2023 Job Hunting Guide – Layoffs, pain, and treading water

2023 Job Hunting Guide – Layoffs, pain, and treading water – The Geek Professor In February 2023, I got stung by government security clearance shenanigans which, despite Herculean efforts on the part of my bosses, left me jobless in the worst employees market in decades. Having now spent about 6 months having learn the ins and outs of job hunting, here's a breakdown to save you some time:

It's not a vacation

Click to see source article

The first and most important thing to understand is that job hunting is a full-time job. You've probably heard that before, but do you really understand?

For context, I'm spending several hours a day, searching, reading, writing, arranging, networking, getting on calls – not really any different than a regular job, but this is 6 days a week and with an ever-present fear of how long this takes versus how much money I have left to pay rent. It's going to be rough, but when you know the storm is coming, you can prepare.

It's a hell of a storm

For jobs in my area of expertise, the most I saw was 1000, but that's still insane! (click pic for source)

Thanks to 2023's massive layoffs, I saw desperation, pleading, fear, despair – people begging for connections, a job, a chance – anything that would get them working again. Before I even started looking, I'd seen people talking about spending months putting in hundreds of applications with little effect.

Some folks might immediately and baselessly assume the job-seeker had done something wrong rather than it being a market condition, the fact is that we were in a storm and it was taking everything we had to tread water.

How is this relevant now that 2023 is winding down (or over, depending when you read this)? Because job hunting is always a numbers game. It's always about treading water.

Be prepared mentally to see a lot of "no's" in terms of automated rejection emails, ghosting, etc. That's true at the best of times, but especially in a employee-hostile market. Bottom line, expect things to suck for a while and don't get discouraged!

Staying optimistic is good, but remember you need to cover the basics, avoid simple mistakes, and otherwise position yourself as well as possible for getting hired. That said, read on...
Preparation: the Resume

The ravenous field of "resume preparation services" made me instantly skeptical. I did a lot of research into services and resumes in general using online guides, videos, Reddit's /r/resume community, and more. Eventually, I felt the services couldn't offer more than I'd already learned which is as follows:

Format

If you work in a particularly niche field or it's an employees market and you can be more creative, then you might have more options, but based on everything I found and especially in the feeding frenzy of 2023, this is the format that most resumes should be using:

Southeastern Louisiana University has several basic templates like this you can download. Click the pic to check it out!

Your goal here is to make it as easy for recruiters, managers, and automated applicant systems to quickly read and understand the data. Creative might be nice, but think about the last time you had repetitive work to do and someone moved your button, your stapler, or something else you use to get the work done efficiently. Annoying, right? So be predictable, not creative – not at this stage anyway.

Formatting aside, here are the other things I learned to focus on:

One page only?

As someone struggling to keep it down to four pages, this one was really hard for me. I eventually got it down to one, but went back to two based on the advice I've seen that says decade-plus-long careers can exceed one page. Otherwise, one should do.

If you're struggling to get your resume down to one or two pages, I know your pain, but you can learn! It's all about compacting content!

Compacting content!

You don't need to describe the job if the title is an industry standard (or fairly descriptive). Instead, focus on bullet point accomplishments. Not regular duties or activities: stand-out accomplishments.

I'm not saying you can't add the major project that was an assigned duty, but you add it because it was a major project. Employers want to see how you had real impact in your role so, as much as possible, write bullets in the What you didHow you did itWhat was the result (with numbered metrics if possible) format. There's a great writeup about it here, but here are some examples (pic is from the linked post):

(click the pic for full size)
One hard thing is when you don't have metrics or the project was unfinished, cancelled, or failed. In those cases, estimate the actual/potential metrics if you can and otherwise focus on what the purpose and end goal were instead.

For readability and due to limited space, try to use as few words as possible to express your point clearly and impactfully. If that's not something you're great at, get some friends to help you. Ask, "how would I word this another way with fewer words?"

Which sections, which order?

Another hotly contested part of resumes was whether to include a Summary section and, to be honest, I don't know the answer. What I decided was that there's enough debate that it truly comes down to personal preference and I chose to have it – mostly because then I could include some key accomplishments that didn't fit in bullets. For example, mine says:

Over 5 years of total Product Management experience leading cross-functional teams to create products serving thousands of customers at cost savings of up to $300,000/yr.
Following that is a bullet list of key skills (in three columns) for the role that I change up depending on what the job description was asking for; just to prove that I have what they're looking for even if the bullets later don't demonstrate it as well (more on that later).

