Recruiters spend countless hours searching for the best candidates, so you should make their job easier by helping them find the most talented and capable person for the job...you! It’s obvious that you’re ready to be hired, and that you’ve put in the work to prepare for your next big interview, so all that’s left to do is to get noticed. Check out some of these ideas on how to really shine:
Finalize your career choice, then optimize your social media for it.
Obviously, you’ll be trying to get noticed on the internet, unless you plan on sticking posters of your face everywhere or trying to perfectly time an elevator ride with the CEO of your dream company. Since recruiters find many candidates on LinkedIn, you’ll want to optimize your LinkedIn profile for searches in order to appear in more search results. Before optimizing though, make sure you’ve really narrowed down what you want to do until you have a specific job that you’re striving for, then use keywords geared towards that job throughout your profile. Try to get endorsed in the same skills that your dream job requires, and craft a compelling bio that also uses these keywords. If you need help deciding what words and phrases to use, you can look at some other profiles of people with the same job.
Contribute (really good) ideas for the company.
Most people interviewing for a job tend to skip this step, either because they don’t have any good insight for how to improve on a company's operations or because they don’t think the employer will bother to listen. In actuality, employers view your initiative to make improvements in the company as ambitious, and if your ideas are actually really good it would almost definitely guarantee that you make the shortlist. Research how the company operates, how their competitors operate, ask colleagues for help, then come up with at least one innovative way for the company to improve upon something. Any employee that can add value on a company-wide scale is surely much more valuable than those who don’t even try.
Get creepy!
Creepy in a good way. In other words, figure out (if possible) who the person who you would be working directly under is, and creep everything they’ve got on the internet (well, maybe not everything). Scan their LinkedIn, professional portfolio, company website bio, and any articles they’ve written or have been quoted or mentioned in. The goal is to become their new favorite person, so research not only relevant information relating to the job position that you could whip out at the interview, but also what they like and value as a person in order to avoid saying anything off-putting.
For the love of god, proofread your resume.
Your resume and cover letter are representations of who you are and what you bring to the table. Start with spelling mistakes. Spelling errors demonstrate that you either didn’t care enough to proofread or that you don’t know how to use spell-check, both of which are pretty big red flags. Afterwards, check your grammar. If you’re not great with grammar, ask a friend to help and read your resume out loud with them. A lot of people think that if there are no spelling mistakes that they’re good to go, but if the employer or recruiter notices the fabled their/they're/there mistake, you very well may be botching your chances of getting hired.
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