The Ultimate Job Search Guide: A 5-Part Framework, from finding jobs to interviews, to rejection and everything in between

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: Hey there. I’m Sarah Doody, host of the Career Strategy Podcast. Many professionals are seeking more impact, flexibility, growth, and let’s face it, getting paid what they’re worth. But how do you unlock this in your career? It starts with strategy. I’m taking you behind the scenes of what’s working for my career coaching clients. You’ll hear strategies and actionable, yet sometimes against the grain, in advice for how you can be the CEO of your career and stop dreading Mondays. Ready to level up your career? Let’s get after it.

Erin Lindstrom [00:00:38]: Hey, y’all. This is Erin, one of the coaches inside of Career Strategy Lab, and I’m popping in to let you know that this episode is a compilation episode. So Sarah did a 5 part series that we’ve made 1 big episode so that you can listen to everything in 1 shot. So we’re gonna get started with part 1, and we we’ll move through each of the parts throughout this episode. Part 1 is about the number one thing to do before you apply for a job. Part 2 is why you should prioritize people over platforms in your job search. Part 3, why you should not play the numbers game in your job search. Part 4, how to research a company before you apply, and part 5, how to deal with rejection in your job search.

Erin Lindstrom [00:01:18]: Alright. Let’s get started with part 1.

Sarah Doody [00:01:20]: Welcome back to another episode of the Career Strategy Podcast. And today, everything’s gonna be focused on various components of your job search. So today, we’ll be talking about the number one thing you need to do before you ever apply to a job. And then we’ll cover topics such as why you need to prioritize people over platforms in your job search, Why you should absolutely not play the numbers game in your job Sarah, how you can research the company and its culture and its vibe before you ever even waste time applying and then how to deal with rejection in your job search, which, let’s face it, is an inevitable part of the process. Alright. So if you have friends or family or you yourself are in the middle of a job search, this would be a great time to tell them to make sure they subscribe or follow us. Alright. So what is the number one thing you need to do before before you apply for a job.

Sarah Doody [00:02:20]: What this is is you need to create something that I call your career value criteria or CVC as I might refer to it. Now what the heck is your career value criteria? Well, it means a list let’s of deal breakers along with some nice to haves that relate to what you’re looking for in your next job. Now we’re getting into the details of what this means, but let’s take a step back and understand why this is so important, why it is so critical that you are very, very focused and intentional about identifying what you want in your next job, the next company you work at. Oftentimes, in their job search, a lot of people just honestly are kind of in panic mode, first of all. As a result, they’re not thinking about things like, what do I need in terms of company culture, you know, beyond job title and salary? What do I need in a manager, in teammates? What industries am I more excited to work in than others? All of these criteria that I’m scribing go into, ultimately, your overall satisfaction, fulfillment, day to day joy in your job. And if you don’t think about these things, guess what? You might end up taking a job That doesn’t align with what you want and what you need, and then you might run the risk that you accept a job that shortly after accepting it, you realize, oh my god. This is not the job I thought it was. This is not the culture I wanna be a part of this is not the type of company I wanna be at.

Sarah Doody [00:04:13]: It’s funny. Just the other day, one of my friends was telling me about one of her friends, and this happened to them. And my heart just went out to her because I thought, man, if she had only taken the time to identify these things maybe she would not have accepted that job. Maybe she would not have even applied to that job to begin with. She would have had these criteria or guardrails to kind of help guide her in her job search and then kinda serve as a gut check for that ultimate decision of, Do I accept this job? When people like the friend of my friend get into situations like this, it’s very easy to feel trapped. Right? A lot of people think to themselves, I only took this job 3 months ago, and now I realize I don’t like it here or it’s not setting me up for the job I wanna get 5 years from now. But they feel like, perceptually, they need to stay in that job for a minimum of 1 year Because somewhere out in the universe, someone has made that a belief out there. If you leave a job before 1 year, it might look bad.

Sarah Doody [00:05:20]: Now I don’t believe in that, and that is a whole different podcast episode. Now a couple of other things to consider in terms of why you should make this, it can help you leverage one of the biggest superpowers in your job search, and that is your career community. Career community is just a word that I use rather than network because I don’t like the word network. It comes with so many assumptions and bad taste in our mouth that people are just out there to use you or get something. So I like to use the word career community. In your job search, one of the most helpful things you can do is let everyone in your career community know that you’re looking for a job. Why? Because it’s, I’m gonna say the word, network effect. It’s network effect.

Sarah Doody [00:06:11]: What that means is if you tell 5 people that you’re looking for a job, guess what? It’s kinda like you cloned yourself, and now they are your eyes and ears for jobs out there that you might not see when you are scrolling LinkedIn or looking on Indeed, they might have friends or cousins or neighbors That do what you do and in casual conversation mention they’re hiring, and you think, wait a sec. That’s my friend. Let me introduce you. But the thing is, this can’t happen if you’re not specific with telling people what you’re looking for. So let’s take a totally different sample outside of job searching. Let’s imagine you’re buying a house. You tell some of your friends in that town, hey. I wanna buy a house in town.

Sarah Doody [00:06:58]: Great. If you’re not specific about the type of house you’re interested in, guess what? Number 1, either no one is going to tell you about houses because they don’t know what you’re looking for, or 2, you are gonna end up with all these people telling you about houses that do not align with what you’re looking for. So instead of saying, hey, guys. I’m looking for a house. Let me know if anything, you know, is out there that you see and you think it might interest me. Instead, you have to be specific. And instead you would say, hey, guys. I’m looking for a house in this neighborhood.

