Applying To Jobs is Like Online Dating

Don't get swiped left when applying to jobs or internships! Transcript: What can online dating teach us about applying to jobs? Learn how to get more right-swipes from employers on this episode of Zoom Out–The Career Center Podcast. Hi, my name is Nathan Wilson, Assistant Director of the Duke University Career Center. Not too long ago I was giving a presentation on the job search and I made a spur the moment connection between online dating and the actual job application process. At the time, I felt kind of silly, I was, however, amused by the number of blushing faces in the crowd. The more I thought about it them more it made perfect sense. From an evaluator's perspective they are actually almost the same thing. So if you are on one of these dating apps like Tinder or Bumble or something like that. The premise is basically the same. You're given a set of photos and a bio and then you swipe right for yes and left for no. You’ve also got a seemingly endless stream of potential partners meaning that you're not really going to get hung up on one profile or another. There are 1 million people right behind them so why get hyper focused on any one person. Well, it’s kind of the same for a hiring manager. Any job that's worth applying to will have a pretty significant number of applications… so if you provide materials that are sloppy or confusing, they aren’t going to take the time to figure it out. Chances are, they will move on to the dozens if not hundreds of other applicants right behind you applying for the same job. Think about it like this okay, in online dating, you’ve got your photos and your bio In the job search you got your resume and cover letter. Those are the parallels. If you think about it like that… Let’s take a look at some of the online dating mistakes that I found via Google search the lineup almost perfectly. Mistake number one your profile is too generic. Well sure, chances as there will be way more qualified applicants for position than there are openings. So how do you stand out? Let's say that there are 20 qualified applicants and they are only going to give three interviews and one offer. You will need something that'll set you apart from the rest. That could be an interesting cover letter. That could be the “Interests” section at the bottom of your resume. I'm a huge proponent of that. I think it makes sense cause they're not just evaluating future employees. They are also evaluating people who may and being friends. People that they have to spend significant amounts of time with on a daily basis. They want to like you. It's really easy to get lost in the shuffle if you don't stand out and your materials just like everybody else's. Number two, you haven't put your best face forward. This kind of touches on the importance of formatting in your cover letter but particularly in your resume. If it doesn't pass the “eye test” chances are, they won’t even take the time to read it. Right? If you can't make something that's visually pleasing for your resume and the formatting is inconsistent or sloppy, you’ve got a pretty tough selling convincing me that you’re detail oriented. In this case, if you know they're not going to give you too much time before they make that snap judgment you got to make sure that it looks good in the same way that for online dating. You might be the most attractive person on the planet but, number one, everybody's standards are different and, number two, let's say you're as close to objectively gorgeous as you could possibly be but all of your photos are dimly lit or let's say you're blinking in them or you have unflattering photos. Well they're not going to assume that those are just unflattering photos. They're gonna assume that that's the best representation of what you look like in real life and swipe as such. Number three, you are negative and this is an important thing to keep in mind okay especially on the cover letter. When you're expressing

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Applying To Jobs is Like Online Dating is an episode from ZOOM OUT–Duke Career Center Podcast by Duke Career Center.

This episode is 8:40 long.

This episode was published on Sep 18, 2018.

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