Landing a job that is fulfilling and pays well is not easy. It hinges on an applicant’s ability to conduct an effective job search relative to their qualifications and employment preferences. Here are the best job search tips to follow in order to stand out while applying for jobs.
6 Tips to Stand Out in Job Applications
1. Be Prepared & Polished On-Paper & In-Person
For any given job opening (in Canada or elsewhere), hiring managers reportedly only seek interviews from the top 2% of candidates [1]. This puts a lot of pressure on qualified applicants who are not good at demonstrating it on paper.
Consequently, standing out as a top-tier applicant requires training your application skills to craft application materials indicative of both fitness and value and create a polished and well-practiced interview presence.
2. Cultivate Career Adaptability Without Being Overly Flexible
To increase their odds of acquiring a job, candidates often apply for positions that do not match their expectations for pay, job level, job activities, or commuting time. However, candidates who are overqualified or overly-willing to accept pay cuts or long commutes actually diminishes a candidate’s chances of success.
Moreover, these job search decisions are oppositional to “career adaptability” — which involves developing a sense of curiosity, confidence, and control-acceptance while maneuvering through the job market.
3. Conduct A Highly Efficient Job Search
The most inefficient job search practices include:
- Applying for a position despite being clearly unqualified based on posted minimum requirements;
- Applying for positions that are dramatically beyond the candidate’s stated experience level; and
- Exaggerating qualifications and experience level.
In each of these cases, hiring managers are likely to rule out applications immediately and as many as 43% of hiring managers consider blacklisting applicants who practice the above-listed behaviors.
Yet the vast majority of job seekers conduct highly inefficient job searches, leading businesses of all sizes, across all industries, to receive an overwhelming number of applications from unqualified candidates is their greatest recruiting challenge.
It follows, then, that candidates who identify job openings they are truly (or very-nearly) qualified for immediately stand out.
4. Recognize The Difference Between Being Un- Or Under-Qualified
While un-qualified applications are off-putting to hiring managers, nearly two-thirds of new hires do not fulfill every single qualification for their position.
That is because 84% of hiring managers will hire an under-qualified candidate if they demonstrate a strong fit for the position in terms of the soft-skills required and the corporate culture in the workplace. This underscores the importance of focusing on soft-skill development as a critical way to offset minor shortages in an applicant’s hard skills.
5. Cultivate Communication & Self Management Skills
The soft-skill hiring managers look for most in both well- or under-qualified applicants is on-the-job autonomy. That is, employers value personnel who analyze and modify their own at-work behaviors to create better outcomes (like being more productive or more satisfied, or doing better quality work).
Even in job market sectors where there is little practical autonomy, recruitment still prioritizes hiring applicants with these types of self-management skills (which includes stress-management, self-confidence, and persistence).
6. Build An Effective Professional Network
The popular adage that landing a job depends largely on “who you, not what you know” holds (to some degree) true across most industries. Today, this applies to both in-person, online, and past-employer networks.
That is because networking grants job seekers access to the “hidden job market” — that is, job openings that are not publicly (or widely) advertised. In fact, between 37%-87% of new hires find out about their job via either social or professional networks. This makes networking a key tool for standing out in a crowded job market.
Related Posts: 5 Signs You Might Be A Star Candidate
7 Mistakes You Should Never Make in a Job Interview
Important Things You Need To Include In Your Resume
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