How to land your dream job: 6 little tips that will increase your chances of getting a job

1. Add successful cases to your resume

The usual enumeration of the skills and experience of recruiters is not surprising. But real achievements at the old job - yes. Tell us what contribution you made to the development of the company. It is better if the indicator is measurable. Let's say "I wrote a travel policy - travel expenses decreased by 30%" or "I developed a content plan for the company's social media accounts - coverage increased by 40%". Ideally, cases should be confirmed with illustrative examples: portfolio, calculations or graphs.

Report only those experiences that will be useful in a new place. And in each paragraph, stop at one or two sentences: the employer looks at dozens of resumes a day and a CV that is too long may not be able to read to the end.

If this is your first job, try indicate significant student projects, freelancing, volunteering or internship experience. Here it is also desirable to prescribe what skills you have shown there that are useful for the profession. For example, “I came up with an action for a charitable foundation” will show creativity, and “led a group” - management skills.

2. Check contact details

It is important to do this for two reasons. The first is banal: if the contacts are out of date, they simply won’t be able to contact you. Second, if they look weird, it will alienate the employer. Therefore, before sending a response, make sure that the phone is valid and that the email has an adequate name. “Konfetka99” or “robot_kolya”, which were invented back in school, will do for personal letters, but for a career it’s better to come up with a more serious mailbox name.

Pay attention to social media too. Employers in general often check pages of potential employees. And for some professions, this is critically important, for example, for teachers or SMM managers. Evaluate in advance what content is on your page: it may be worth removing the collection of photos from the prom where you bathe in the fountain.

3. Prepare answers to frequently asked questions...

Employers have different approaches to interviewing. Some people like to give potential employees creative tasks, others like to ask something unexpected. And yet, almost always there are standard questions that are needed in order to get to know the candidate better, to understand his needs and abilities. Just for these it is worth preparing: then during the conversation they will not confuse, and you will be less worried.

Here are examples of questions for which it is better to come up with answers in advance:

• Tell us about yourself. Focus on professional experience, briefly mention hobbies and interests.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses? Choose something related to your career. "Disadvantages" try to turn to your advantage or let them know that you are working on their elimination. But it’s definitely not necessary to say that there are no weaknesses - for the employer, this can become a red flag.
• Why did you decide to change jobs? Do not scold former colleagues, the manager or the company as a whole. It is better to focus on yourself and say that you want professional growth or new challenges.
• What achievement in your last job are you most proud of? Think of a cool case study from your resume and tell us more about it.
• Where do you see yourself in five years? Here, talk about professional development, preferably within the company you are applying for. The main task is to show motivation.
• Recall difficult situations or failures in a past job. How did you get out of them? Here it is better not to dissemble and give an example of some task, the work on which was really not easy. Explain why this happened and how you got out.
• What salary do you expect? If you don’t know how much to choose, study the labor market and see how much specialists of your level are currently paid.

4. …and create your own

At the end of the interview, employers usually ask if the applicant has any questions. And it's better that they were - so you show interest in work. If everything is already very clear, use standard options, for example:

• What are my goals for the coming year?
• By what criteria will my work be judged?
• What do you personally like or dislike about the company?
• Why did the predecessor leave? Can I chat with him?
• What tasks are included in job responsibilities? Are there any processing?
• Is it possible to look at a potential job?

If, after the conversation, something really remains incomprehensible, you should definitely ask about it. Otherwise, there is a chance that problems will arise after employment - it will be more difficult to solve them. Listen carefully to the answers, especially to questions about workflow. If the employer is trying to evade or change the subject, this is an alarming sign: there are probably some pitfalls. It is worth considering whether you are ready to take the risk.

5. Research the company ahead of time

“Why did you choose us” is a very popular interview question. A detailed answer to it will help to get an additional plus from the recruiter. It is better to collect information from several sources.

1. The site of the company. Read the About Us section to learn more about the brand's history, policies and mission. Go through other tabs too: see what the company creates, who its client is, and whether it has business partners.
2. Social network. There you can find information about the corporate culture, the team, events that are held for employees, or other information.
3. Sites with reviews. Look at both the pros and cons that the authors of the comments list. If a problem is mentioned often, it is worth considering.
4. Publications in the media. From them you can learn more about the values ​​and mission of the company. And also to find out if she got into conflict situations.

6. Write a followup

That is letter after interview. This is another way to show your interest in the work and remind yourself. In the followup, you can add thanks for a pleasant conversation, important information that you forgot to share, or a corrected test task. Also, such a letter is a great way to ask additional questions and explain again why you like this job. At the end, be sure to specify when to expect a decision on your employment.

It is not necessary to write a followup in all cases. For example, if you're applying for a position with a lot of responses, such as a waiter, sales clerk, or trainee, the letter will simply get lost. Therefore, it is not worth wasting time on it.