Sarah Doody [00:07:36]: It’s got a minimum of 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. It’s a condo or a townhouse, not a real house because I don’t wanna do yard work and should be walking distance for coffee shops and restaurants and grocery stores, something like that. Do you see how that’s a lot more specific than just, hey, guys. Let me know if you see any houses that are on the market. By being that specific, you are far more likely to have those people send you more relevant houses for your job Sarah, and that’s gonna save you time, saves them time as well. The exact same thing applies to your job search. Right? If you just post on LinkedIn or tell your friends, hey, guys. I’m open to work.

Sarah Doody [00:08:21]: Let me know if you find something. Well, guess what? Either no one’s gonna tell you about jobs or you will receive so many irrelevant referrals to jobs that you’re just gonna be, like, spending half of your day going through all these referrals and messages in your more email and LinkedIn. This is why we need to create this career value criteria. Now let’s get into what would go in it. Right? What things should you be thinking about? So beyond job title and salary, of course, here are the things we need to think about. We need to think about team size, company size, company industry, even things like, do you want it to be a private company, a public company, a nonprofit? Do you wanna work in government? Do you wanna work at a company that is more business to business in nature or more consumer focused. Industry, are you really excited about health care but you never wanna work in travel or something like that. Think about those types of things when it comes to the company.

Sarah Doody [00:09:28]: Culture is another one. Right? So when it comes to culture, you could think about things like, is the company super mission driven? Are they very scrappy in nature? Are they very buttoned up in nature? All of those things that kinda create a company culture. You could also think about opportunities for professional growth and development even as granular as how much does this company invest in their people? Do they have professional development budgets? What are those budgets? And then other things you could think about, travel. How frequently do you have to travel? Is it remote? Is it in person? Is it hybrid. All of those things make great elements of your career value criteria. Now a great, great way to brainstorm this is to think about the past jobs you’ve had, right, and think about what did you like, what did you not like about the team size, about working in x y z industry about your benefit package, about the travel you did or didn’t do. Maybe you didn’t travel and you really wish you had got to travel. As you’re thinking about what you’re looking for beyond job title and salary, reflect on your past roles and think about what let you UX, what you totally loathed and never hoped to experience again in your career.

Sarah Doody [00:10:55]: Once you have your career value criteria, then it makes applying to jobs a lot easier. Because now you have some criteria you can use to filter down and be more strategic about the companies you apply to. You can also use these criteria to help you be more strategic about who you connect and engage with and try and form relationships with or spark older relationships with people in your career community. Right? Instead of letting everyone know that you’re looking for a job, maybe you only reach out to people who you know have worked at or previously worked at or currently work at companies that align with the criteria you’ve identified. And the other really awesome thing about creating this criteria is that it gives you really strategic questions that you could ask in initial phone calls or emails with companies, in the interviews, etcetera. Because as much as they are interviewing you, you need to be interviewing them. And If you struggle to find questions to ask during interviews in the past, these criteria will give you plenty of things to ask. And anytime you have questions in the interview or in the interview process, it can help you be perceived as a more interested and engaged candidate.

Sarah Doody [00:12:23]: So if you don’t have a career value criteria or some form of that, I really encourage you to create one. It’s going to save you a lot of time. It’s gonna help your career it’s gonna help your career community help you because they’ll know what you’re looking for. They can be your eyes and your ears, will help you in your interviews, and it will ultimately help increase the chances that you end up a job that will be fulfilling not just from a job title and salary perspective, but in all the other elements that contribute to your fulfillment, professional development, happiness, contentment in your day to day job where we all spend so many hours every single week.

Erin Lindstrom [00:13:13]: Alright. That’s the end of part 1. Moving into part 2, why you should prioritize people over platforms in your job Sarah?

Sarah Doody [00:13:21]: Alright. So prioritizing people over platforms in your job search. What does that mean? Why should you do it? And how do you do it? So I wanna start off with a stat, and that is 85% of jobs are found and filled through relationships and word-of-mouth. And that’s from the US Department of Labor and Statistics. What does that tell us? It tells us that relationships matter. People matter. You may, through relationships, hear about jobs before they ever hit a job board. You may be able to get a referral link so you can apply through a link from someone at the company.

Sarah Doody [00:14:03]: You may get the opportunity to send the hiring manager a message and kinda pitch yourself in almost a cover letter type message. There are so many reasons why it’s valuable to leverage existing or create new relationships when it comes to your job search. And those relationships can help you with your current job search, but also they can help you years years to come, whether it’s 2 years from now or 20 years from now. These relationships could be career gold in the future. So I wanna go through how a lot of people apply to jobs and find jobs through the portal method. So the portal method is when you really just rely on kinda making the rounds. You hop over to linkedin.com and go to the job section, then you bounce over to glassdoor.com and do the same. Then you go to Indeed, and then you maybe go to some industry specific job boards related to what you do.

Sarah Doody [00:15:10]: Now let’s say you actually apply to some jobs, and then what’s the problem? The problem is you just have to sit back and wait because a lot of times when you apply to jobs, you get the confirmation email from one of those no reply email addresses. So there’s no way for you to ask someone questions about the job. Right? There’s no opportunity to email the hiring manager and pitch yourself or send kind of a mini cover letter and say, Hey. I wanted to let you know I applied. I think I’m a fit for this role because of x, y, and z. You can’t do that. Why? Because you don’t have a contact at that company. So that’s how a lot of people’s job searches work.

