Journey to Australia: Job Hunt Part - 3

This has been an eventful week. Thanks to all my LinkedIn network for the comments and likes. Yes, I started working this week.

Lot of people have started asking me inputs for job hunting as well. I hope you'd get a lot of info through my blog posts. As always, I'd be happy to help - ping me on LinkedIn. This post is a continuation of the series. I'll be explaining the Quality strategy and how it improved my applications. I'll also add a few general do's and don'ts that would keep your spirits high during this period and how to retrospect your current situation.

When the Aggressive Strategy started to get more depressing and anxious, I met Terry(from OBP). He explained to me what he does, what I could've been doing wrong and what I can do differently. I was extremely hesitant to spend more money on these services as the first one hadn't worked out well. But desperation eventually took over and I decided to go with it. This is a more relaxed strategy(or rather I'd say less aggressive). A few differences from what I did -

• Addressing the Employers directly, rather than focusing on recruiters. This was extremely useful for me as I believe the Embedded Industry has lot more opportunities directly from employers
• 2-3 applications a month. Instead of swarming with every other closely matched roles, I started being picky. When there is a role that is a very good match to my profile and the organisation is good - go for it. Taking time on the cover letter & resume, and addressing the keywords from the JD made a huge difference
• I started learning other technologies that would help my application

These turned out to be very effective for me. I wouldn't say it's the best of two, it all depends on your journey. I can't reiterate enough - every journey is unique.

Now a few do's and don't that you should follow, especially if your job hunt is taking long

Don'ts

• Never get depressed/anxious about feedback. It's very common that recruiters will take time to get back to you, and sometimes never. Don't refresh your email a 100 times a day, or keep your eyes glued to the phone.
• Don't sit idle. Try to upskill on some related technology
• Move on - Don't ponder over a failed interview/test

Do's

• Spend time on every application. Work on your resume and cover letter to match the job description keywords
• Make sure you have an excellent LinkedIn profile, and a mature resume
• Upskill - use LinkedIn learning/Lynda(free if you are as a PR in Australia), Hackerrank and other avenues
• LinkedIn
• Try to be visible on LinkedIn. Blogging was a great tool for me to get attention
• Connect to people in your network and build a relation. Call/Message/Email and keep the relation even after you've succeeded. You never know how this'll work out for you
• Every failure teaches you a lot. Personally I wrote down all questions asked in an interview, found it's answer and these answers are something I'll never forget. It's a great way to learn. Take positives out of a failure, and make it your strength for the next one

It is very important to understand your current situation, look back - see what going wrong and act on them. Here are some general pointers to identify.

1. If you are applying a lot, and not getting any callbacks - your LinkedIn or Resume is at fault. Work on it
2. If you are getting callbacks, but no client interviews - the way you communicate with recruiters is at fault(or the above)
3. If you are getting into client interviews, but not converting - your technical skills is at fault. Or your effort on understanding the company/culture/requirements is at fault

Look back at these, write it down on an excel sheet, work on it and make it your strength for the next one. Feel free to comment or connect to me if you would need any information on all these.

Finally, I'm switching my roles in LinkedIn from a consumer to a producer. I've been consuming the network so far, now it's time to give back to the community and I'd be happy if someone could gain from my experience.

Note to the reader : Thanks for going through my journey. I recently re-published my articles from my personal blog to LinkedIn so that it's easier to share and more visible. Hence the timelines of publishing may not make sense.

Read all the posts related to my Journey to Australia -

1. The Beginning
2. Road to get a Visa
3. Cracking PTE
4. Visa granted, now what?
5. Job Hunt Part -1 
6. Time to Fly!
7. Arrival
8. Job Hunt Part - 2
9. Job Hunt Part - 3