How To Get a Graduate Job (post-pandemic)

Being at university during 2020 and 2021 was tough enough, but now you need to find a job. As much as your over-opinionated uncle claims you can ‘walk right up to the boss and say, “I’m your guy!”, it doesn’t really work like that anymore. So how does it work? The job process To get […]

How To Get a Graduate Job (post-pandemic)

The job process

To get your foot into the door, you need a CV to send. One common misconception is that recruiters and those in HR actually read your CV. However, for many larger companies, this does not happen. In fact, many use software that pre-scan your CV. Ever got a rejection email at 2:45 am? That’s not Susan from HR – that’s their prescreen CV software.

What comes next in the job process depends on the company. You should expect at least one interview and or competency-based test along the way. Nonetheless, even finding the right job or getting your foot in the door can be the main challenge for grads. So, I’ve compiled 3 key tips below to help out my fellow grads:

Realising what skill set you already have
What is commercial awareness? Breaking down the buzzword
Reject tradition, embrace modernity

Realising what skill set you already have

As a recent graduate myself, the task of finding a paid role was daunting. Especially since I was in the mindset that I was competing with hundreds of others – those who had internships through family friends, those who didn’t go to university who now have professional work experience and so forth. Yet, what many of us don’t realise is that we already have skill sets we aren’t aware of. Employers aren’t necessarily looking for solid experience in their graduates.

Digital literacy

If you have just graduated, you are most likely part of Gen Z. Compared to our predecessors, we’ve never not been immersed in technology.

[Unlike her, I was a whizz at WordArt and Paint by year 6]

As a graduate, you have been exposed to and used software that employers are looking for. The basics are your Outlook packages: Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc. It is a given you’ve used them, and for some, mastered them. You have probably used social media before too – you understand engagement, posts and trends. This is another skill within your digital literacy. It is worthwhile to have a think about what other specific software you might have used in the past couple of years. Maybe even give your typing speed a check to subtly flex on your CV next time.

The soft skills

In a nutshell, think of soft skills as your non-technical skills. 97% of employers said soft skills are essential, yet, 54% of the employees say they have not included soft skills in their CV. Evidently, these play a key role in your job search.

The obvious examples might be that you can display teamwork through playing on your university’s netball team. Yet, your soft skills go beyond that. You have researched for your dissertation project, showcased time management through your deadlines, perhaps enhanced your administrative skills through being part of a university executive team. The options are endless, and as long as you have evidence to back it up, you’re set up for success.

2. What is commercial awareness? Breaking down the buzzword

Now enough of the self confidence boost. You may have come to the realisation that you are a master of many skills but there are still areas you need to work on. Most importantly, everyone’s favourite buzzword: commercial awareness.
However, Google-ing and grasping the definition of commercial awareness is not sufficient, putting it into praxis is.

Stalk them

Not literally, just… internet-ly. LinkedIn is a good place to check a company’s contemporary updates – some tend to have either outdated websites or websites that only cover basic updates. Knowing specific details about a company’s place in the landscape of their industry… get ready to sign that contract.

[Joe from You was clearly about that grind]

Learn the buzzwords within the buzzword

Learn the lingo of the field you’re interested in. Solely knowing about the company you are applying to can only get you so far. For instance, say you want to take on a marketing role. You’ve researched the latest company updates, work culture and CSR policy.

Yet, what comment can you give on the general landscape of the industry? As soon as you throw in an ‘SMS’ ‘Google Analytics’ and ‘SEO’ – you sound like you know what you are talking about. In fact, this little trick is great if you’re in a pinch. Sounding like you know your way around the field, understanding the basic concepts, shows a willingness to learn. Or help you fake it til you make it.

3. Reject tradition, embrace modernity

Most importantly, it is paramount to remember that for many graduates in our current climate, we might not need or have to follow the traditional path. You do not specifically need to get a summer scheme at firm x, then become a junior and then senior at the same company.

