How to Get Any Job You Want
Are you tired of getting dead end phone calls from recruiters that don’t go anywhere?
In this blog post I, Justin Estrada going to give you the tools to succeed and the ability to ‘get any job you want.’ These tips I share with you are no joke and our responsible for my success as a software developer.
I’m going to give you the secrets to make your resume stand out above the rest. This resume will get your foot in the door with recruits. The knowledge I give you will impress your future employer so much that they will believe that not hiring you will actually cost them money. What’s most important is you’ll learn the mindset of how to dominate a room full of CEO’s and lead developers. And learn the right questions to ask your future employer.
Make Your Resume Stand Out
So many people have black and white boring resumes that could be amazing if they just spend the extra time to make their resume ‘shout excellence’.
“Making your resume ‘shout excellence’ instantly places resume at the top of the hiring stack.” ~ Justin Estrada
You can view my personal resume below or you can view it here. My resume would get complimented all the time simple because, it’s different.
So how do you make your resume stand out? Making your resume stand out is easy with some simple Photoshop manipulation.
Basic Photoshop skills are essential for being valuable in today’s marketplace as a developer. You can learn basic Photoshop skills after a couple hours on YouTube. If you don’t want to learn basic Photoshop skills you can pay someone $20 to create your resume, either way your time and cash investment will go a long way when you get that $100,000 salary career job.
Fiverr is a great affordable place to hire a Photoshop wizard.
So I’m sure you’re asking yourself where do you get a resume template like mine? I recommend Graphic River for resume templates ranging from $5 – 12. Here are some resume content tips you should keep in mind when manipulating your resume from Graphic River.
- Short bio that describes the value you bring. Bonus tip: make your short bio inspiring. Put yourself in your employers shoes, would you want to hire this person?
- Include a website URL to your online portfolio. If you don’t have an online portfolio, get on that. An online portfolio will save you an immense amount of time when you are explaining your work to others.
- References that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. You don’t want your future employer to call the restaurant manager you worked for back in high school, no matter how much they liked you, it’ just isn’t relevant. Bonus tip: list only business founders on your resume. This makes you appear like a trustworthy person who deserves a seat at the big boy table.
- Adjust the professional skills on your resume according to the job you’re applying for.
- List only relevant jobs. Your future employer does not care about the time you worked at Burger King.
- List only relevant education. In the beautiful world of software developers real world projects are more impressive than education. Your employer does not care what high school you went to, they want to see real world projects where you applied your knowledge.
Contacting the Right Employers
Hired and Indeed and other job markets are great for getting an insight into what skills today’s job market is looking for. However, since your resume in an a sea of other resumes your talent could potentially go unnoticed. Sometimes a resume could be on these sites for months without gaining any acknowledgement. Plus waiting around passively for a job, is not something I encourage. You will get numb to the process and lose hope.
You need a job today!
So let’s talk tactics on acquiring a job immediately.
I also want to educate you as to why recruiting agencies aren’t your best bet. Even though Creative Circle (a recruiting agency) helped me get my first salary developer job. The reason you don’t want to use recruiters even it can be helped is because employers DONT want to hire you through a recruiter. This is because employers have to pay an additional 15-20% to the recruiter on top of the base salary they would pay someone.
Business Meeting
So let’s talk tactics on becoming hyper focused on acquiring the job you desire.
Locate all the software companies that make sense logistically and create a list. Navigate to their company contact, career or hiring page. Open a text editor and create a 1 – 3 paragraph pitch where you sell yourself. Include your online portfolio and attach your resume. (Pro Tip: Sometimes you can’t attach a resume in contact forms, so linking to an online resume is smart.) Copy and paste this amazing pitch and send your message to the companies you desire to work for. Remember to tell your future employer, why you are valuable and what you will do to improve their company.
On your list next to each company take notes on what companies have responded and which companies haven’t. It’s crucial to send follow up emails to the companies that have yet to respond. They key here is to continually be seen and get noticed.
I currently work at Taylor Digital a software company two blocks away from my home in San Clemente, CA. I had sent Taylor Digital four emails before I got on the phone with the operations officer.
Be persistent you will see results.
Copy and Pasting your Pitch, remember to tailor the pitch to each new company.
Do The Basics
These are the obvious tips that any basic blog will give you. Show up ten minutes early and account for potential traffic. Dress professional with a traditional, simple work attire. A white long sleeves shirt and black tie are perfect, you want your work to speak for you not your clothes. Don’t wear anything flashy, in fact leave your expensive watch at home. Don’t distract your future employer from what matters, your work. Be respectful and no profanity, ever.
For everyone that’s already on top of that, save the congratulations. Because that’s common sense we should of learned in grade school, but occasionally it seems common sense is not so common anymore.
Moving on…
Now for the Absolute Killer
This is the #1 secret to my success in job interviews and client meetings. I always show up prepared with a binder full of gold!
Take beautiful screenshots of your digital work, crop them to 8.5″ inches by 11″ inches for perfect paper formatting. Then go to your nearest office supply store. Get a binder and put your printed screenshots in paper protectors.
Pro Tip: Now for the cherry on top. Print out your future employers company logo and place it in the front of the binder. I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this and is completely original. Utilize this binder and impress everyone you give it to.
To Be Continued …
Woah… Just realizing that this would be a lot of information if I read this blog post for the first time.
So lets discuss more topics on capturing your career and resume, interview and branding tactics in Part Two.
Part Two
Part Two of Capturing The Developer Career of Your Dreams will cover:
- Dominate A Room Mindset
- Important Interview Questions
- Expert Reading Material
- More…
I Justin Estrada a.k.a MyDigitalSauce am extremely happy to share my knowledge with you. I believe that this blog post is one of my better posts. In this blog post you learned how to build a powerful resume, hyper focus on the job you want, dominate a room and arrive at an interview confident in your abilities.
When you apply these tools of success properly you will succeed. When you get the job, comment below to tell me about your success, because I want to hear about it!
I also want to hear all your critics, objections or questions, so please comment below.