Experience vs Education vs Certs

Experience trumps, always. The only reason you'd put education first is if you didn't have strong experience coming right out of school. If you are a recent graduate, putting your graduation year and GPA might be good information, but in any other case, leave them off. Certifications will have their own section, even if it's just one. That said, if you have all three, go in this order: Experience > Certifications > Education for best results.

Tailoring

Before anything else, draft a mega-resume. By this I mean write out one that has literally every job and every bullet point you can think of that would sell you. You're not going to use it to apply anywhere, you're going to use it to customize other resumes for specific jobs.

As everyone will say, you need to tailor your resume for each job. I say that's kinda true, kinda not.

Maybe it was just the 2023 year where you could expect months and hundreds of applications before you started seeing results, but it all gets kind of hypnotic after a while. Instead, I created different versions of my resume for each major job title I was applying for (Product Manager, Security Awareness Trainer, Compliance Specialist, etc.). I legitimately had the skills for each of these roles, but the resumes read very differently so I pre-customized them.

Granted, there are some jobs I pull out all the stops for and match my resume as closely as I can to the job description, but often one of the title-based resumes with a few changes to the summary and bulleted skills sections seemed sufficient.

A great way to make sure you're hitting the right keywords for the type of job you're applying to is to take the job description from 10 or so similar jobs and put all that text into a Word Cloud generator online. It will highlight the words most often associated with that type of role and then you can be sure to use the same in your resume.
On to the hunt!

There are other job sites out there, but LinkedIn (for the most part) has the cleanest interface and adds social aspects that are of debatable use in many cases, but clear value when building a professional network and job hunting. Besides writing your own posts and content, merely commenting on posts of others is a good way to get attention on your profile from people who agreed with or liked what you said (happened to me this morning in fact). I'm not saying you shouldn't use Indeed or others, but I would start with LinkedIn and work out from there.

Note that comments like 'Nice!' or 'congratulations' are useless fluff that most people will rightly ignore. Comment when you have something meaningful to say! A story to add. That you agree/disagree and why. Something that shows you put thought into it and maybe helps express your credentials or at least your professionalism/personality.

Connections

In this process, people will send you connection requests, but don't just add everyone you see. Check out their profile and judge if they're a sensible connection. I use all of the following to get a total picture of whether I should add someone (not that they need all of this, but each is a reason to consider them):

  • Are they in your target location? People from all over the world can be great resources, but locals are going to serve you best for job hunting on average.
  • Are they a recruiter? If so, they can be a great contact no matter where they actually live so long as they're recruiting for the field your going for.
  • Do they have meaningful posts/comments? A filled work history and profile details? If not, this might just be a bot/scam.
  • Is their profile expressing someone you'd like to know and be connected to? Are they in the same/similar industry? Is their "thing" something you care about? Or is it just a sales pitch? Someone working LinkedIn to farm connections at random?
There's a LinkedIn cultural thing called "Social Saturday" where people post and send connections to each other and commenters en-masse. I recommend participating, but still being selective about who you connect with.

Jobs

Arguably the main reason you would use LinkedIn is to find possible jobs to apply to. Here are my tips:

  • Have a solid idea of what job titles you're aiming for. If you're not sure, try looking up keywords that describe what you like/do and write down the titles that keep coming up. Doing a little research here helps a lot.
  • Only apply if you are a match for most of what they're asking. Don't waste everyone's time (yours included) applying for something that you clearly don't qualify for. At the same time, many jobs are a description of the perfect candidate and that's just absurd. Assume that they're looking for an 80-90% match at best. If you can legitimately say you have strong experience in most of it and at least are aware (or can learn) the rest, go for it.
  • Most importantly, LinkedIn lacks very basic functions to keep irrelevant jobs out of your view. Check out my LinkedIn fixer script to clean up the results and make them far more useful.

Profile

There's a whole artform to this that would take forever to explain. Instead, check out mine and especially others in your target role/company. Generally speaking, a well-filled profile is better, though don't forget brevity.

Remember, a well-filled profile is more likely to draw recruiters and hiring managers to you, result in better and more meaningful connections, and creates a great place to represent your professional self (and side-hustles if you have them)!

If you'd like a step-by-step guide, I though this video described the process well:

LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Premium has a few features that are useful enough that I'd give it a month at best. There are some learning videos that are helpful, you get extra credits to contact hiring managers and such, and special "job match" categories that free users don't get.