Instead, a good way to get started in your career path is to think a bit outside the box. One way in which you can do this is by working in a startup. Startups often provide internships and junior positions that don’t require tons of experience – great for grads.

Moreover, you don’t have to get into the field you want straight away if you can’t find the right opportunity. Open your horizons! To become an operations lead, a temporary customer service job will help you build transferable skills. Alternatively, you might really enjoy working at a startup, and decide you prefer the work culture it sustains rather than your original career path. It’s good to get a taste of occupations you haven’t considered before; why buy an ice cream before asking for a sample?

Extra resources:
If you’re rearing to go, check out the websites/resources below:

https://workinstartups.com/stillhiring

www.workinstartsup.com

www.adzuna.com

Guidelines on Applying for a Job

Applying for a jobLooking to get into the startup world? Get your first grown up job or maybe just looking to move onto bigger and better things in a new job? No matter the goal, writing a great CV and cover letter is key to securing that next job Those aren’t hard rules, but following […]

Guidelines on Applying for a Job

Applying for a job
Looking to get into the startup world? Get your first grown up job or maybe just looking to move onto bigger and better things in a new job? No matter the goal, writing a great CV and cover letter is key to securing that next job

Those aren’t hard rules, but following these guidelines is a good start.

Read the advertisement
I know this sounds obvious, but a surprising amount of people don’t read the job ads they are applying for. That results in not providing enough information to the employer or applying for something you are wildly underqualified for.

Aside from understanding the job you are applying for, reading the ad properly makes tailoring your CV/cover letter so much easier. Startups for example might need their front-end developer to do something more than just programming. If you only want to do programming that job might not be for you.

Create an easy to read CV
Keep it clean, keep it simple. Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring manager that might have to go through 100+ CV’s that day, make finding the key information easy. This is especially important if you are applying at a startup that might have limited manpower to go through your application.

Try to focus on your strengths that are relevant to the job, if you are applying for a back-end developer role, your summer job at a grocery store is unlikely to help. It might however help if you are looking for a customer facing job.

Quality > Quantity, a hiring manager would rather receive one-page CV filled with quality than a three page one with irrelevant information. Keep that in mind and focus on information that supports your application.

Cover Letter
The easiest way to start is by creating a generic cover letter with some background information and the hard/soft skills that apply to any job outlined. You can then use that base to create a tailored cover letter for each job you apply for.

Use the cover letter to explain how and why you are the right person, the job ad will be asking for certain skills and attributes. You need to show that you have what they are looking for and provide support for your claims.

Avoid using generic keywords like hard worker, multitasker and great team player if you can’t provide any examples to support it.

And never lie.

Follow up
Sending a short follow up message one or two weeks after sending in the application reinforces your interest in the job.

Startup Skills: Firming up your Soft Skills

This is the second in our mini-series on startup skills. What are they? Why are they important? How do you demonstrate them in your next startup or scaleup job application?We’ve collated some of the best resources and tips for building up your portfolio of soft skills so you can perfect your startup CV. […]

Startup Skills: Firming up your Soft Skills

This is the second in our mini-series on startup skills. Now that you’ve mastered your Hard Skills (having built your personal website from the ground up and mastered SEO), are you ready to crack those pesky soft skills?

Soft skills. What are they? Why are they important? How do you demonstrate them in your next startup or scaleup job application?

We’ve collated some of the best resources and tips for building up your portfolio of soft skills so you can perfect your startup CV.

What are the differences between hard and soft skills?

Hard skills (as we’ve discussed previously) are capabilities that can be tangibly proven through a qualification or direct experience. Soft skills (what we’re focused on here) fall into a more vague category, as they can vary from inherent abilities to personality traits. Things like: time management, organisation, leadership, team-work, confidence, people skills, communication, creativity, logic, motivation and ambition. They are often qualities as well as skills – which can make them hard to crack!