Sarah Doody [00:15:57]: Right? It’s just go to the portal, apply, cross my fingers onto the next. This is also how a lot of people end up getting sucked into the numbers game, which we’re gonna talk about in another episode, so we’ll save that for later. But instead of just focusing on the platforms, you need to focus on people because people open up opportunities to hear about jobs before they ever hit the job boards. They give you connections to people at the company. So like I said, you can ask questions. You can follow-up to find out, like, hey. What’s the timeline for this? Did you decide not to hire, etcetera? You have access to someone internally that you can check-in with and sometimes even pitch yourself, which does work, and we’re gonna go into an example of that in a little bit. So if you’re in the middle of a job search or plan to very soon, one of the most strategic things you can do is to Start developing relationships with people who work at those companies.

Sarah Doody [00:17:05]: So that could be as simple as hanging out in online communities of your peers or of your industry or of your trade so that you’re kind of not hanging out with everyone on LinkedIn. But let’s say you do user research, maybe you’re hanging out in more research related groups and communities. Another thing that’s really valuable is to go find people who work at those companies and follow them on LinkedIn. And make sure you turn that notification bell on too on their profile. What this does, It ensures that you are going to see their posts in your feed so that if you want to work at whatever company you will see if one of those people from the company post that their team or their colleague’s team is hiring. And the beauty of this is when you see a post by someone that says, hey, guys. My company is hiring. You know, let me know if you have any questions, and I can give you a referral link to apply.

Sarah Doody [00:18:13]: Great. So now you have a referral link, you have someone to ask questions to, and that person could potentially introduce you to the hiring manager or other people in the event that you wanted to pitch yourself via a cold, what I call sometimes lukewarm email, which means it’s lukewarm if you already have an existing relationship with them. And when you have an existing relationship with someone and you message them, they’re more likely to recognize your name and potentially reply because you’re not a stranger cold emailing them. Alright. So I wanna go through an example that I saw on LinkedIn, gosh, last year sometime of a hiring manager who posted an example of when they themselves were cold messaged by a potential candidate, and they actually ended up hiring the candidate. So let me just read it, and I’ll keep their name anonymous. But the hiring manager says, I hired a candidate that first connected through LinkedIn before they were sourced, referred, or screened through the ATS system, they took the liberty to go straight to the hiring manager with a simple message. Here’s what it said.

Sarah Doody [00:19:27]: Hey, Dave. I hope you’re well. I wanted to connect to learn more about the program manager roles you’re hiring for. I’m currently a, and insert their job title, at insert their company with 7 years of experience looking for a new opportunity and open to the option of relocation. I hope to speak with you soon and happy to provide my resume. Thank you. And this person, Dave, the hiring manager went on to say, there’s no perfect LinkedIn introduction. Right? There’s no perfect formula to use or template, Mad Libs style template.

Sarah Doody [00:20:00]: You have to be strategic based on who you’re reaching out to, why you’re reaching out to them, what is the degree of relationship that you already have with them. Do you have anyone that could maybe introduce them to you? And you also have to be mindful of being very clear, very decisive, very direct, And friendly too at the same time and not sending an a cold email that’s, like, 800 words long and asking the person to also review your resume and your LinkedIn profile and your cover letter and do you all these favors. Also, you wanna be not asking them for pick your brain sessions or other random things like that. So this is what that hiring manager went on to say. He said, as a hiring manager, I’m often getting 25 to 30 messages a week, and I really appreciated that I didn’t have to read multiple paragraphs. Furthermore, notice this person didn’t ask me to take action, like I said, review my resume, pick my brain for 30 minutes, etcetera. And they ended up hiring that person, which is pretty incredible. So I wanted to provide that example to help you realize the power of cold emailing people and or developing relationships with them.

Sarah Doody [00:21:27]: So if you are one of those people that maybe doubts whether or not you should cold email people or you think, oh, I’m such an introvert or I don’t wanna clog up their inbox or anything. I think when you send very strategic, concise, direct and friendly messages. It’s really gonna stand out because honestly, the bar to stand out is so low. As someone myself who receives so many cold messages every single day. The ones that actually take the time to connect with me, To be human, to be respectful of my time and my inbox, and just tell me exactly what their question is or their ask is, those are the ones that stand out. And in this case, like I said, this person ended up getting hired because they prioritized people over platforms. Today in your job search, it’s not enough to just go to job platforms, hit apply, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. You really need to proactively be seeking to create or nurture relationships in your job search and with people who work at companies where you wanna work, and you really need to get over this fear of pitching yourself.

Sarah Doody [00:22:49]: Hiring managers and recruiters are overwhelmed with candidates, and sometimes just simply sending a very short email or message on LinkedIn can honestly make or break whether or not they notice you to begin with, and then ultimately invite you to interviews. And I say this because time and time again, People in the career coaching program that I run, they resist this. They don’t do it despite us giving them examples and ideas and various different strategies for how to reach out to people. And finally, when they do, they are amazed that people reply. And I just say to them, imagine if you’d done this a month ago. You know? You might be hired already. So when you thoughtfully reach out to people, they will notice, but the key is thoughtfully and strategically. Part of the people over platforms element to your job search Involves finding jobs to begin with.

