Three of my Favorite Late-Game Job-Search Tips

Everyone, these days, knows the basics of a successful job search. If that's the case, how to you make sure that you get the job instead of the other guy who did everything right just like you? Well, aside from being more qualified, you can make yourself shine brighter than the rest of the competition. I've been reading through article after article looking for these little things that recruiters like to see, that not a whole lot of job seekers do, and I've picked up three very cool little points to talk about.

So, suppose you've already done your networking, and you've already submitted your resume to various recruiters. Next is the interview. It's game time, now. This is where you build the recruiters' interest in your own personal brand. Everyone's doing that, so here are some things you can do, that some people neglect.

An article was recently posted on New Grad Life listing off some various job hunting tips which we should all make ourselves aware of. While the tips are great, and very useful, only a single, brief piece of advice stands out to me. The article talks about following up, and how important it is. That's nice, but we should all know about this already. The big qualifier in that part of the article, though, is the emphasis on adding value to your follow-up call. The "Hi, I'm just calling to check up..."  situation seems all too common and mostly fruitless. Add a little value that can show the company you're still interested, and still doing your homework, and you'll be surprised how quickly they start to notice.

Though it's a good idea to follow up after your interview, you should first send a thank you note - ideally within the first 24 hours after the interview itself. Traditionally, these would be very formal letters mailed via the post, but these days that isn't necessary, and could even be detrimental. According to a short list of interviewing tips at Job Bound, only 25% of job seekers even bother to send a thank you note. Add the fact that positions need to be filled quickly, sending a thank you note via post may result in the letter not being received on time. The quickest way to express your thanks is by email! So, do yourself a favor and drop the recruiter a brief email after the interview to thank them for their time and consideration.

The last tip I found that I like is rather subjective. It specifically applies to phone interviews, but can be easily adapted to much more than that. Career Rocketeer says, "Don't Say Hello". The idea behind the article is that, usually, your phone interview will be scheduled just as a normal interview, and that you should be ready to answer the call professionally when it comes in. We won't all get phone interviews, but it's highly likely that we'll make some sort of contact via phone call with someone important in your job hunting process. These days, we commonly use cell-phones which have caller-id, or we have caller-id on our land-lines. If you've submitted your resume to anyone, you should always answer calls from unfamiliar numbers with "Hello, [first, last name] speaking." or something to that extent. This way, the awkward pauses depicted in "Don't Say Hello" will be avoided.

You can never go wrong if you adopt the above tips into your practice. They show the recruiters you're responsible as a candidate, and that's what they like to see.