How to get the interview

Before even starting to think about how to interview well, you have to actually get the interview. Here is how I think about getting your foot in the door

Don't just submit your resume; contact someone!

"It's not what you know, it's who you know"

You probably won't get the interview by just submitting your resume

If you know someone there, get them to refer you

If you don't, go on LinkedIn and browse all 2nd degree connections

Ask your connections who know them to intro you to them to learn more about the company

If they oblige and intro, ask that person for a referral after you talk to them

Treat this as an informational interview to start with rather than asking for a favor, and go from there depending on how you feel about the company after hearing about it from them

If you don't know anyone at the company and have no 2nd degree connections, pick out some people who are junior or mid-level in the company, and any recruiter, and cold email them

Lots of resources online for how to find people's email addresses. It's usually their full name or first initial and last name, and then {company_name}.com

Briefly explain: your relevant experience, interest in the company/role, explicitly ask for a referral, and attach your resume

Resume tips

When I'm job hunting, I make custom resumes for every single company/role I'm vying for

I look at the job description for key phrases/words they're looking for and literally copy/paste them into my bespoke resume, with examples from my work experience to back it up

Most important thing by far is relevant experience

Most important thing for most companies is impact

Not what you shipped, not what tools or skills you leveraged, but the achieved outcomes

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Put metric success "grew X by Y" at the forefront

Explain with example projects/teams how that metric impact was realized, and your role in the whole thing

Include extracurriculars you've taken on in past roles to build up team culture (improving hiring, setting up processes to make team more effective, team morale events, etc.)

Secondary stuff

Name, number, email, LinkedIn at the top

Education at the bottom. Keep skills small if you have one

Keep the whole thing to one page

LinkedIn is more important; keep that up-to-date (with similar principles to above)

I barely hear of companies actually looking at cover letters, but for roles you REALLY want you may as well

Good forcing function to think deeply about why you want the job

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Check out mine⁠

if you need an example

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👉 Next up:
`Preparing for the interview`⁠
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How to get the interview

Don't just submit your resume; contact someone!

Resume tips​

👉 Next up: Preparing for the interview⁠⁠

Resume tips

👉 Next up:
`Preparing for the interview`⁠
⁠