Sarah Doody [00:23:52]: Right? Because we talked about how by following people on LinkedIn, by turning on their notifications, you’re gonna see if that person, a human, posts on their personal profile that their team is hiring, and then Voila. You’ve struck gold, and you now have a person attached to the job that you can potentially reach out to, Send a cold email to ask questions, get an intro to someone else on the team who’s the better contact because they’re the hiring manager. And also, This also helps you in the long term because you’re building these relationships that could lead to other opportunities months, weeks, years from now. If you have not prioritized people in your job search, it is not too late. You could go to LinkedIn right now and easily find 5 people who work at a company or multiple companies where you wanna get hired, and you could follow them, turn the notifications on so that you start to see their posts in your feed. So if they say their team is hiring, you are gonna be the one of the first to know. Even if you do find jobs on platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, etcetera, you should still try and do some searching on LinkedIn to find the person that is the hiring manager or you think is the hiring manager. Even if you’re wrong, you could still send a message that says something along the lines of, hey, Samantha.

Sarah Doody [00:25:23]: I wanted to let you know I applied for this job at whatever the company is, and I’m trying to find who the hiring manager is. I’m wondering if it’s you or if it’s someone else on your team. I think I’m a great candidate because of UX, y, z, and see what happens. So that’s how you prioritize people over platforms in your job search if you do this. I promise even if you’re nervous or you think you’re an introvert or you don’t wanna disturb people and send cold emails, if it’s thoughtful, concise, direct, people will notice. And this could really make or break you getting an interview or not. So let me know if you do this. If you start to get interviews after you do this, I would love to hear about it.

Erin Lindstrom [00:26:09]: That’s a wrap on part 2. Now we’re moving into part 3, Why you should not play the numbers game in your job Sarah. So if you’re someone who’s been sending so many resumes out, applying for so many jobs, make sure you keep listening.

Sarah Doody [00:26:23]: Alright. So why you should not play the numbers game in your job search? I have a lot to say about this. And the reason is that, You know, multiple times a week, people message me, email me, and say, Sarah, I’ve applied to 25 jobs, 50, 75, 100, 200, 400 jobs and not had a single interview. And I just wish to myself That they would have reached out to me after they applied to 15 jobs and not had an interview. And the way I look at it is that if you are not hearing back and getting interviews, that’s a yellow flag, a leading indicator that something is wrong. Now where’s the problem? There’s really 3 places where the problem could be. The problem could be You are not applying to the right jobs to begin with. It could be your resume, or it could be your LinkedIn profile.

Sarah Doody [00:27:21]: And we don’t have time to go into all of those components today. But if you are applying to jobs and not getting interviews, those are the things that you should be thinking about. And we’ll link to them in the show notes because we have some other episodes and resources related to those topics. But I wanted to bring those up because a lot of people just simply don’t know what to do if they’re applying to jobs they’re not getting interviews. And so they Google or they ask around. And a lot of times people just say, keep applying. Eventually, it’ll work The numbers will eventually turn in your favor, etcetera. I I just don’t buy into that.

Sarah Doody [00:28:05]: I think that Playing the numbers game sets you up to have a longer job search than necessary, and it’s setting you up to be on an emotional roller coaster that doesn’t just impact your kind of work life. It can also impact your personal life, your friends, your family, your relationships as well. And I don’t want that for you. So here are the four reasons why I really don’t want you to play this numbers game in your job Sarah. Because your career is not something that you should be gambling with, which is essentially what you’re doing when you’re just applying to more jobs even though after 100 applications, you still don’t have any job interviews. So the first reason why you shouldn’t play the numbers game is that, like I said earlier, it’s a red flag that something isn’t working. You need to hit pause. And before you go and apply to more jobs, you need to do some detective work.

Sarah Doody [00:29:07]: And let’s face it, look at yourself let’s in your resume a little more, maybe honestly and critically than you have been to figure out, you know what? Maybe there is a problem with my resume. Maybe I spent more time on the design of my resume than the actual words, the content. Maybe I followed that advice out there. Your resume would be 1 page. But in doing so, there’s a really strong likelihood that you’re selling yourself short, that those bullet points are just scratching the surface of what you’ve done. So If you’re applying to jobs and not getting interviews, that’s a red flag. Something isn’t working, and you should be going and trying to figure out what that is. In this case, making changes to your resume, applying and seeing what happens and kind of doing some experiments.

Sarah Doody [00:29:58]: The second reason Why I really don’t want you playing the numbers game comes down to time and energy. Right? The time people put into applying to job after job. I’ve done multiple posts on LinkedIn where I ask people, you know, to comment with the math of how many jobs have you applied to in the last 3 months? On average, how long did it take you? Okay. Now how many hours was that? And a lot of people don’t think like that. They don’t think to do the math. But when you do the math, you realize how much time that this application process is taking, and it can be really enlightening and eye opening. It’s not just the time. Right? It’s the energy.

Sarah Doody [00:30:42]: It’s the mental energy. It’s the emotional energy that you’re putting into this activity of applying to jobs that is not having a good ROI, return on investment. Right? And the other kind of thing that relates to this component of time and energy, this is the 3rd reason why I don’t want you playing the numbers game, which is when you play the numbers game and you take up all that time, It leaves little to no time or energy to do other activities in your job search that are much more impactful and influential over whether or not you might get interviews. And you’re probably wondering, okay, Sarah, what are these impactful and influential activities that I could be doing That are more effective than just apply, apply, apply, apply, apply. Right? Here’s what it is. It’s about building relationships with people at the companies where you wanna work. That’s one of the most high value things you can do. You could also be customizing or tailoring Your resume or that cover letter or that intro email or a portfolio, if you have one, to the jobs you are applying to.

