s an executive on the interview lineup, chances are they’ll be wearing dress clothes. Use your best judgement, but sweat pants tucked into tube socks (I’ve actually seen someone show up like this) won’t cut it. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and your attire is the first thing they’ll see.
Be early – If you’re dialing in to a conference line or joining a Zoom, Teams or Google Meet conference, you should log in 5+ minutes early. Always be the first to arrive. If it’s a face-to-face meeting this is even more important, as factors like traffic and parking can come into play. You should arrive for onsite interviews 20+ minutes early. The last thing you need is to be stressed out about timing as you walk into a meeting. Being late also makes a bad first impression, and can often cost you the opportunity.
Be concise – It’s important to be mindful of the amount of time you have with the interviewer. If you realize that it has been quite a while since you heard them speak, it’s time to pause and allow them to guide the interview. Let them know that you can go deeper on the topic if they’d like, but that you want to make sure they have time to cover everything that matters to them.
Be honest – “I don’t know” is one of the smartest things you can say. If they touch on a topic you’re not familiar with or ask a question you just plain don’t know the answer to, let them know that. What comes next is even more important. Provide a solution. Let them know that you haven’t had the opportunity to work with that tool, framework, etc. – but that you’ve used a similar framework and would be excited to pick up the new one. Give an example of a time you had interviewed for a job with zero knowledge of a new tool and learned it in your own time before you even started, or a resource you like to use for learning. Just don’t ever try to BS them. If they’re asking the question, they have enough knowledge about the topic to know that you have none.
Be candid – Interviews are inherently unnatural settings, and the higher your interest level in the opportunity, the more likely you are to get nervous. Nerves can cause mental blocks, and make you forget something you may know very well. If this happens, be candid with the interviewer. Let them know that nerves kicked in and you’ve drawn a blank. This will do a number of positive things: (1) it will calm your nerves, (2) it will impress the interviewer, as it takes guts to say that and (3) it will change the dynamic of the interview in a positive way – and make them want to lead you toward the right answer.
Make it obvious that you’re prepared – Drop in knowledge that you gained during your research on the company and interviewer, and ask those questions that you prepared.

Follow up after interviews

No matter what field you’re in, and at what level, a thank you note in the form of an email or InMail goes a long way. This should be in the body of an email and not a formal letter attached to the email as a document – as you don’t want to add an extra step for them or make it complex to open from their phone. Structure thank you emails into 3 simple sections:

A short paragraph highlighting what you like about the opportunity – be it the culture, mission statement, people or growth opportunity. Don’t mention location or compensation as something you like, as someone who’s taking a position just because it’s close to home and may shorten their commute or may allow them to buy a nicer car doesn’t scream good long term hire (hiring managers might think that you could easily be lured away by another opportunity that’s even closer to home or pays even more money). This section should reference something specific that you spoke with the interviewer about: “I especially liked what you shared about…”
Another short paragraph describing why you’re a great fit for the position – you can reiterate some of the points that you covered during the interview and list anything that you forgot to mention or didn’t think about until after the interview was over. Reference topics that you know are important to the employer based on things you took away from the interview itself, the job description and the culture they describe on their careers page.
One final sentence letting them know that you look forward to hearing from them regarding next steps, and that they can feel free to reach out to you with any questions. You should also list your phone number here so they have it for quick reference.

Negotiate the best possible package for yourself

So you’ve received an offer. Nice job! Depending on how long you work at this company, what you do during the offer negotiation phase could have a massive impact on how much money you make. Even if it’s 5% more than they initially offered, that’s 5% more each year over X number of years that you work there. It’s also a higher jumping off point when it comes time for a raise and a higher basis for your bonus, 401(k) match, etc. – so please take this portion seriously. Even if you know that you’ll accept no matter what they offer, it’s worth the effort to negotiate properly. You won’t scare them off because you tried. Quite the opposite actually. If you have the guts to negotiate for yourself, you’ll do the same for their company. A few tips:

Let them speak (or write) first – Hopefully you will have read the section above that covers not sharing your desired salary. If they surprise you with a number that was higher than you were thinking, you’re in great shape here. If it comes in low, counter with a number that’s higher than the number you’re comfortable with. That way if they counter somewhere in between you’re still in your happy zone and they felt like you gave something up. It’s important for both sides to feel like they’re winning, even if just a little.
Always ask for more – Whether base, bonus, sign-on, partial telecommute, vacation, stock, etc., nearly everything is negotiable. The better the interview process has gone, the more leverage you have here. You may also have leverage for a sign-on bonus if you’re leaving accrued bonus or unvested RSUs from your current company on the table. Call that out. It can’t hurt, and you may be surprised with the result.
Mention your other options – Other opportunities, in the form of companies you’re interviewing with, a promotion with your current employer or similar are some of the best forms of leverage. Be careful how you phrase this, as you don’t want them to feel like you’re playing hardball. Simply slip it into the conversation. “Based on the offer that Acme Corporation just made me, I believe that I’m worth this amount in this market.”
Don’t speak in absolutes – Unless you really won’t take the job unless they hit X number, add Y sign-on or throw in Z (maybe a zebra) as an additional perk, make it clear that you’re just trying to make sure that you’re putting yourself and your loved ones in the best position possible on the way in. You can say something like “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask” to keep it light. Also always make sure to lead with the fact that you really want the job, and list all of the reasons that have nothing to do with compensation (culture, project, people, etc.). Not mentioning these things and being hyper-focused on the money during negotiations can make you seem money hungry or greedy, and that might just make them re-think the job offer entirely.

Now you’re ready. Go get that job, and remember, even the jobs you don’t get were good practice for the one you do get. Just like anything else, the more reps you get, the better you are. You either win or you learn. You’ve got this.