Leveraging LinkedIn

The landscape of the job market has changed. 

If you do not adapt, you will be left behind. 

How does one adapt in this today’s job market?

By Using LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn is the best way to get the job you want today, Especially to those without a strong network. 

Recruiters stop seeing you as a resume to be thrown in the trash, to a real person.

Here’s how to leverage LinkedIn.

1. Skills and beliefs

Everything that follows hinges on the fact that you have the skills and beliefs to help a business.

It will be very difficult to get a job without skills. 

It will be impossible to get a job without the right beliefs.

Find 10 jobs that are ideal for you and make a list of all the required skills.

For technical roles, spend 3 months building projects that use the required skills.

Document the process of building the projects, you will be grateful you did in the future.

This will help you in discussing your project development and the decision-making process behind its completion.

This will also build your portfolio at the same time.

For non-technical roles requiring more soft skills, reword your experience to highlight the desired soft skills.

This is going to be hard work, if you believed you can get a job without working hard, it will be impossible for you.

2. Resume Optimization

~ 75% of resumes are rejected by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) before human evaluation.

ATS is software that handles hiring by collecting and sorting resumes for hiring managers.

Knowing this, make your resume is readable by the ATS and meets its requirements.

To make sure that the ATS can even read your resume, put it into this site to check.

But that begs the question, what does the ATS want?

I can start with what the ATS does not want.

Avoid putting images in your resume, this will make your resume less readable.

Avoid using formatting such as charts, tables and graphs; this will make your resume less readable.

Now that you know that the ATS can actually read your resume, here's how to optimize it:

Write the skills and title from the job description into your resume as much as possible. 

This is not a suggestion; Fewer skill words on your resume result in a lower ATS ranking among applicants.

Make sure they appear on your resume word for word as they appear on the job posting.

For example, if a posting says “1-2 years of CAD experience”.

Makei.e. sure to write “1-2 years of CAD experience”. 

Not “1-2 years of modeling in SolidWorks”.

If you do not have the skills, refer to section 1 of this newsletter.

The same goes for the job title.

If the job posting is for a “Manufacturing Engineer” and you have experience as a “Process Engineer”.

Change the title of your previous job to match what you are applying to, assuming they are the same role.

To sum everything up: keep the resume simple, avoid images and complicated formatting, use words from the job description and title in the resume, and use this site to make sure it is readable.

3. Cover letter

Most people do not send a cover letter when applying to jobs.

And that's exactly why you should.

You should make a personalized cover letter for every application you send.

You can leverage ChatGPT to make the process more efficient. 

Use this prompt:

I need you to make a personalized cover letter for a [Insert Job Title] application based on my resume, the job description, and information about the company. In this cover letter, I want you to focus on the company’s mission and values and how my experience aligns with it.

Here is my resume:

[Copy and paste resume]

Here is the job description:

[Copy and paste job description] 

Here is information about the company:

[Copy and paste company information]

Bonus tip: When copying and pasting the job description, do not include the bottom section of the description where the jobs talk about equity and inclusion. 

To get information about the company, there are two different approaches to take.

You can go to the company website on the “about” section and copy and paste the entire page.

You could also search up “what does [Company Name] do” and typically a third part site has a clear-cut description of what the company does. 

This prompt will give you about an 80% working base of a cover letter.

Make sure to edit and proofread to gain the last 20%. 

4. Cold Outreach

Having an optimized resume and cover letter is not enough nowadays. 

Even if you are qualified and have a good resume and cover letter, your application can still get lost with the amount of applicants these companies get.

Here’s the cold outreach playbook to use.

1. Find the recruiter/Hiring Managers

Go to the companies LinkedIn page and go to the people section.

Inside the people page, there is a search bar.

Look up either talent, recruiting, recruiter, or [Desired Position].

2. First Messages

Send them a connection request with a note saying:

Hey [Person’s Name], I see you are also working in the [Insert Location] area, and I find the work that [Company Name] is doing to be very interesting. I would love to connect if possible. 

Your goal is to simply connect with them. 

If you went to the same school, or both are from the same state, include that in this initial connection. 

Make sure not to bring up the job immediately. 

This initial note has a 300-character limit, so short and sweet is best.

After they have connected with you, send them a message saying

Hi [Person’s Name], thanks for accepting my connection request! I saw that the [Desired Position] posting a little while ago, and I would love to hop on a call to chat about the role and what you look for in a new hire. Here is my resume for reference.

One of three things will happen after this message.

You will either get ignored, you will be referred to someone else who is the person you want to talk to, or you the recruiter will set up a meeting with you personally.

If you're ignored, don't take it personally.

If you are referred to someone else, repeat this step over again with this new person.

If they set up a time to meet with you, make sure you know your resume in and out. 

3. Phone Screening/ Recruiter Interview

You are more than likely to get the questions “Tell me about yourself” and “Why this company”.

For the “tell me about yourself”, make sure that you touch upon the parts about your resume that are of value to the company, i.e. major, skill set, passions.

For the “why this company”, make sure that you are aware of what this company does, what their mission and values are, and why your skill set will make the company better.

Each of these responses should be about 90 seconds.

At the end of this interview, the recruiter will likely ask you if you have any questions for them.

Here are a few you can ask:

“What brought you to join [Company] and what has caused you to stay”.

“What is a common trait you’ve seen in a successful [Desired Position] in the past”.

“What is the culture like of [Company]”.

“Do you have any recommendations to improve my resume”.

End your interview by asking them,“ Can you connect me with a [Job Title] on the team?”.

5. You can control input, not output

Volume Negates Luck

Every application you send is not going to land you a job.

But every time you try, you increase the odds of achieving your goal.

Every time you try, the better you get at the art of applying. 

So be prepared to face a lot of rejection, it is simply part of the game.

It will be scary, you will stumble on your words the first time, you can only lose if you quit.

Put in the volume, continuously improve on the volume you put in, and results will follow.

Good luck!