3 simple ways to get ahead in your job search

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3 min read

Remember, make it till you can fake it. By which I mean, put in the effort until you can naturally do it.

Job search and interviews are difficult.

Most beginners are unable to land any interviews, and when they do they are unable to showcase their full potential causing them to lose perfect opportunities.

Here are 3 ways that improved my job search and helped me get a job.

1. Show not tell

One of the best ways to get noticed is to contribute to open source and host your personal projects so anyone can view them. These can be more important than any CV or previous experience.

The most difficult task in getting a job is getting yourself noticed, there is not enough time to go over everything in a CV/resume for a recruiter to verify everything.

You can build authority by writing articles, making youtube videos, and getting yourself out there.

Having open source contributions and hosted projects can and will get you noticed fast.

2. Get directly to the source

The second thing to do is to try to get out of the loop of applying for a job, getting noticed on a job recruitment software is a monumental task, it will be really difficult for you to be noticed even if you are better than everybody else especially if you bring soft skills that others might not have.

Get out of that loop by contacting software engineers who work at that specific company directly over Twitter or LinkedIn, show them your projects, see if they are interested, and try to get a referral from there.

Once you have bypassed the getting noticed part you will have the chance to really show off what you are worth in further human-to-human interviews and this is where you can excel by preparing for these in advance.

3. Make it till you can fake it

When faced with the question of Tell me about yourself if your first reaction is to stumble and start thinking on the spot, you have already lost. Prepare for these obvious questions in advance, write a little about yourself in a file or notepad and keep it open on the side.

Make it malleable enough so you can easily customize it for that specific interaction easily and show your strengths and wisdom.

Make a list of your achievements and failures, these questions come up fairly often in an interview, and if you haven’t already reconciled your achievements and especially your failures you might not be able to come up with something on the spot that shows you in a positive light.

Remember, make it till you can fake it. By which I mean, put in the effort until you can naturally do it.

I hope this article was really helpful to you in finding your next job.