Sarah Doody [00:32:00]: But a lot of people resist this idea of tailoring and customizing the materials because they think, oh my gosh. That’s gonna take me, like, 4 hours per job application, right? Not true. It doesn’t have to be that way. If your baseline resume, baseline cover letter, baseline portfolio are really awesome, then you can just duplicate that resume, for example, shovel around the order of some bullet points, rewrite a few, Change the little about me statement at the top of your resume, maybe, and then, voila, you have a customized resume for the job you’re applying to, and it took you, you know, 10 minutes, literally. It could be that fast. So you don’t wanna play the numbers game because it sucks up time and energy that you could otherwise be applying to these more impactful and influential activities like relationships, posting on LinkedIn to increase your visibility and customizing or tailoring these career materials. And the 4th reason why I really don’t want you playing the numbers game is honestly because of your mental health. You know, the job search can be really taxing emotionally and rightly so.

Sarah Doody [00:33:16]: Right? But here’s the thing. The more jobs you apply to by sheer numbers, the higher the chance you are going to see rejections. So if you know you are very prone to taking rejection negatively, to having that send you into a spiral of negative thinking and doubt and comparison with other people, maybe by not applying to so many jobs, that could help preserve your mental health. Right? But If you’re applying to 200 jobs, you’re probably gonna get a lot of rejections. And so instead love. Just applying, applying, applying, you need to be doing what we talked about a moment ago, building these relationships, Posting on LinkedIn, doing research honestly before you ever apply to a company to figure out if I was offered a job at this company to begin with. Would it even align with what I’m looking for, what I refer to as your career value criteria, which we talked about in the first less episode of this job search series. But if you’re applying to lots of jobs and not getting interviews, I want you to really think about what you could do differently.

Sarah Doody [00:34:33]: You know, after you’ve listened to this episode, what takeaways, what action items Do you have for yourself? So it might mean let’s hit pause on applying to jobs for the next week, and instead, let’s go look at your career materials, your resume, your LinkedIn profile, cover letter, email templates you’re using, portfolio and figure out, is something off in how I’m talking about myself? Am I only scratching the surface? Could I be going into more detail? Should I make my resume 2 pages because there’s a very strong chance Your 1 page resume is selling yourself short or you bumped the font size down so small that no one can read it. So to recap, the four reasons why I don’t think you should be playing the numbers game. First of all, It’s a red flag that something isn’t working and you need to be listening to those clues to maybe go revisit your career materials. It’s also taking a lot of time and energy that is also impacting your life. Right? It’s taking you away from friends and family and activities and the energy you would have to do, you know, other things that you wanna do in your life. It also gives you less time to do more impactful full activities in your job Sarah, like connecting with people, building relationships, tailoring your materials, etcetera. And, ultimately, For many of us, playing the numbers game can really set us up for some impact to our mental health because rejection is hard to face even if you are a positive, optimistic, kinda resilient person. So by applying to fewer jobs, but more of the right jobs with the right career materials and the right relationships, You are far more likely to get interviews and not get sucked into this cycle of applying to jobs and jobs and more jobs.

Erin Lindstrom [00:36:36]: That’s a wrap on part 3. We’re now moving into part 4 where you’re gonna learn how to actually conduct research on a company before you apply to a job

Sarah Doody [00:36:45]: layer. So let’s get right into how you can research company culture before you ever apply to a job. So before you ever apply to a job or accept a job offer, it’s really important to consider the company culture. And that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, which is why it is So important to develop what we already talked about in episode 21, your career value criteria. This helps you create A filter list of things that would be nice to haves or deal breakers when it comes to a potential job opportunity or a company you want to apply to. So make sure you go and listen to that episode. Culture is such an important thing to consider for a job because we spend so many hours of our week and of our lives at our job. And it’s not just about being able to do the things on the job description and have the skills and experience in the training to do the function of the job.

Sarah Doody [00:37:57]: A lot of times, our fulfillment doesn’t just come from our output, but it also comes from our Experience, and the culture is a big part of the experience. Now Culture can mean the size of the company, can mean the size of the team, could be the speed at which the team and company operate. It could mean the values of the company, like how they live out what they say they believe, whether it’s regarding work life balance, causes, social justice, etcetera. Those are many examples of what I mean when I talk about company culture. So how do you research and figure out a company’s culture though? There’s really 3 kinda strategic ways that you can approach this. Now the first way you can research company culture would be to follow and get to know people who work at those companies. So if you’ve not applied to companies yet, but you kind of have a shortlist in your mind of companies that you hope to apply to someday, you should start following those people now. So for example, go to LinkedIn and follow them.

Sarah Doody [00:39:16]: This will help increase the chances that you will see their posts in your feed, and there’s a possibility that they will post about things they’re working on or cool things their company is doing, activities that their company has engaged in in regards to the company’s values and beliefs lesser impact that that company wants to have. It’s a great way to get to know the culture through the lens of people that work there. So make sure you go and follow the people who work there and also follow the company pages on LinkedIn. Again, that’ll increase the chances that you see their posts, and it might help alert you 2 different initiatives they are engaging with or updates they’ve made to policies regarding paid time off or family leave or child benefits, who knows what. But if you don’t follow them, you won’t know. Alright. The second thing you could do to research company’s culture is go find out if the company has a podcast, a blog, a YouTube channel, a Twitter. This might be as specific as the individual team that you’re interested in joining.

