I’ve written several LinkedIn posts this year telling my followers about the positions that I’m hiring for in my organization at IBM. I acknowledge how tough it is right now for so many people, especially in tech, who are out of a job. In fact, it deeply saddens me to see so many of the people reacting to my posts and DMing me who have the “Open to Work” tag on their profile pic.
In addition to doing my part in hiring a good number of UX researchers and designers, I’d also like to provide some advice to job seekers and job changers from an employer’s perspective.
Number of Applications & DMs
We’ve received hundreds of applications for each position and into the thousands of applications in total. I regularly get 25-30 DMs per day, mostly about the job openings and I take the time to answer each one thoughtfully because I know how much many of you are struggling to find work.
Reflections & Observations
My hiring managers and I have noticed excellent approaches and ways of communicating about the openings plus some outstanding applications. In fact, the successful candidates in proceeding to interview and beyond let their resumes and portfolios speak for them.
However, we’ve also observed many anti-patterns too. Many of the anti-patterns are often identical from one person to the next which leads me to suspect that people may have received or misinterpreted advice that they have been given.
As well, given that we’ve received thousands of applications making it difficult to provide detailed feedback on each individual application, I would also like to provide generally observed patterns of unsuccessful applications.
I’d like to provide my perspective as one senior executive to share my recommendations and those of my hiring managers regarding best practices when applying for a job. I would assume that these would be generally applicable too but they’re at least directly applicable to applying for jobs in my organization.
Recommendations
Here are my recommendations:
Read the LinkedIn post and job requirements carefully — When it says that the job requires that you need to be physically in the city specified and be able to work in that country, don’t apply if you’re looking for a remote position. You’re wasting your time and ours. Similarly, when it says that the only way to apply is to use the links to submit your application, just do that and don’t send your resume and portfolio in a DM. It’s worth noting that the type of person we’re looking for, a UX researcher, should have an attention to detail and not having read the details of the job posting is an automatic red flag.
Make sure you satisfy the basic requirements of the job — Most of the jobs I post are for UX researchers and I explicitly point out, “Please note that a lot of designers have applied for the UX research roles. If you've read any of my posts, you know that we consider UX research to be a distinct discipline separate from design so we only hire researchers who have the requisite UX research dedicated skills and experience.” And yet, we continue to receive many applications from designers.
Make sure your application clearly demonstrates your suitability — If you actually have the education, skills, and experience specified, make sure that your application clearly communicates and demonstrates that you do. That may require making changes to be specific to the particular role that you’re applying for.
Take the perspective of the hiring manager and organization executive — Read the job posting extremely carefully, think about what the organization is looking for, and even do some additional reading about the company and, if possible, the people posting the job. I’m sure you’re all aware that there are a lot of people looking for work right now and that it is likely that we would receive hundreds of applications and that I would likely get many DMs per day. What you write to us should be carefully thought out, succinct, and to the point. I get DMs, for example, that have many paragraphs of text when one short sentence would have sufficed. People often ask for a 20 minute call with me to learn more about the job. During normal times, that may have been appropriate or at least with a hiring manager. However, given the volume of requests, if I spent 20 minutes talking with everyone who asked, I would be doing nothing else and wouldn’t have time to do the rest of my job.
Don’t unquestioningly follow advice being given (including this advice) — Much of the communication I see follows a familiar pattern and I suspect that its due to many people having read some advice on how to increase your chances of getting a job. However, at least for me and my organization, most of that advice is exactly wrong or more likely, the advice has been misunderstood. For example, many people DM me and ask me to be a reference for them and to refer them for the job. They’ve heard that having someone inside the company refer them increases their likelihood of getting the job. However, that person referring you needs to personally know you and your work before they’re able to be a reference. Asking me, the hiring senior executive, to refer you is also somewhat strange because it’s my jobs that you’re applying for.
Continue to improve your skills and experience — The most effective way to improve your chances of getting a job is to focus on what the company is actually looking for. The pieces of advice in 1-5 above are table stakes. The way to truly differentiate yourself is to focus on what you’ll contribute to the company and the ways that you’ll be able to further develop your career as well. If you don’t have that today for the particular job you’re looking at, then focus on the ways you may be able to get additional education and/or experience so that you will be ideally suited to jobs like that.
Having written all of that, I still want to come back to the reality that many of you are struggling to find work. I get the sense that many of you are so frustrated with not finding work and when you see a job opportunity, that you just immediately apply to give it a shot and to do whatever you can to get the attention of anyone at that company. The fact that I’m posting about these open positions in my organization personally is perceived by many as providing that human connection. I do hope that you will consider the advice I’ve provided in this blog post and that you find an appropriate position in my organization or with another company. I wish you all the best!