If you think looking for a job is difficult, you’re right. Sifting through online job postings and finding a position that matches your skills and experience can be tedious and time-consuming. But it’s good to consider that for every position you apply for, there are likely a great number of candidates also putting their name in the hat.
So how can you make your application stand out from the crowd? We got some insight from industry leaders and career experts across the tech world on how to make your application get noticed.
1. Write a killer cover letter
"What makes someone's application stand out from the rest? A cover letter that is tailored to the role, and one that gets to the point. You can get a sense of their passion for the opportunity. They understand the purpose and scope. They give examples of where they’ve gone the extra mile to be or do something remarkable. Along with your cover letter, make sure your resume develops an easy to follow layout that has good structure, and highlights relevant skills and experiences. We prefer quality over quantity." -Chris Brown, Recruiting Manager,
SoundCloud
2. Focus on experience
"We focus heavily on candidate's real work experience. If we're hiring for a technical role, we want to see that they've contributed to the open source community and that they've posted public work on sites like GitHub. Even if someone is straight out of college, we like seeing that they have tangible projects that they've built and bodies of work that they can point to in their application.
We also like seeing candidates who have a real drive outside of work. We'll take a look at candidate’s social media profiles and their applications to see if they're involved in volunteer work, if they're foodies, love music and sports or if they're spending their spare time blogging about their most recent adventures abroad." -Ori Zaltzman, co-founder and CTO, Gogobot
3. Show off your code
"Make sure there's a GitHub presence and that you're actually contributing to open source projects and make sure that info is included on your resume. I would say that when most people these days review a resume, they are looking at internships, where have you worked before, what kind of technology are you working on. Are you in a niche that's relevant or have you gone general and broad? The next thing is: what have you contributed to, what does your code look like? That whole piece has become very transparent so from the technology standpoint it’s really about showcasing what you’ve done in your coding experience." -Shannon Schiltz, Technical Talent at
Andreessen Horowitz
4. Tailor your resume to the specific job
"If a job posting is generic and uses tech jargon and is very straightforward, there’s no need to tweak your resume. However, if the job posting is indeed a little quirky or has certain nuances and ways of explaining certain terminology that’s slightly different from how your resume reads, definitely tweak that CV. Make it easy for the recruiter to say yes to your resume. Similar words will pop out and that’s a win-win for both you and the recruiter who is eager to fill this job." -
Vicki Salemi, career coach and former corporate recruiter
5. Be quirky and non-traditional
"Do what you can to think outside the box, especially if the company’s culture is in line with this. You need to stand out as a job seeker when a recruiter’s online dashboard is flooded and they need to sort through it all to see who’s qualified. Demonstrate your qualifications above and beyond the resume." -
Vicki Salemi, career coach and former corporate recruiter