Startup hiring managers regularly say that they want to see a balance of hard and soft skills – when looking at a job description you may notice that there are more hard skills in a ‘must have’ section and more soft skills in the ‘nice to haves’. This is simply because it is harder to assess soft skills in a candidate! Employers may try to use competency-based interview questions to get at how tight your soft skills actually are (no prizes for guessing the topic of the next installment).

To really smash an interview or application you should recognise what soft skill your prospective startup employer is trying to assess and demonstrate it. To help we have some advice on how to build up your soft skills:

Remember: some of these skills and attributes come more ‘naturally’ to some and less ‘naturally’ to others. It’s likely that you will have a few you are already strong on, so maybe focus in preparing on your weaker skills just in case. Don’t worry though – all soft skills are developable, from any base!

Organisation and Time Management – So you’re armed with some examples, try experimenting with different methods of organising your current work life and task management (and recount how you apply these to projects). Some examples people at our office use are; running to-do lists (written and on apps), ‘blocking’ tasks into a calendar and using all-inclusive productivity software like ClickUp (they also have a great blog with tips on this topic). Your system needs to be flexible to account for a sudden task, day-to-day operations and planned projects.
Leadership and Teamwork – Regardless of personality type or inclination, being able to point to examples of your strengths in both of these distinct areas is pretty key. On the leadership front, try and identify two or three clear projects or workstreams in your past where you were having to make key decisions – it doesn’t have to be where you simply managed a team of people! While there’s no nifty app or article we can suggest for building your overall team skills – just get stuck in! Come armed to your interviews with a few clear examples of big and small teams you’ve been part of, and where your efforts helped another team member solve an issue or develop their own workstreams.
Communication – There are two sides to good communication skills; what you say, and what you don’t say. When expressing yourself either vocally or via email to the hiring manager, make it as concise and clear as possible (think along the lines of bullet points). No-one wants a novella in their inbox at 9am! Same goes for your CV – keep it on a single page if you can and make it really easy for the startup to see your key experience and selling points!
Creativity and Problem Solving – Providing unique and creative viewpoints or strategies when problems arise at work is tricky. Some people can churn out a continuous stream of golden ideas seemingly from nowhere. However, most of us need a good basis of knowledge to inform proposals. We recommend reading around your industry! Given that you’re here and clearly tech startup or scaleup focused, check out our post on staying up to date on startup news or follow our Twitter where we regularly post interesting industry-specific content.
Motivation and Ambition – the reason we’ve put these skills last is because they should really come together after nailing everything else. If you’re well-informed on your industry, able to effectively engage with those around you, manage your workload and seize opportunities… you’re set! Building on this, you can tighten up “where you want to go” by following the success stories in your industry and how the best and brightest got there. We regularly feature up-and-coming startups on our channels, most recently the coolest female startup founders if you want some inspiration! Bear these paths in mind and come to your interview with a rough plan for the answer to the dreaded “where do you want to be in 5 years?” There’s a strong chance it will come up!

After both these posts you must be ready and able to start smashing some startup interviews! Get the ball rolling by checking out some of the hottest startup jobs going.

Startup Skills: making Hard Skills easy

Welcome to the first of our mini-series on key startup skills for jobseekers. What are they? Why are they important? How do you demonstrate them in your next startup application? We’ve collated some of the best resources and tips for building up your portfolio of hard skills so you can perfect your startup CV. […]

Startup Skills: making Hard Skills easy

Welcome to the first of our mini-series on key startup skills for jobseekers.

Hard skills. What are they? Why are they important? How do you demonstrate them in your next startup application?

We’ve collated some of the best resources and tips for building up your portfolio of hard skills so you can perfect your startup CV.

What are the differences between hard and soft skills?

In short, hard skills are quantifiable, technical abilities that can generally be trained or accredited e.g. attaining a GCSE in French tangibly proves one’s ability to parlez francais (at least at one point in time!) A soft skill on the other hand, is much harder to quantify; the ability to manage a team or be creative. They tend to be more vague, and though no less important they are a little more tricky to prove on a CV!

