Hi,
I am looking for a remote senior software engineer position. Most of my career I have been using connections to move from one job to another but this time I haven’t had the luck, so I am mostly blindly applying through LinkedIn.
I know the general tips but I would like to get some more specific tips to improve my chances.
How can I make my CV stand out? I feel I am getting rejected by positions that are way below my qualifications. I have wondered if I should be updating my CV according to the stack of the position I am applying for. Throughout my career I have focused on building transfarable skills and as a result I have worked with a wide variety of technologies and it feels like I am being penalized for that.
Are there any job boards that may be better than LinkedIn? I am tired of skimming through ads about fintech and AI positions. I am not interested in those and I would prefer to work somewhere that I genuinely I am contributing something in the world. Also, I would be interested on job boards on the Fediverse, especially if it meant that my resume is read by humans and not machines.
How can I avoid time wasters? I had applied to Canonical, after 8 interviews and a bunch of offline steps, I was rejected. While the interviews were fun, I feel I have wasted a lot of time and energy for a someone that was not genuinely interested in hiring.
Anything else I should be paying attention to?
As @candyman337@sh.itjust.works said, use a recruiter/agency. Post your CV to indeed and reed. It depends also where you are, in EU the job boards are different than US I guess. Speaking of LinkedIn, have you posted a message saying “hello world, I’m open to work and I’ve experience at this $stuff”, and then ask your friends to share it. I got a couple of contacts that way.
Also, look for a resume builder/parser. Quick search gave me https://www.open-resume.com/ https://noted.lol/open-resume/
Pretty much everyone uses a CV parser when you apply, so if your is not formatted properly it’s properly one of the reasons you get rejected. Another reason is that probably they recognize you are above what they need, so they know that a) you’d be expensive and b) probably get bored fast and leave. Put stuff you have experience with, specifying what your experience is, what your contributions were to the project etc. Saying “5 years of experience on $language” is not very meaningful. Writing “I created a Perl program to import data from Word docs to a MySQL DB, optimizing the code to use no explicit variables” (true story btw) is better. Or most likely “worked on $project for $industry, implementing $modules and enforcing $best_practice, collaborating with the wider team and helping mentoring other junior developers”. Don’t forget to mention non-technical skills. Companies look for someone whom is nice to work with more than someone who knows everything. A guru that alienates people is less worthy than someone that maybe don’t know everything (and admits it) but can talk to others.
Re: time wasters. Holy shit 8 round of interviews! Even MS and AWS are less than that! MS was the biggest in my experience with 5 (but tbh it was all in a day, so not a horrible drawn out process, just different people). But you can ask at the beginning when speaking with the hiring manager what’s the process, and you can decide if it’s something you want to spend time on or nah.
Best of luck and don’t be discouraged! I had a 3 months dry spell once, applying every day to multiple roles and being rejected. It’s part of the game I’m afraid. Venting helps. Not getting a job immediately is not a failure in your part.
Best of luck!