That said, you can already contact people that are 3 degrees separated from you so as you build your network (explained next), those "inmail" credits become less and less useful (I don't think I ever came close to using them up). I did get a few decent tips from learning videos. But generally speaking, it doesn't seem to be a good value.

The "advanced searches" like "Jobs you'd be a top applicant for!" and such rarely show more than the basic search and are often even LESS useful because you can't limit them by location or pay or other filters for some reason. So you end up having to go through a ton of meaningless jobs to see if there's something useful there.

Applying and getting an interview

Networking

It's always been said that networking is the most important part of getting a job and that's not changed. Especially when you're in a deep employer's market, finding a way to stick out is key and the resume/cover letter isn't going to do it. To connect with people, I did all of the following:

  • If the hiring manager is listed on LinkedIn, follow the application with a message do them directly. Keep it brief, but engaging. Something like:
    "I just applied for your X role, and I'd really love to learn more about the company and role expectations as well as introduce myself. Would you have time to chat or meet to discuss this week or next?"
  • If you don't know who they are, check out the company on linked in then look at the "people" tab. You should be able to find recruiters and staffing folks for the company. Specifically, you'd want to find ones who are in the right location to match the position, but it's far more important to find the ones who are actually using LinkedIn regularly. Check their activity and prioritize reaching out to the ones who are likely to actually see your message.

    As an example of what to write when you do message them:

    "I just applied to what looks like an amazing role (link). Are you the recruiter for the job or do you happen to know who is? I'd love to connect to hear more about the opportunity and introduce myself :)"

Applying

The process can vary widely, though most companies are using one of the key applicant services like MyWorkdayJobs or OracleCloud or Greenhouse.io. This helps standardize your process a bit, though here are some helpful tips:

  • If you formatted your resume cleanly as advised above, the systems will be able to pull in most details for you and pre-fill the fields.
  • No honest company is asking you for your birthday, your SSN, or other private information. Neither should you to pay for anything. If you run into this run.
  • If you have your LinkedIn Profile set up well, you can often use LinkedIn to fill the fields instead. I rarely did this because my profile is a web page and is written and arranged for that purpose more than following resume standards, but it's an option.
Two key tips for when you are asked for your salary requirements. First, say that you are applying for jobs in the X range. This subtly shows your worth in suggesting that others are considering you in that range as well. Second, add "depending on benefits and total compensation. I could accept a lower range with a signing bonus while I prove my promotion potential.". Sometimes they can't pay your range, but they DO have the bonus option and will appreciate you handing them something to work with. Remember, you're trying to make it as easy as possible for them to choose you!
Reach out to hiring manager Send messagees to recruiters and staffing folks Hunted down costco example contact through linked in if listed.
Interviews

Interview Prep

I confess, I thought "I'm pretty good at interviews" and "I'll just answer honestly and it will be fine…" a little too much early on. I snapped out of it when I found a job I REALLY wanted with one of the toughest and most demanding employers around: Costco (yes, Costco). I realized that "winging it" was a poor plan and re-evaluated, reconsidered, and wrote an entire LinkedIn article about it (click here to read it). Feel free to read it too, but the summary is:

  • Watch interview prep videos on Youtube etc. to cover the basic do's and don'ts. You don't want to fail the simple stuff!
  • Write a prep document listing out the key questions that interviewers ask (which can come from the videos) and what your answers would be. Even if you can't read from this document in the interview, prepping this way puts it fresh in your mind. Later, you can skim through it before the interviews to keep the info on the top of your mind.
  • Practice (of course)
Pro tip: Find the practice interviews on Youtube where they ask questions and then wait for your answer. Actually respond out loud even in an empty room like a crazy person. Practice breaking the silence and it helps defeat the nerves of saying the same later during the interview

The Interview

From more than a decade teaching briefing skills, let me give you a secret trick. Speaking events are like parachuting. You should practice and preapare the most for the first 20 seconds and the last 20. Everything else, you can drift and change direction and it doesn't matter much, but you definitely need to know how jump and how to land.

For an interview, this means you should know what to say when they say "Tell me about yourself". I don't know if I've ever had an interview that didn't start that way, so be ready for it. Write down an elevator pitch that not only describes your work history (in brief), but what you're passionate about, and what goals you have (that this particular job/company can help meet).

I understand that it can be hard to talk about why you want to work at X place when you just need money, but remember that everything is a learning experience and that has value. If nothing else, say: I see that the job involves such-and-such duty/tool/whatever, and working with it will help position me better for the future.

The last part of any interview is this: "what are your questions for us?" So… what are your questions? You know they're going to ask; just like you know the ground is coming when you're parachuting. So practice!

