Tools that made my job search less stressful.
As a new grad, I’m looking for ways to survive job search with minimal stress because I am a full-time student at MIT with a full-time student research assistant job at the university lab. I’m lucky that my school has tons of resources such as virtual networking events with recruiters, job postings, resume workshops, but most of them don’t help when you’re not intentional about your job search.
What do I mean by intentional?
Like most new graduates at the beginning of their careers, I wanted to end up in one of the positions or industries where everyone else was heading. For me, that meant working in product management in big tech companies. I thought following my peers would make things easier because I could benefit from peer networks, shared resources, and accountability from my peers.And, so, halfway through my grad school career — during my internship hunt — I decided to enter the industry and gain new experience/apply my skills there instead of continuing working with my lab at MIT.
Finding a job you love takes time and effort, but it is worth the search. Part of your job search should be identifying what kinds of work give you a sense of fulfillment. This can take some introspection. For example: Are you passionate about computers and communications? Do you like solving problems? There are many jobs that allow for both of those things. What type of work will make you feel proud to wake up every morning, knowing that you are making a difference in people’s lives? All this to make sure your 9 to 5 does is not depressing.
If you don’t know where to start with this Notion template of ‘Finding your Ikigai’ — Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning ‘a reason for being’ or purpose in life, and you can read more about this from this amazing article below from ‘The Startup’ on Medium.
I’ve developed a passion for amazing tech and problem-solving over the years, but I didn’t always consider a career in PM. There just weren’t many opportunities for PMs, especially in India in the past.
To start your job search off right, make sure your resume is in top shape! It’s important because recruiters’ first impressions are crucial. For example, check out some of the obvious things: grammar, font size, and font choices. But don’t stop there. Think about how to tailor your resume by keeping in mind the job you want. For example, a PM role in finance will have different requirements than a PM role at a tech startup or even a PM role at a specific organization. Make sure you’re highlighting the experiences that are most relevant for the job you’re targeting.
And gone are the days where recruiters print out resumes to go through them, so now we have a computerized resume screeners that will stop your resume from getting to the recruiter. It took me a long time to view this as my friend rather than an enemy. Now, the information is available online, we have tools that replicate recruiter resume screeners to make sure your resume is passing through the process and reaching the recruiter.
Most recruiters today don’t use paper resumes. Instead, they use applicant-tracking systems to scan the documents. These computer programs, which are programmed to search for keywords, can make it difficult for a resume to get through, So why not use a tool that will get your resume past recruiters’ computers and into their hands? I, for one, was initially skeptical about using one of these tools. But eventually, I saw that it was a friend rather than an enemy — and now you can use one too.
Let’s take a minute to talk about your resume before we dive into editing it. I’ve used the Copy.ai resume tool to help write my bullet points. Copy.ai is a AI powered content writing tool that helps create great copy! It does this by providing many different versions of the same bullet point and style, allowing writers to choose the one that fits best for them and their job search.
One of my contributions I want to highlight on my resume is how I analyzed product A/B testing results for 2 clients using R. Copy.ai generated this for me:
Now that we’ve got the content let’s see how much of an impact it makes. I use Rezi for this. It helps you write a resume, cover letter and provides templates so you can get started right away. My favorite feature is the Rezi Score, which highlights areas where you can improve your resume to make sure your resume gets past the ATS software.
Let’s get started on our job hunt! It is not as easy as you might think, though. We need to use every resource we can to reach our goals — and networking is one of the most important. There are tons of books and articles out there about networking, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it here. But I’ve listed some tools that can help you get started.
When looking for a new job, connecting with recruiters and getting references on LinkedIn can be useful. I find that locating and connecting with the right people at a company is easier when I use LinkedIn’s ‘People’ search functions. You can filter people by ‘Where they studied’, ‘What they do’, and ‘What they studied’, For example I am interested in a software engineering role at an organization, and here is how the filter will look like.
You can look for tips on LinkedIn as well at Wonsulting.com, where you can find resources for job search, networking, and more.
Lesser-known tools I want to highlight are —
JobSeer is a browser extension that integrates with LinkedIn to give you a score for how well your skills and resume match to a job description. The best part is that it highlights people from the company that you can ask for referrals from right on the same screen as the job posting. If you’re an international student, Jobseer will also show you information about visa sponsorship.
If you’re interested in startup jobs, I highly recommend using the platform Built In along with LinkedIn. Built In is a great source for all startup jobs and tech news and events in your area. Because LinkedIn doesn’t have a filter to find job postings from startups, you might have to already know the company name. With Built In, you can make sure all the postings come from startups. Right now, Built in caters to a select tech hubs in the country and find yours here.
If you’re interested in web3 jobs, feel free to take a look at my articles about them on Medium publication ‘Geek Culture’.
So get going and find your dream job!
