Don't overapply

(I have reached out to @JustJonComic on Reddit, and he kindly allowed me to use this comic :) Feel free to check out his other stuff on Insta)

When you are looking for a new job, it's easy to overdo it. I've been there myself. I would apply in spurts and just throw out dozens of applications to random companies.

I would send an English CV to a German job posting. I would not include any cover letters, and I at best glanced over the job descriptions.

And yet, I would still get phone calls from HR people regularly (the market truly was different only a few years back). In many of these calls, I'd be grasping at straws to remember which company I was even talking to.

I also heard from a client recently that his official job advisor (from the "Arbeitsamt") recommended that he write at least 10 applications a day! While that might work in certain fields, in this market, it is setting applicants up for failure.

Slow and steady wins the race

So, if you are currently struggling with this: applying for jobs should become your new hobby, but not your new full-time job.

You should send out 1 to 3 applications every day. Take your time, see if you are a good match, consider the job description, and put yourself in the HR person's shoes: Would they hire you for this position? What makes you a good match?

You should try your best to make sure the HR person sees how you are suitable as soon as possible. Most HR people spend minimal time with the average CV as they get flooded by inadequate applications. Make sure yours isn't one of those!

Easy Apply sucks

LinkedIn has a feature most of us have used before: It allows you to apply with only one click in some cases. JustJonComic has a very fitting comic that sums up my feelings as seen in the top image.

LinkedIn Easy Apply is also part of why HR people are flooded with applications that:

• Do not match the job description at all.

• Are from people who are not eligible for the position in the first place (e.g. visa or working permit issues).

• Get sorted out by ATS immediately due to missing key skills or experience.

=> There is an upside to this, though.
The little text claiming "Over 100 people applied to this position!" next to a job is pretty meaningless, as over 90% of these applications get filtered out anyway.

Due Diligence

You only need to write a couple of applications a day, so make sure you do your due diligence.

German job positions should be applied to with a German CV and cover letter. Read up a bit on the job description itself. What could be the reason they are opening up this position?

I once wowed my interviewer when I asked if they opened up the job due to the BFSG. I had checked their website and saw they met the criteria for needing to implement it but hadn't done so yet. => This was not explicitly mentioned in the job description, so this little extra step immediately advanced me to the next round.

Don't overdo the customization

That being said, I was told by multiple HR people that they sometimes get eerily "perfect" applications, only to realize in the first round that the person must have used an AI tool to perfectly match the job description.

Don't do that.

Instead, you should prepare a couple of CV and cover letter variations and use the best match for a given job. For example, as a full-stack developer, you might want one variation for a primarily backend job and one for a primarily frontend one.

The perfect accompanying tool

Last week, I introduced you to COMMIT, and I am still actively improving it every day.

Thanks for all the feedback so far! It's helping tremendously.

You can use the goal-setting feature of COMMIT to set a daily goal for how many applications you want to send out (I still recommend 1 to 3).

In the dashboard, you can see how many you actually sent.

That's it!

If you have any questions or need help with your current interview process, feel free to reach out. :)

 

Cheers
Andre