Since the turn of the century, technology’s impact on our day-to-day lives has been ever-increasing. But whilst this is the case, it is not always fully utilised. This is especially true when it comes to looking for jobs.
In this post, we have collaborated with Tempo, the end-to-end hiring platform, to reveal how you can utilise technology in your job search so that you can become gainfully employed much quicker.
“The job market has been turned completely on its head and you are faced with competing against hundreds of other applicants. It’s time to turn to innovative recruitment methods to help you to stand out from the crowd and give yourself a competitive edge.”
Olivia Horsley, Head of Customer Success at Tempo
#1: Beat the Bots
It can be extremely dispiriting to receive a stream of standardised rejection emails after sending out your CV. It almost feels as if nobody has taken the time to even look through your application that you put so much time and effort into.
That’s because there is a high chance that nobody actually looked at your CV.
This is because Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are being used to scan and reject CVs before they are ever read by a human.
You might be wondering why these ‘resume robots’ are being used to filter through applications. After all, aren’t recruiters paid to review CVs and identify the most promising candidates?
Well, to understand why these systems are used, look at it through the lens of a recruiter. As it is so easy nowadays for people to submit their CVs online such as via ‘1-click apply’ and LinkedIn applications, recruiters are flooded with digital applications.
It would be impossible to sift through thousands of CVs within their deadlines to handpick the most suitable candidates.
That’s where ATS comes in. The ATS creates a shortlist of suitable candidates and screens out the rest.
Now you know why these systems are used. It’s time to find out what you can do to ensure that your CV makes it through the ATS filter and into the hands of a human. This will boost your chances of making it to the next stage of the recruitment process.
In many ways, applicant tracking systems operate like search engines – which means you should write your CV in a search-friendly manner – kind of like search engine optimisation, but for CVs instead of websites.
Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds! In fact, the team at Graduate Coach teamed up with the friendly folk at Give a Grad a Go to explain in 6 easy steps how you can beat the bots and get your CV seen by a human.
#2: Start your work adventure with Tempo
Tempo is an end-to-end platform that uses super-smart technology to match you with jobs at the UK’s fastest-growing companies.
You can get hired through Tempo in three simple steps.
Step 1: Create a profile. This acts as your digital CV and contains all the information employers want to know about you.
Step 2: Get matched. Once your profile is complete you’ll see a list of instantly matched jobs that suit your skills and interests.
Step 3: Get hired. You can receive interview requests and even job offers from companies directly within the platform.
Tempo has tools to help give you a competitive edge, such as:
Profile video
A profile video is a great way to let your personality shine through, showcasing your skills and experiences in a unique way. It helps you to show employers you are more than your CV and you are even seven times more likely to get hired with one.
Yolanda, a Tempo candidate, even said, “In a lot of my interviews, they said the reason I got to that stage was because of my video. It helped me to stand out – communicating what I was looking for and the key skills and experiences that I could bring to the table.” Find out more about how Yolanda landed a graduate job.
Leave a note
This allows you to leave a tailored reason to each hiring manager on why you are interested in the role and why you would be a good fit. This boosts your chances of securing an interview as you will seem passionate about the role, giving you a competitive edge. This alongside your profile cuts out the faff of having to do multiple cover letters.
#3: Track your job applications in Notion
It is very important to keep track of all the applications that you have sent out. This will help you to assess the progress that you are making.
If you notice that you’ve sent out 50 CVs for positions that you are interested in, but got rejected from all of them, it’s time to revise your CV and cover letter.
Likewise, if you have been invited to several interviews but keep failing them, you may need to refine your job interview technique – we can help you to nail your interviews.
Notion has a great job application tracking template!
As you can see in the screenshot below, the job application tracker enables you to list all of the applications that you have sent out, record what stage of the application process you are at, link to the job description and more.
#4: Use Grammarly to check your spelling
Grammarly is a free online writing assistant that is powered by AI technology.
When completing online applications, you want to make sure that you do not give potential employers the wrong impression of you.
Whilst it may seem small, spelling mistakes, typos and grammatical errors could inhibit your chances of getting called to an interview.
These common errors signal to recruiters that you may lack attention to detail, or that you may not have taken the time to review your application properly before sending it out.
Grammarly is a free Google Chrome extension that flags up spelling and grammar errors and allows you to easily correct them.
#5: Use video interview software
Your interview preparation should not start the day before.
Becoming really interview confident takes some time. Therefore, you should start preparing for job interviews as soon as possible.
Of course once you get invited to an interview, you will need to tailor your preparation to the company that you are interviewing at. However, there are some foundational tips and techniques that you can learn and apply at any job interview.
One way to use technology to help you to prepare for your interview is to use video interview software.
Video interviews are a very common stage in the interview process nowadays, so it is more important than ever to become familiar with how it works and how to ace them.
Graduate Coach offers an online interview course called Nail that Interview. The course is unique as it offers candidates the opportunity to do mock interviews and to get personalised feedback from an experienced coach to help you to improve and refine your interview skills.
In addition to this practical element of the course, you’ll gain access to nine modules taking you through everything you need to know to get really good at being interviewed. Along with the modules, you will also get eight downloadable guides to help you to discover your job-specific skills.
Summary
We hope that you enjoyed our post on how to use technology to boost your job search! It is becoming more and more important to understand how technology is redefining the recruitment industry and subsequently how the best candidates are sourced, so that you can ensure that your applications make it to the top of the pile.
Featured image by: Life Of Pix from Pexels
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