Write down a few good general questions at the least, but definitely try to have a few specific ones. Something like:

  • "Is there anything you still have questions about or want to circle back to?" If they were holding back on something they had concerns or confusion about, this question gives them a prompt to bring it up so you have one last chance to address it or clarify.
  • "In your own words, how would you describe what you like about company culture?" The goal is not just to learn the answer, but to see how excited they are about their own company. You can learn a lot from this question.
  • "Are there core hours or is work schedule pretty flexible? What days are expected to be in-office? What does the work-life balance look like?" The goal here is to find out how much you're tied to a particular work schedule and location. This may or may not be a deal breaker so it's best to clarify now.
  • "Let's say I'm the best candidate. What would your expectations for me be in the first 30 days?" Shows interest AND gives you and idea of how furious and painful the onboarding will be.
  • "For this role, how would you describe a perfect candidate?" Gives you an inside look into what they consider important skills and behaviors. You can optionally follow this with something like "that's encouraging to hear because I think that fits me well, thank you!".
  • "This sounds like a great opportunity so what can I expect next in the process?" Definitively show interest. That and you get clear expectations for how you'll be contacted next. This is the question I always like to end interviews on.
Bonus Tips!

Interview cheat sheet

Since I wrote that article, I have a key tip to add. Since you're likely to be asked "tell me a time when" type questions, create a condensed bullet list of sample "time when" and a few keywords to remind you of a story from your history that would fit. As an example:

(click the pic for full size)

This is what mine looks like – separated into stories that talk about me as a person versus ones that empahsize my work ethic and history (which is generally how these questions will be split. Each lists the prompt and then a few words to remind me which story I can tell that would express (in STAR format), what the (S)ituation was, what I was trying to do ((T)ask), what I did ((A)ction), and what the (R)esult was. Remember, a RESULT can be either be a clear accomplishment OR that you learned an important lesson (which is, after all, an accomplishment as well).

This is NOT about made up or exaggerated stories. This tip is about keeping relevant stories fresh in your mind and easy at hand if you need them since it's easy to become flustered and forget all your examples when on the spot.

General tips

  • Tons of people are looking for remote work these days. Stand out by being open to in-office or hybrid work. Doing so cuts the competition for the role significantly!
  • When you don't have anything else going on, use LinkedIn to find people at your target company or other people in your target role in your target work area and send them requests for an "informational interview". Say that you want to learn more about the job/company and would love to learn from their experience. There are two goals here: to actually learn and to build connections to people who are close to your desired role. On both counts you'll be better prepared to find and get the job you want!
  • LinkedIn doesn't let you connect with people who aren't somehow "close" to you via connection distance, but that works in your favor. If you can get one person in a company to connect with you (maybe after that Info Interview), then all their connections can now be messaged/connected with. And depending how close that connection is, you may be able to message them without using any "inMail" credits.
  • Recruiters are valuable allies! If you see one who is in your industry (ex. when I see a technical recruiter), add them to your network! Doing so will help you stay alert to new jobs and have a quick way to contact relevant people in the process. You can also search for recruiters in various desired companies ahead of time and ask to join their talent pool. Try to get a sense of what they hire for from their profile before bothering them, but otherwise, send a quick note stating the type of job you're looking for and ask to connect.
  • If you see someone celebrating that they just got hired in the company/role you wanted, don't be resentful – take advantage! Send them a message or leave a comment congratulating them and ask for the name of their recruiter. They may be hiring more people and you could be one of them 🙂
Good luck and happy job hunting!

2023 Sept 29 edit

I posted this article before I actually succeeded in getting a job because I felt it would be helpful regardless. However, I do want to share that I had a series of interviews lined up as of the time I wrote this and have heard back from 4 different organizations about possible jobs. One was a clear standout from the others and I've accepted an offer!

What I've written might not conclusively lead to a job, but I believe (and have experienced) that it will position you well to find one!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Removing bad LinkedIn jobs live with a browser plugin (and Indeed too!)

A good tool, but it could be great!

In 2023, extreme layoffs sent people scrambling for new jobs. As a tough market with far too many seekers and not nearly enough positions, it became a daily grind to load up job options and apply. Best case, the online tools are helping you rapidly find good options – particularly when you're paying for the "Premium" feature.

Spoiler alert: they don't.

So much for "Premium". Almost every job in this view is out of state.

The hidden secret of job hunters!

Except that it's not a secret… not by a long shot. Job searches start with location!