Sarah Doody [00:40:36]: I’ve seen many companies’ teams such as the design team, the development team, the sales team, the marketing team have different presences on social media or have their own blogs, etcetera. And this is their way to educate potential colleagues or applicants less about what those teams do. In the world of marketing, this is a way to try and attract the right type of people to that department and that company. And couple years ago, I interviewed someone who was, at the time, the vice president of design at Shopify, and they had just launched a podcast. And part of the purpose of that podcast was to help educate people about the design team’s culture, what they were working on, etcetera, to try educate people in advance of applying, but also make sure they were attracting the right types of people for their team. So Shopify, in addition to their podcast, they also had add a publication. I don’t know if they’re still publishing it, but I believe it was called Shopify design on medium.com. Many companies do this though, so try and do some Google searches to see if you can find social media presences for the team or the department or the company, which might give you clues as to what they work on, how they work, how big their teams are, how fast they work, if they do activities that align with the company’s values or mission regarding kind of social causes or environmental causes or whatever is important to you.

Sarah Doody [00:42:23]: And the third thing you can do to research company culture before you ever apply is use websites like Glassdoor. Fishbowl is another one that I’ve recently become aware of or ZipRecruiter to go through those reviews that people often leave about companies. Now the one thing to consider about reviews is that you have to take them with a little bit of a grain of salt. Right? Similar to reviews for products you might purchase on ecommerce sites, Amazon. You wanna make sure that you read The positive reviews and the negative reviews. And the reason is and I’ve done a lot of research in ecommerce to know this, but Sometimes the people who leave the negative reviews can kinda be the loudest. So you don’t just want to read a negative review about a company and assume that, wow, this person had a negative Experience, therefore, that entire company must be horrible to work at. Right? You can’t jump to conclusions.

Sarah Doody [00:43:29]: So as you’re on these websites, just be mindful about looking at the kinda range of experiences that people have had, and don’t be afraid to, in the interview process or before you even apply to a job, reach out and ask the recruiter, HR person, whomever you can get a hold of, if you have quest about the culture that are unclear or that you’ve read reviews on Glassdoor or Fishbowl that are giving you concern. Give them a chance to address that before you ever apply. It’s far better to address that earlier on in the interview process than later because you don’t wanna waste your time Applying to a job and going to interviews if there are deal breakers that you find out to be true, you know, later on in the interview process, less. You just don’t wanna have wasted all that time. So those are the 3 ways that you can research company culture before you apply to a job. Number 1, go follow the people who work there and the company’s page on LinkedIn or other social profiles as well. Try to build relationships with those people so that if you do have questions, you’re coming in not as a cold email, but really as a lukewarm email because your face and your name are familiar. Maybe you’ve commented on their posts, and you have some semblance of a relationship.

Sarah Doody [00:44:58]: Right? This Sarah way, see if the company has a podcast, a blog, social presences where they’re talking about what they’re working on, right, and how they work. And then, of course, number 3, use the websites and apps that are available to you, but make sure you use them with a grain of salt and try and look at the range of reviews and comments, and don’t just latch on to the negative ones or the amazingly positive ones too. Right? So whether you’re looking for a job right now or in the future, at a bare minimum, if you do have companies in mind that you really would dream of applying at, it can’t hurt to go start to follow and take note of what they’re saying about themselves or what other people are saying because it’ll help you learn more about them faster so you can either be confident in your decision to apply or realize, you know, that company that I thought was a fit maybe isn’t actually a fit.

Erin Lindstrom [00:46:00]: Alright. We’re in the home stretch. That wraps part 4, and we’re now moving into part 5, how to deal with rejection in your job search. Enjoy.

Sarah Doody [00:46:09]: So let’s jump right in to how to deal with rejection in your job search. And like I said, for most people, rejection is just an inevitable part of the job search. It’s probably going to happen. Now that’s not to diminish the impact that rejection can have. But I think one of the first things we need to do to start to deal with it is just to accept that it’s kind of a part of life. And it’s not a reflection of your self worth or value as a person, as an individual. This is simply a matter of you not being aligned with whatever that company is looking for. Or maybe your skills and experience are aligned, but someone has an edge that you don’t.

Sarah Doody [00:47:04]: So first of all, just remember that this is not a reflection of your worth as a human or as an individual. But when it comes to getting rejected in the job search, one of the things that you need to be really mindful about is what point did you get rejected? Because that can lead you to some clues that might help you go back and recognize various parts of your career materials that you could optimize, maybe your interview skills, etcetera. So let’s start at kind of the first kind of possible place where you would get rejected, which could be you don’t even get interviews. Right? So you are applying to jobs and you’re not getting interviews. Okay. So what does that mean? You get one of the kinda automatic rejections or maybe a a human really emails you to say, hey. We received your application. We’re not moving forward.

Sarah Doody [00:48:04]: Okay. What you need to do is think something is not creating a strong enough first impression. Right? So if we break this down, that is likely your resume, your LinkedIn profile, information you typed in on the application, or potentially your portfolio if you happen to have 1. So if you’re applying to jobs and not getting interviews, it’s like that some combination of those materials is not sending a strong enough first impression or it’s not aligned with what is in that job description for the role you are applying to. So the first thing that you should really do is go back and pull up the job description in 1 1 window on your User, and then pull up your resume and your LinkedIn profile and your portfolio in other windows and kinda take a hard look and ask yourself or maybe a friend or someone in your industry to say, hey. Here’s this job description I applied or the description of the job I applied to, and here are my materials like, do you see a disconnect? You might be surprised at what you find out. And I would also say if you applied to the job, but you didn’t take the time to tailor your resume to that job, or to write a cover letter, or if you knew who the hiring manager was or someone on the team, if you didn’t take the time to kinda pitch yourself in a short message or email to them, maybe you might wanna do that in the future. Sometimes those things can make or break whether or not you get interviews.

