Applying for technology jobs

This article aims to document important aspects of my job search in the USA. This article will focus on online job applications only (I’m discounting direct approaches from recruiters and other modes to match the current job market).

Note: I was extremely lucky to sidestep the hiring slumps. My hope is that my methods will help all job seekers independent of the health of the job market.

1 Resume

There’s a near-zero percent chance that recruiters will review each resume. An automatic resume parser will be most likely be used to find the percentage match between each resume and the job role, and candidates with a high percentage match will be shortlisted.

Caution: Keep a copy of your current resume

1. Maintain multiple resume versions — at least one for each role
2. Use Amazon’s STAR method to explain projects professional experience in the resume (https://interviewsteps.com/blogs/news/amazon-star-method)
3. Limit to 1 page when possible
4. Fill relevant keywords. Create keyword-rich sections if required — for example: “technology skills”, “programming languages”, “frameworks”, …
5. Make sure that your resume parses properly (more on this later…)

2 Job portals

Most companies require candidates to apply online through their job portals. The two most useful platforms for finding such listings are — LinkedIn, Glassdoor. Sometimes both platforms allow candidates to apply directly in just 1–2 clicks. While I strongly recommend applying for any/every available job, I think using these two platforms saves a lot of time.

3 Submitting an online application

While most job portals look alike, each company has a separate portal. Candidates usually apply for multiples postings in the same company. Filling an application from scratch takes ~20–30 minutes. Therefore, it’s important to create a candidate profile in each company’s portal and to fill the profile page (keep track of the username/email — password combinations, they are easy to forget).

If there’s a need to apply for multiple roles:

1. Upload multiple resumes (name them appropriately, be cautious about overwriting)
2. Make necessary changes in the keywords / skills / projects to best fit the role. Most of these questions and sections are identical across companies — it’s ok to create a document (one for each role) with answers, then copy-paste them to the relevant sections in the application
3. I recommend writing a cover letter, but it helps only in extremely rare situations

Some companies have a single application page that don’t require candidates to fill each section individually. In either case practice makes a (wo)man perfect — after a few applications the time it takes to complete an application will decrease.

4 Resume parser

As mentioned, recruiters are unlikely to review each resume. It’s important to have a parser-compatible resume template. In my experience some templates don’t parse properly.

How to test if the resume parses correctly?

Note: I don’t recommend Indeed as a job portal, but in my opinion its parser closely resembles the parser used by most companies

1. Create an account on indeed.com using a secondary email (expect a lot of spam)
2. Visit: https://www.indeed.com/profile/upload-resume and upload the resume
3. Eyeball the succeeding sections carefully, and make sure that all the skills and keywords are listed correctly

5 Putting everything together

1. Block time on a daily basis for searching and applying for relevant roles
2. Apply for as many postings as possible. Don’t worry about reapplying for the same role — company job portals usually don’t allow multiple applications for the same posting, but it’s possible with the single page applications
3. Applying for multiple different postings and/or roles within the same company is OK!
4. Go the extra mile to differentiate yourself if there’s enough time:

Create and maintain PowerPoint slides on interesting projects
I strongly recommend Kaggle for data science / machine learning enthusiasts (but don’t get sucked into it)
Contribute to important projects/packages
Work on a pet project idea to showcase capabilities/business acumen
Highlight relevant sections of GitHub profile
Create a personal website
Write articles to share expertise

Clarification: In my opinion it’s important to be selective as a candidate during the job search. However, 2 > 1 >>>>>>>> 0 — let me explain: getting one offer from zero is more important than getting muliple offers from one.

6 What’s next? (beyond the scope of this article)

The answer varies drastically depending on the role, the company and the industry. I will try to write another article to document my data science / machine learning interview experiences.