Building Hard Skills made easy

The good news is there is lots you can do to gain experience in a variety of key hard skills on a shoestring budget. It’s an easy way to proactively build your employability, so if you’re not getting the response you want in your job hunt give some of these a go:

Languages – as we know startups are no longer isolated to San Francisco and London, and any growth-minded startup will be looking to expand internationally – multilingual candidates are worth their weight in crypto in this industry. Don’t be put off by the grind, there are some really cool apps that make linguistics fun. We love Memrise (the observant amongst you will notice they are currently advertising vacancies with us) as its specifically developed for learning on the go.
Word-smithing – some startups are straight-up with this and ask that their candidates have attained a degree or equivalent to evidence their ability to string a sentence together (in their native tongue). Another way to show your control of the written word is to start a blog and write about anything that interests you (it doesn’t have to be startup related). There are plenty of blogging services that will allow you to do this – Blogger and WordPress are the leading free providers. Extra points if you build it yourself…
Programming – a basic comprehension of coding is becoming increasingly important, though obviously higher qualifications and experience will be needed if you have your sights set on becoming a developer. However, companies like Skills Matter, Grasshopper and Codecademy offer free courses to give you a beginner to intermediate understanding of coding.
SEO & Digital strategy – there are so many online and print resources to educate yourself on basic SEO. We particularly like The Moz Blog – who regularly post interesting and educational content on this topic. One of the best ways you can provide your ability to market digitally is to build a social media and blog following for yourself. If you get hands on with social and Google Analytics you’ll be a master in no time!
Software and Platform familiarity – word processing is a basic hard skill expected of almost any candidate, so what we recommend to all our candidates is making sure you are familiar with the nuances of the Microsoft, Google and Apple suites. Software like Photoshop and InDesign, though highly sought after proficiencies, are traditionally more difficult to access due to the expense of acquiring the software. Have a look for quick online courses that might prove your knowledge in any areas your CV could otherwise be lacking!

Now you’re a hard skills master it’s time to get applying – jump on Work in Startups and start showing them off! If you want to learn more about the other skills startup employers are looking for in their candidates, do check out our soft skills post too!

Don’t Let Your Resume Stand in the Way of Your Dream Career

In the job seeking world a resume is even more than a business card. It’s the first impression that the employer gets and as a candidate you have to compete for the recruiter’s attention and stand out in a sea of other applicants. This is no easy feat, especially when a job is in high […]

Don’t Let Your Resume Stand in the Way of Your Dream Career

Put yourself on the top

Always position your name and contact info somewhere visible – preferably on top. Use a simple bold font and keep that section clean as it si very important for the recruiter to see possibly remember your name and immediately know how you can be reached –if you have listed a phone number means you are available for a call, a skype id means you could do a video interview and etc. Many applicants make the mistake of listing their contact info at the bottom of their resume or even on the second page. Which leads us to the next point.

Keep it simple and concise

Yes, winning that basketball championship in high school or writing for the university magazine might seem as interesting achievements to add to a resume, but in fact they are not. What they are doing is taking up precious space that can be used to highlight skills that you used at your previous jobs or achievements that are directly related to the job you are applying to. Do a resume detox and ditch everything that is not relevant for the position you seek.

Bullet points are your best friends

Summarizing a 3-5-10 year experience in a few bullet points can be a daunting task, especially since you want to show how perfect you are for the job. A good recipe is the 4 rule: first bullet point should have 1-2 main responsibilities you had in your role (managing a team, being in charge of a certain department/project etc), second bullet something you did for the company (implemented a new system, devised a new strategy, helped design a new product etc), third bullet a crisis or difficult situation you avoided for the company or helped with (saved X amount from the budget by finding a cheaper alternative etc), and finally the fourth bullet should be something valuable you learned while working for that company (learned how to use a new CRM etc)

SEO your resume

Wait, what? That’s right, using a little bit of SEO in your resume can help you stand out. How? A majority of recruiters use dedicated software or tools that help them isolate resumes compatible with their job requirements. Most of the time they are looking for skills and prior experience matching the ones they have put in their job description, so even if you have the exact same skills required, wrong phrasing can cost you a job interview. So go ahead and make sure to rewrite your experience section to include some keywords and phrases from the job listing you are applying to.In this case, a good choice of words can go a long way.

