TL;DR:

When I saw a job I liked, it had 75 applicants. To get the interviewer to notice me, I wrote a detailed cover letter. It worked! I was interviewed within 48 hours.

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Getting hired in public

This post is to share a small success - getting an interview call within 48 hours of applying for a job.

As Feb 2022 started, I too started my journey of getting hired in public. To summarize, I was inspired by the "build in public" movement on Twitter and I wanted to attempt something similar. But I can't code, so the next best thing was to do something I am good at - get a job.

Thus started my journey of being hired in public.

Applying to a 'hot' job with many candidates

Because I had to have some "material" to document this journey, and of course, because I want to get hired, I submitted my résumé to a job opening I saw on LinkedIn. Then, I applied my strategy of going above and beyond what other candidates do:

• research a lot to understand the company,
• understand the role,
• learn about the interviewer or the hiring manager,
• write an awesome cover letter.

How a cover letter matters

I've written previously about the importance of cover letters in a job application. If you haven't read that, check it out. It tells you why a good résumé is necessary, but not sufficient. 

And please, do NOT use the same résumé for each job!

But I digress. In general, I believe that a résumé tells the hiring manager who you are as a person and as a candidate; a cover letter tells them why you are the best person to solve their problem.

Also, this is what I have written about cover letters in my book.

The result of a good cover letter

We all come across a lot of people talking about things but not showing results. Or, they make it sound like there is a very quick hack, something that's done in a few minutes to get instant results.

Surprise: It's not.

If it's too good to be true, it usually is. So tread with caution when someone promises you "four offer letters within the weekend." In this particular application of mine, I've spent about 3 hours revising and updating an existing cover letter. No, that's not a typo; I did spend that much time on just one document. Here's my thought process - if I don't spend time making my cover letter great, why would a recruiter spend time reading it?

This is not theoretical; I have the results in these screenshots.

What next?

In investing and in job hunting, it is always advised to diversify your asset allocation. That means, even if things are moving well, never assume that a good run will continue. So I will be applying to quite a few more jobs and applying these and other strategies to progress.

Let us see how it goes. 

Advice? Question? Referrals?

What advice would you give me for my job search? I am always learning and never say no to advice.

Alternately, is there anything you would like to know about job hunts? I will try my best to answer them.

Lastly, you would be doing me a great favour by referring me to any openings that you are aware of. To the ones who have referred me already, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You know who you are.

🙏

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If you liked this, you might also like these other posts about employment gaps, questions candidates can ask interviewers and a possible answer to one of the most common questions in an interview.

Consider supporting me by Klapping on this article here.

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That's it for today, see you next week with another update.

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