Why does this even have to be said? The first and most important factor of job hunting is finding something in range – whether that's local commute, fully remote, or some hybrid version of the two. It doesn't matter how amazing a job is if it's five states over.

The second secret!

Still not a secret; but we can't take jobs that don't even pay the rent! Or maybe we will, but it should be our choice to see those listings or not. Why can't I set a minimum pay value and not have to see jobs paying minimum wage when we make 10 times that normally?

And so on!

Ok, enough with the secret nonsense. Bottom line, these are the basics of the basics and I'm stunned that LinkedIn doesn't have them. I spent hours browsing job listings full of complete red herrings – things that weren't worth my time to read any more than it was LinkedIn's to collect the pixels to transmit them to me. I made several attempts to contact people at LinkedIn to ask if they were working on improving the listings, but why wait when we can hack(ish)!?

LinkedIn Fixer (and Indeed too!)

Lest I seem overconfident about things I didn't know about, I put myself to the test and built a TamperMonkey script to:

  • Strip out jobs that aren't in my area (or remote)
  • Dump anything that paid below my minimum salary (either yearly or hourly)
  • Drop certain companies by name that I definitely didn't want to work for or seemed scummy
  • Eject job titles containing keywords that were absolutely wrong for me (like Physician, Lawyer, Attorney, etc.)
The jobs are still listed if you want to click them, but they're FAR easier to ignore now.

Sound interesting?

Check out my code on GitHub Don't know how to use TamperMonkey? No worries! It's just a browser plugin and a few clicks and you're golden! Here's a video that describes the process. It's basically just a matter of installing the plugin, copying my code from the github page, and pasting it into a new script in the browser plugin. That's it!

EDIT: I forgot the last step – at the very top of the code are a few obvious variables where you can set your target salary, companies you don't want to see, the state you live in, etc. You'll need to manually edit those, but just follow the pattern that's there and you should be good! Leave any questions in the comments.

If pictures help, here's a pretty sloppy, but accurate list of the steps
Basically install TamperMonkey, paste my code, and save.
Removing bad LinkedIn jobs live with a browser plugin (and Indeed too!) – The Geek Professor Tags: , , , , ,

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E-mail Dangers

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Don't be one of those people that loses thousands of dollars to the classic Nigerian Scam.

E-mail Etiquette

Use CC only when necessary and BCC the rest of the time.
Use Reply-All when you mean to and never when you don't.
Practice proper E-mail Forwarding to protect privacy and make e-mails more readable.
Always personalize your e-mails to make it obvious to your recipient that it's valid.

E-mail Tips and Tricks

Using E-Mail Aliases Properly - Be careful about using sensitive data (like your real name) in an e-mail account.
Remember to treat your e-mail account with the security it deserves.
Use a decoy e-mail account to keep your main e-mail account free of spam.
Avoid using any Internet provider's default e-mail.

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Preventing Spam

Spam is annoying and worthless, but you still see it every single day. Here are some tips for preventing and reducing spam.

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E-mail Viruses

Make sure that viruses don't sneak onto your computer through your e-mails. Read some simple tips to prevent that from happening.

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Phishing

By far the most dangerous thing you'll find in e-mails is a lie. Sending a bogus e-mail to someone is generally called phishing, but can also be referred to as a Nigerian scam (depending on the goal of the e-mail). Learn to recognize and deal with phishing before it's too late.

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Nigerian Scam

Many people have lost thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to the classic Nigerian Scam. Don't fall for it!

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How to Use "CC" Properly

Don't violate people's privacy and invite spam into their accounts by CC'ing all your contacts. Learn the proper way to send mass e-mails first.

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Reply-All

It's easy to embarass yourself or harm your career when you don't know how to use Reply-All appropriately.

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How to Forward E-mails Properly

Don't forward e-mails carelessly or you risk looking foolish as best and violating the privacy of all your contacts at worst.

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Personalize E-mail

Follow this simple rule of e-mail etiquette to help prevent your friends and family from falling for phishing scams.

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Using E-Mail Aliases Properly

It can be hard to find a good name to use in an e-mail account that hasn't been used and doesn't give away too much information about you.

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Protecting E-mail Passwords

Your e-mail account is the most important online account you have. Remember to treat it as such!.

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Using a Decoy E-Mail Account

Why it's very important to use a buffer e-mail account to shield your main account from people and companies that you don't trust.

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The ISP E-mail Trap

Don't fall for the trap of using the free e-mail account provided to you by your Internet service!

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