Sarah Doody [00:49:50]: And you have to put yourself in the shoes of these people hiring. Right? Especially doing that early vetting early in the hiring process. Sometimes they’re going through 100, 200, 400 applicants. And so that first impression matters. The sentence at the top of your resume describing who you are and what you do could make or break whether or not you get an interview. Same thing with your LinkedIn headline and your portfolio. So that’s kinda area number 1 to think about if you are applying to jobs and not getting interviews and getting those rejections really early on in the process. Now what happens if you are getting rejected after going to some interviews, right, and you’re not making it to that next round.

Sarah Doody [00:50:40]: So as frustrating as that can be, I want you to remember and recognize that something is working. Right? You’re doing something right because you got an interview. So you should reflect on the fact that something in your resume, your LinkedIn profile, that cover letter you hopefully wrote, your portfolio, whatever it was, something in that initial set of career materials and people’s interactions with you were strong enough and communicated to them clearly that you seemed like a good enough match to be interviewed. So please, please, please don’t discount what is working in your job search. But if you’re not advancing to those next rounds of interviews, then where might be the disconnect? One of the 1st places that I would really start investigating is taking a hard look at your interview skills and asking yourself after each interview, especially in the future interviews you do, you know, how did that go? Do I really feel like I was clear on my skills and experience. Did I have examples or bring the receipts from previous projects I’ve worked on and how those skills might come into play in this job that I’m applying to. How were you at describing and talking about the projects you’ve worked on? Were you just kinda rambling and just going through the steps of first sighted this, then I did that, then we did this, or were you kinda telling us a little bit more than just a checklist of what you Doody, but letting us behind the scenes and saying, well, we did this research and we wanted to learn x, y, and z. Therefore, we chose this research method.

Sarah Doody [00:52:36]: And based on the research, we then learned these amazing insights. And here’s this quote that still stands out to me months after I did the research. And then here’s how this research really informed kinda next thing that that the team did. That’s a lot more interesting and engaging than just kind of like robo going through a checklist of what you did in your interview. So if you are applying to jobs, getting interviews, but getting those rejections kind of after you’ve gone at least 1 or 2 interviews, really, really take a hard look at your interview skills and your ability to present or talk about the projects that you have worked on. And then another thing to think about so you’re getting interviews. You’re making it further further in the process, and then you don’t get the job offer. Let’s be real.

Sarah Doody [00:53:33]: That is not a good feeling. It’s a letdown for even the people with the best kind of nerves of steel. Right? It’s still gonna sting a little or a lot. But here’s the thing. There are so many reasons why you may not be extended a job offer, and sometimes you’ll never know. Sometimes it could be that the company’s budget gets cut, and they can no longer hire anyone. Sometimes companies’ priorities change. And so that person that they thought they needed is no longer needed.

Sarah Doody [00:54:08]: Right? Sometimes they end up hiring someone internally. Sometimes it’s just a matter of you tick all the boxes. You really are an awesome qualified candidate, but someone else has an edge. And as an example of what I mean by someone having an edge, think of it like this. Imagine you’re applying to a job in the insurance space and someone else also applies, and you have never worked in insurance before, specifically health insurance. Let’s be really specific. And the other person has maybe spent 5 years in the health insurance space and other health related kind of products and services. You both have all the exact skills, qualifications, etcetera.

Sarah Doody [00:54:57]: The only difference is that that person had boots on the ground experience in that industry, and maybe that wasn’t on the job description. But at the end of the day, when it came down to extending offers, that company went with that person that already had that industry experience. So don’t feel like a rejection is an indication that you are not qualified for the types of jobs you’re applying to, that it means maybe you should be applying to jobs with mid level instead of senior, for example. Don’t start to Sarah guess or doubt yourself as a professional because there can be so many reasons why someone else has extended an offer and you are not. Now some other things to consider because we can’t control, you know, what the experience and skills and qualifications of other candidates are. Right? So we can’t worry about those things. What I want you to spend your time and energy on is reflecting on the entire interview process and thinking, is there anything that in hindsight, I know I should have done, but I just didn’t because maybe I didn’t know any better or maybe I cut corners. So things were a lot of people kind of cut corners or decide not to Doody.

Sarah Doody [00:56:22]: Follow ups. It might seem old school, but a simple email follow-up after every interview or interaction can help you stay top of mind as a candidate. It also gives you an opportunity to remind people or highlight specific points in your previous experience or education that really connect the dots between you and what that company is looking for. So follow ups are really key. Cover letters can still be very valuable. Are you doing them? If not, why aren’t you? Don’t skip over cover letters. They can sometimes make or break either getting that 1st interview to begin with or, like I said, reminding people of kind of things in your experience that maybe would not be clear unless they rifle through your entire resume and your entire LinkedIn, etcetera. And the the other thing to be really mindful of is before you ever apply to a job, it can be very valuable to be building relationships with people at that company.

