Steve Mackay, Dean of Engineering at EIT and sister company, IDC Technologies enjoys writing his weekly blog including useful tips and current industry matters for his fellow engineering colleagues. With a loyal and expanding following base reaching over 600,000 people around the world, click here to read all of Steve’s blogs over at EIT’s sister company, IDC Technologies.
Digitally Hunting for an Engineering or Technology Job
Have you experienced the frustration and futility of searching and applying online for hundreds of jobs – particularly in the engineering and technology space? Perhaps, you feel that you are casting your resume into the abyss whenever you apply online.
Unhappily today, you often have to get your resume past an army of robots looking for keywords before handing over a select few resumes to a human recruiter to look at. Some firms are even proactively scanning the web looking for personnel with the perfect characteristics matching a particular job profile. Other strategies are to require you to upload a video to the web with you answering specific questions.
This is all making it extraordinarily difficult for you to actually talk to a human. And it makes it critical for you to follow the right steps in dealing with this plethora of technology so that you can gain an interview.
Predictably the first step is simple
This is for you to review the job description and ensure your resume is aligned with what the recruiter requires in terms of experience and qualifications in a measurable way.
This is to make it easy even for an orang utan to see that you are the perfect match for the job. This doesn’t mean that you must lie but you must put effort in to visualise what the job requires and align your resume with the job. Ensure that you use the relevant key words so that they get picked up by the robots doing the initial scan of resumes. Perhaps put in the acronyms relating to the hardware or software requirements.
Stay up-to-date at all times
Keep everything relating to your online career up to date. This means not only your resume but LinkedIn profile and other social media sites.
Smile for the Camera
Many interviews are conducted online and through Skype. Ensure you are 100% presentable and prepared for any interview. Whether it is demonstration of your sales or technical skills or simply as an interview.
Assess your Performance and Consider Alternative Strategies
If despite all this work; you are still hitting the black hole in terms of results – sit down and consider what you are doing. Get a colleague to assess your resume or presentation and make suggestions. Consider that you may be applying for jobs in an overtraded area where demand is low and supply huge.
Perhaps you should be using other strategies to gain your dream job in engineering – such as gaining more credentials or experience or joining an online discussion group in the topic area. Actively networking with others in the industry is a strategy which engineers tend to be less enthused with but which can work wonders for a job search.
Above all – persist and don’t give up. Ultimately your grit and determination will prevail in your job search.
Yours in engineering learning
Steve
Mackay’s Musings – 16th August’16 #613
780, 293 readers – www.eit.edu.au/cms/news/blog-steve-mackay