Here are a few more tips to ensure you have a top notch resume:

Use a simple template – beautify your resume but don’t go overboard, keep it simple and classy and make good use of that white space
Proofread at least 5 times – and have a friend read it too, you don’t want any typos in a resume you worked so hard to build, right?
Choose the type of resume that works for you – there are three types you can choose from Chronological, Functional and Combination.

Applying to a job knowing you have put the effort into creating a good resume will not only give you more confidence but also show the recruiter you are serious and determined to get the job, so go ahead and revamp that resume right now.

Don’t forget to check www.workinstartups.com for fresh startup jobs everyday!

So You’re A Job Hopper. What Next?

So You’re A Job Hopper. What Next?

We mentioned in a previous post that job hopping is one of the highest impediment in having your CV chosen from the pack (over 39% of recruiters would declare that job hopping is a negative mark that would determine them not to invite the applicant to an interview). But, as many of you finish university without knowing exactly what you like or want to do, what you are interested in or what career would fit you, job hopping happens pretty often in the first ten years of work. And it should be acceptable, shouldn’t it?

The survey on recruiters says something else. How many jobs are too much in a period of time? Apparently, switching 5-6 jobs in ten years of working proves you’re a serial job-hopper. So, let’s find out how you can avoid to appear as a job hopper and present yourself as the professional that you are, full of potential and creativity.

There are a few ways to prepare your CV better and present your experience differently:

First of all, all jobs performed during university years or vacations should be taken out from the “Experience” section, so that they wouldn’t be considered as jobs; university is enough for the time being, unless the jobs are really representative for your career path or your future
If you gave up jobs from companies because they failed (like some startups do) or went bankrupt, or went through major restructuring (during the economic crisis from 2008 – 2009 for example), make sure that you mention that in your CV; after you mention it, emphasize it, you have to ensure that the recruiter understands that you didn’t give up the job, you were forced to look for other opportunities
Try to gather your experience and competences and reposition your CV; maybe you were a consultant for different companies but for the same client, you proved your loyalty and dedication to the client, try to emphasize that as much as possible
Merge jobs if the case – if the company was acquired by other company or if there’s a separate entity in the same group, make that obvious in the CV, so there is no confusion about your employer
Short term work – for 3 to 6 months can be omitted from your CV; unless they happen to be extremely important projects, you shouldn’t mention that you were an employee of that company. Find another explanation for the time you spent working for the wrong company (e.g. courses, schools if the case, volunteering, personal projects etc.)
If you are called for an interview and you have switched a few jobs in a short period of time, be honest with the interviewer. Explain sincerely why you chose those jobs (wrong industry? Wanted to try something new? Wanted to redirect your career?) and why you gave them up. You need to prove the interviewer that you are loyal, if you work in the right job and the right company and you will not disappear when the going gets tough. This is much more valid for startups, which have really rough times in their first years of functioning
Of course, if you are very good in one area and extremely prepared to do the job, then you won’t have to explain much of your career choices. But still, you have to show the company you have strong reasons to work for them and remain with them.

Being realistic, with the economic downturns we’re going through and the major changes in almost all industries, job hopping makes sense but at the same time it is normal for the employers to ask for loyalty. Hiring a new employee requires a lot of resourced and for a startup it is an important investment, thus you have to make sure you want a job the moment you apply for it. So, ask as many questions as you can at the interview alongside your interviewer, in the end it has to be a win-win situation, loyalty and dedication has to come from both ends: employer and employee.

What are the differences between hard and soft skills?

To really smash an interview or application you should recognise what soft skill your prospective startup employer is trying to assess and demonstrate it. To help we have some advice on how to build up your soft skills:

What are the differences between hard and soft skills?

Building Hard Skills made easy

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