Sarah Doody [00:57:31]: Now this does not have to mean, you know, endless Zoom dates and coffee chats and stuff like that. This can be as simple as if you know you want to apply to a job at, say, Delta Airlines, you wanna get into design at Delta Airlines, okay, you should go and try and find people who work in that kinda area or department at Delta Airlines and maybe go give them a follow on LinkedIn. And why is this crucial? Because as you start to see their posts, you should then be kinda commenting and starting to have conversations with them. And then someday when you do apply to Delta Airlines, they might be someone in an interview, or they might be someone you can reach out to after you apply to ask questions about the role. Or you could even ask them if they have a referral link that you could use to apply for the role. All of those things can really, really matter. Now the one thing I really want you to remember after listening to this episode is to not let these rejections that come our way to cloud any positive things that may have happened during the interview process. Right? So I know that initial email or phone call saying you’re not be con being considered or given an offer, that is not fun.

Sarah Doody [00:59:04]: However, don’t kind of fester on that. Don’t focus on that. Don’t let that be the only thing you take away from this job interview process that you just went through. Chances are there are things that you can carry with you either lessons or even confidence building things. Like, I just had a conversation this morning with someone in my career coaching program, and they said, you know, I’m I was in final contention for this role. And after the last interview, I felt like it was the best interview I ever gave of my life. And I still don’t know if I have the job or not, but even if I don’t get it, that feeling of having given the best interview of my life, I’m gonna take that confidence into future interviews for next time. So don’t forget and don’t look over the positive things that may have happened in your job search.

Sarah Doody [01:00:03]: Did you maybe feel like you had an awesome conversation with a recruiter or hiring manager or connect with someone that you might continue to stay in touch with. Maybe they were part of the interview process. Doody you even learn something about yourself that you didn’t recognize before in terms of what you’re looking for in a role, in a company, in a culture. You know, sometimes you learn things in the interview process that make you realize, you know, I thought I wanted x. And now that I went through a few interviews with that company, it’s actually a blessing in disguise that I didn’t get an offer because if I had accepted that, I probably would have been miserable in 2 months. So take time to reflect on the kind of lessons or positive things that may have come after you let that dust settle of that rejection. Let’s be real. It’s, you know, part of life, but we don’t need to dwell on it and let rejection in our job search define us.

Sarah Doody [01:01:08]: And one of the really useful things and helpful things that I’ve seen be very valuable, especially for people in my career coaching program, is the value of not trying to process and navigate all of this alone. Right? There is such value in having a community, whether that’s a program like my program that I run or just a small group of kinda inner circle people in your community or your life that you’re sharing these frustrations with. It’s not healthy to let all of these feelings and thoughts and speculations kind of just bubble up inside of us. We need time to think through them and to have people also help kinda reset our perspective. So if you are currently kind of operating in a silo in your job Sarah. I really encourage you to find a community of either like minded people, like my community of career coaching clients or people that you trust in your life or in your career or from prior jobs you’ve had that you can share some of this with because they will be very helpful in reminding you that your worth as a professional and as a human is not tied up to the number of offers or rejections you get in your job search. And lastly, I just wanna remind you that success we put this hyper focus of success being this, like, cherry on the top, meaning getting hired. Right? And we kind of idolize that.

Sarah Doody [01:02:52]: And, of course, we all need jobs to have money, to do our lives, etcetera. I’m obviously not discounting the desire to get hired. But as I said earlier, it’s so important to reflect on everything else because there’s so many other layers of things that we can learn and take away from every job search and every interview that we go through, whether that’s more confidence, more connections, more knowledge, like realizing that cover letters and follow ups might actually make a difference. So don’t don’t beat yourself up too much, and don’t focus too much on the kind of cherry on top version of success because there is definitely opportunity to grow on a personal and professional level as well beyond just growing your job title and your job salary. Alright. So I know we covered a lot when it comes to rejection in the job Sarah, so I wanna just do a quick recap here. 1st of all, be very mindful about where the rejection is happening, at what stage is that happening in the job Sarah? And ask yourself, are these clues that can lead me 2 things that I might need to work on so that you don’t kind of panic and start to go in all different directions. But like we said, if you’re applying to jobs and not getting interviews, there’s no need to go practice your interview skills if you’re not getting interviews yet.

Sarah Doody [01:04:31]: Instead, you probably need to focus on your resume, your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, or even maybe rethinking the jobs you’re applying to to begin with. Right? Then after every rejection, ask yourself and reflect, what can I learn about my self? What did I do well? What would I do differently next time? And don’t let rejection cloud the positive things that may have happened, the relationships, the lessons, anything else that may have come. And I know it may take you a few weeks to be able to truly see these things, but I assure you, There will probably be some lessons and positives that come out of these Experience as well. And like I said, maybe it is a matter of realizing, you know what? If I had proceeded in that interview process and received an offer and accepted it, maybe that would not have been best for my career. And then finally, find a community. Don’t go at your job search in a silo. Don’t try and process rejection alone. You need other people to help remind you of how awesome of a person and a candidate you are.

Sarah Doody [01:05:50]: And you need to also be in a community to learn from other people’s experiences and realize and remember that you are not the only person that’s happening to, and everyone else that’s been hired before you has probably faced rejection as well. So I hope that whatever stage you are at in your current I don’t like that. So I hope this episode today has been helpful to you. And like I said, this is the last episode in our job search series. So if you are in the middle of your job search or have friends in their job search, you might wanna pass this series onto them. Have a a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you in a future episode. Thanks for listening to the Career Strategy Podcast.

Sarah Doody [01:06:38]: Make sure to follow me, Sarah Doody, on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn. If anything in today’s episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear about it. Tag me on social media or send me a DM. And lastly, if you found this so helpful. I’d really appreciate it if you could share it with a friend or give us a quick rating on Spotify or review on Apple Podcasts.