Winning in a Competitive Job Market - Part 2: Ace Your Application
Tried and tested strategies to secure those interviews
You found your dream role that seems like the perfect next step in your career. Now it’s time to get that application out the door. Thousands of books have been written about crafting polished CVs and convincing cover letters and online you’ll find millions of templates, tips and tricks. In part 2 of the series Winning in a Competitive Job Market, I’ll focus on two tangible actions that helped me stand out in the job application process: tailoring the CV and creating a pitch video.
This is part 2 in the 3-part series: Winning in a Competitive Job Market. If you want to learn more about building your (online) brand read part 1 here:
Conquering the ATS
Generative AI has created an avalanche of applications to companies who are trying to sift through the applicants using AI themselves. There are a few things that you can do to stand out and make sure the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will keep you in the game and allows you to progress to the next stage:
use a clean, ATS-friendly format for your CV with no graphics or tables;
limit your CV to two to three pages maximum. Even with many years of experience this should be doable; and
tailor your CV with keywords from the company & job description.
AI is your best friend to tailor your CV. Use it—everybody else does too! What you can try is the following: feed the job description into ChatGPT and ask to filter out the keywords: “Please review the above job description. What are the keywords that I should include in my CV when applying for this role?” Make sure you include those keywords in your CV. By that I don’t mean making up stories about your experience. Your experience may have taught you many things; it’s about highlighting the qualities that they’re looking for.
Less about you, more about them
A key lesson I learned from Michael Rubio is that your CV should focus less on you and more on the employer you are applying to. While you’ll have many impressive accomplishments you’re keen to share, not all of them will be relevant to every role.
I learned to create what’s called a Master CV. This will serve as a comprehensive record of all your achievements and experiences and it can be as long as needed. You can then use this resource to tailor your CV to specific roles.
When preparing your CV for a particular role, select and highlight the accomplishments that best align with the job requirements. In doing so, your most relevant achievements will stand out clearly, without being overshadowed by other great—but less pertinent—experiences.
Cover letter
AI is a great editor and reviewer and it's therefore become a lot easier to write a very tailored cover letter: feed it your CV with the job description and it will produce a very sophisticated letter. The problem is, everyone else will do the same. So, how do you stand out?
Nothing beats a personalised message
A technique that I used was to create a Loom video with a personal pitch. Most of the time I included the link to the video in the cover letter, a few times I replaced the cover letter by the video altogether.
Either scenario definitely had successes that I attribute to these videos. During my interviews, hiring managers often positively commented on the Loom. For one application, the video even prompted a response email within just 10 minutes saying:
“Thanks for your personalised application - loved the Loom. Let’s book an interview.”
I always liked using Loom, however, recently a few of the features (such as editing and trimming videos) that used to be available on the free plan are now only available on the paid plan. Still, it’s an easy to use, intuitive tool with free storage of 25 videos. Recently, someone suggested Descript so I’ll definitely check that out too. It looks like they offer a lot of cool tooling in their free plan. If you have any other tools that you like, please share them below in the comments!
What should I talk about in the video?
What worked for me is to have a basic script which I edited for each application. Obviously that’s more work than one standard video, however the personal touch makes it special. You can even address the hiring manager by their name if you like, to make it even more personal. On Loom’s paid plan there is a way to personalise each video with AI. Descript will allow you to rewrite the transcript and you could do it this way. It all depends on your script and the tools you use.
It will definitely take a bit more time in the beginning; I spent a day on the first script, getting to know Loom and recording the video. The later ones I did took me 20 minutes from preparation to a video link that’s ready to go. That still seems like a big commitment, but the results were worth it for me. You’ll also master your script better over time, so that it becomes more natural. Don’t be discouraged when it’s hard in the beginning, it will definitely get easier.
My script was basically a short-form cover letter:
I’d introduce myself and share some of my superpowers and how they contribute to the role/company
I’d talk about why I’m interested in the role/company
I’d wrap up with “Looking forward to meeting you soon”
You can talk about many things of course, as long as it’s relevant for the role. My script would be very conversational style writing, because I wanted to be able to say it naturally in front of the camera. I avoid very long and complex words and keep my sentences as short as possible. This makes it easier for me to tell my story. I know this all sounds very abstract. Hang in there a bit longer, though. If you made it this far, I’ve got a practical example coming up.
How to prepare
I usually draft the script and then practise a few times reading to see if the story flows and if I trip over certain words. In these practice rounds I also check if I need extra punctuation or spacing to make it easier to read when recording. Lastly, I time myself when reading the script. My recommendation for the length of the video is maximum 1:30 minutes (that’s about 140-200 words). You’ll lose people’s attention after that, so any longer content is a waste.
To make it easier, I've created a How-To video so you can see what I’m looking at before recording my video. I’ll show you exactly how I set it up and how to do the recording.
See here a BTS photo of my setup; my kitchen is the brightest room in the house which is ideal for recording videos.
An example
It would only be fair if I shared an example of what a video of mine looks like. Everyone has their own style, so please take this as inspiration only. It’s most important that the video shows the authentic you.
For the purposes of this newsletter I drafted an illustrative job description with the script I use, so you can also see how I address the different key requirements from the JD in my video.
It took me four takes to get it right. I stumbled over a few words in the first take, then I had to cough mid-way and then I got stuck towards the end pausing awkwardly for too long. The fourth time I made it to the end without any major hiccups and I was satisfied with the result. Let me know what you think!
I hate videos of myself
I know, so did I. Insecurities like “Does my voice really sound like that?” and “Why do I move my hands so awkwardly?” are all part of it. Find someone whose opinion you value and let them be the judge, ask for honest and constructive feedback. Our inner critic is way too harsh, especially when starting out.
Practice helps in getting used to seeing yourself on screen. If it’s the first time you’re making videos of yourself you may want to try the following approach:
Give yourself three takes to just record the videos. Don’t review them straight away.
Instead review them a few hours later or even the next day and watch them two times each.
The first time you’ll focus on the sound; how is your vocal variety? Are you comfortable pronouncing all the words? Are you using many filler words?
The second time you’ll focus on the images; how are your gestures? Are you centred in the screen? Are you fidgeting or distracting the audience in a different way?
After this assessment, take your learnings to the next stage and record the video again. Try to keep in mind what you saw yourself doing in the first takes: keep what went well and try to improve what could be better.
For more personalised help, have a look on my website sheisbrava.com to see how we can work together.
What are strategies that have worked for you? Share them in the comments!
If you’ve been struggling to get noticed on this hot job market, I hope these suggestions will help you. Or perhaps you know someone who could benefit from them, please send this newsletter their way!
What’s next
In part 3 of my series, Winning in a Competitive Job Market, I’ll share the strategies I used to feel more confident in the interview stage.
You can read part 1 on building your (online) brand here:
Wow! I have never thought about the video idea, I should definitely put it into use sometime! Also, the Master Cv is a great idea, I too have one and its extremely helpful.
Great post as always