#005 5 Touchpoints Every Job Seekers Must Know

Are you looking for a job change? If so, you must follow the five key touchpoints which I am going to talk about in this article, no matter what field you are in. Most of us know about them, but we tend to either forget or don’t pay attention to them, and that’s the reason you should keep reading this post till the end.

Touchpoint 1# Build your Resume and LinkedIn profile around your expertise

Your resume and a LinkedIn profile should match each other in terms of areas of expertise, companies you worked for, and duration you worked with those companies. I don’t mean that you copy-paste your resume to a LinkedIn profile; just make sure the high-level details resonate with each other.

Now as far as your resume goes, I would say, you should tweak your resume around the position you are applying for. Most recruiters or hiring managers don’t have time to look at your resume in detail. They just scan it really fast and decide in that moment whether to accept or decline your candidacy, so prioritizing your information is essential and you can do that in 2 simple ways.

First, mention your profession, job title or area of expertise somewhere in the header or in the first half of your resume. Second, if you have earned some job-related certifications, then place their logos in the header. Showcase your talent! This would grab recruiters attention really fast.

Next, talking about your LinkedIn profile, you must have a professional headshot and your specific skill set under the headline section. Personally speaking, these are the two things I always noticed first whenever I look at any candidate’s LinkedIn profile.

Touchpoint 2# Create content around your expertise over the LinkedIn or any other online platform related to your field

This not only levels up your knowledge base, but this also helps in building up your personal brand and credibility in the eyes of the recruiters, hiring managers and the people who are in your industry. And definitely, this would bring most job openings on your way.

Touchpoint 3# Networking

If you are applying for jobs only via job boards such as Monster, Naukri, Dice or Indeed or just LinkedIn adverts, you might be missing out a huge number of job opportunities which are either filled via referrals or are never published externally and because of that you need to diligently connect with and follow up regularly with people in your industry so that they keep you on top of their mind whenever a position opens.

Most importantly, if you have applied via LinkedIn job posting, check out who has posted the opening and connect with them via LinkedIn by sending out a personalized message to grab their attention. Just so you know, most of the mid-to-senior level positions are closed via networking and that’s the reason you should make networking, a daily routine.

Also, do connect and stay in touch with your former colleagues, as you never know when somebody that you used to work with two-three jobs ago might be just the person to get you connected to that next great opportunity.

In addition, join networking groups such as your skill specific meetup groups or LinkedIn groups where most recruiters post relevant jobs. To let you know, as a recruiter, I would prefer considering a candidate who has come via referral or networking as somebody has vouched for this person, and it makes the hiring process much faster.

Touchpoint 4# Virtual Interviews

As you all know, remote working is a new normal in this COVID era and, because of that, recruiters and technical interviewers would like to see if they are hiring the right candidate. So, never say no for a video call and be ready to show your ID proof if asked for.

Also, they check on your verbal and nonverbal communication, so let me walk you through with 7 basic and yet important things to follow.

(i) As you are not interviewing with the other person face-to-face, just make sure you look through your phone or laptop’s webcam for having a better eye contact.

(ii) Second, nod your head and smile occasionally to show you are engaging with them.

(iii) Sit up straight to show professionalism and confidence.

(iv) Put your cell phone in silent mode and turn off all your laptops apps or mute them to avoid any distractions.

(v) Ensue you have proper lighting and not sitting in dark and have a clean and a noise-free surrounding.

(vi) Set up early and give yourself some extra time in case you run into some technical issues; test out your hardware, such as microphone and webcam and also make sure an app where your interview is set up is already installed.

(vii) Last but not the least make yourself familiar with the app’s interface for chatting or sharing screen with an interviewer. It could be MS Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.

Touchpoint 5# SARL Technique

Most recruiters or hiring managers would like to see how your past actions are going to reflect on your future behavior under similar situations. For that, I would say always frame your interview answers using SARL technique, where S stands for Situation, A for Action, R for Results, and L for any learning.

You should always try to talk about actual situation that relates to the position you are applying for, what actions you took in that situation, or if you have never experienced such situation, then you have to tell what you would do if you were in that situation, then what result came out of your actions and learning you gained out of it.

Just so you know, I posted a detailed article on this where you can find some real-life examples too; you can check that out by clicking here.