Greetings to all; I'm Career Engineer Mücahit Sakar. Today, I will tell you 3 things to consider before preparing a resume. Before starting the video, you can support us for more videos by liking this video and subscribing to our channel. Before mentioning these three items, I would like to add a warning footnote, friends: these three items will be valid for you if you fulfill certain criteria. In other words, these three items are not features that bring you work on their own; It will complement the elements that bring the job. If I had to make this sentence concrete; For example, let's say a company job posting requires 5 years of experience.
If you do not have 5 years of experience, fulfilling these three items will not work because they are not the priority of the company at the moment. But if you have 5 years of experience, these three items will make it easier for you to gain an edge over other competitors. 1) COVER LETTER The first required element is the motivation letter. The important thing in this article is that you should make your resume feel personalized. You need to show each company you apply to that you really want them. You must show that you know (or are related to) the industry they are in.
So why should you do this? Because; every company prioritizes people who fit in with their story. Every company in every industry. Likewise, all institutions and organizations. The opinion of the expert in Human Resources is: “The person who comes here should adapt to our culture and do his job as a part of the chain”. Sometimes, there may be additional requests such as "add a new layer to our system", but this can also happen after adapting to the current culture of the company.
It may be difficult for you to learn the structure of the companies while preparing a job application, but the websites of the companies often give us some ideas on this subject. Of course, I exclude SME companies that do not have many names on the internet, as a result, the information source about them in digital channels can be low. At that point, you can develop sector-based solutions. In other words, it's like writing a sector-specific motivation letter, not company-specific, and naming it separately for each company. Especially friends who are actively looking for a job complain about this: “Well, sir, I am sending applications to dozens of companies. Am I going to write a motivation letter for each of them separately?” Actually no, you won't write letters for each of them separately, but you will pretend to be. It's not a lie, it's the power to market your knowledge.
At this point, you can define 5-6 different target groups according to the sector of the company and the size of the company. Dividing companies into three as corporate, SME and start-up; When you distribute them in several sectors, you come across 7-8 different structures. In other words, you are expected to write 7-8 motivation letters, but you will not write them from the beginning. There will be a certain template,
you will revise headlines such as the size of the company and the future of the industry. This will be completed in 3-4 hours if it takes a maximum of half an hour for each. I think for sure, it's worth the time investment in yourself.
Another advantage of such letters is that; While preparing motivation letters, you will feel better about which sector and which size companies you are closer to. For example, when I got a job at an SME company after my graduation, I made the right decision thanks to these motivation letters. Because while preparing letters for corporate companies and start-ups, I realized that my own expectations and abilities are more inclined for idealistic SMEs. This allowed me to make the right decision at the beginning of my career.
In fact, it is a good experience to write not only a motivation letter, but in general, friends. This is not only for career management, but also for personal development. 2) REFERENCES The second important point we want to mention is references. I think one of the subjects that I value most in my life is networking. Not just in business life, just like the “writing” I just mentioned, this is a very valuable thing in both our business and personal lives.
There is even a saying that I love very much about it: “Network is your net worth.” For example, there are some companies that make most of their new hires through friends of existing staff. This is normal I think. Because you trust those employees, you have a good bond with them, and therefore you want to choose people you know can walk the same path. Having references that you trust in between will/inevitably affect your decision making. So what action can you take in this regard? What you have to do is use the references in between to your advantage. LinkedIn is one of the best channels for this. In fact,
we covered this issue in our video called Linkedin Strategy in 5 Steps. Yours; During the university student or recent graduate period, you need to add someone from almost every sector as a link. In this way, your chances of knowing one of those companies in your job applications increase greatly. Of course, this process does not proceed directly like this. People won't refer to you, or even care, most of the time, just because you added them as links years ago. You have to build that road first. So how will you do this? For example, send a message / e-mail to those links you added on special days. Birthdays, holidays etc.
Also, if they share a development on LinkedIn, do not miss your congratulatory messages; when they get a promotion, start a side job, or share a good news about their private life. In this way, you will have established a dialogue with all of your contacts, albeit at a basic level. You can use various tools for this, it may be good to automate this kind of work with low fees. Of course, this strategy is only part of the reference building process.
Content marketing is also important. Because you need to be able to establish small dialogues with some of these people. Think of it like a funnel. You will have a hello-hello level conversation with all your connections, and you will establish a deeper connection with some of them. For this, it is important that you share content periodically. It would be better if it is related
to your industry, otherwise there may be general personal development posts as well. As we continue to do this over time; You will have acquaintances working in hundreds of different companies. Thus, you will be able to benefit from them while applying to companies, and they will pass on different job opportunities to you over time. Of course, you have to do the same for them. Our goal here is not to simply rank the references. For example, you wrote the general manager of the place where you did your internship for those references? What will work? Especially, if the sector of the company you want to work with is not the same as the company you did your internship, this reference really doesn't matter.
Your references there must be compatible with the company you want to work for. In terms of sectoral or title. That's why a personalized resume is important. You need to do this with an end-to-end approach when marketing your knowledge to the company you will apply for. Experiences, references, course/certificates should all complement each other. You should not use irrelevant references in sector A and use them in sector B, because it will not contribute to you. If I were a human resources specialist, I would expect you to convince me
about my industry. For this, it is also important that your references write you a few sentences. Where did you meet, how does he evaluate you, what features do you bring to the fore. For this reason, it is necessary to see LinkedIn as a long-term investment.
As you turn the people you meet there into references over time, you will see that you know someone in almost every industry. Here, too, we often get a question like this: “Then, my previous references don't matter at all? The academics, the places I did my internship, the people I met in the social environment?” There may be benefits, but I do not think that including it in the CV will contribute much, I think I have a pragmatist point of view on this issue. So I'm utilitarian. Those references have nothing to do with the business structure of the company you are applying for. Therefore, they are not the people who can refer you to that job. You are a hard worker in your classes, so the professor who took your class wrote you a reference letter. This is a very good situation, but having your professor write
you a reference letter does not provide you with knowledge about the industry you are applying for. 3) SOCIAL MEDIA Our third and last item is social media. As you know, competition is much more in every field. There are probably dozens or even hundreds
of people applying for a job you applied for. Unfortunately, most of them are eliminated at the beginning. Especially large companies use algorithms in this regard, and if the algorithms cannot find the basic competencies, they already throw away those resumes. Among the remaining resumes, the human resources officer applies some filters.
Human resources officer or recruiter, this title may change depending on the structure of the company. For example, he looks at what you have done before; What kind of value proposition did you present for the companies you work for? In addition, social media is gaining importance. When I say social media, of course, I do not mean that you have shared beautiful photos. What do you share about work? Do you offer a business value proposition on social media? I `m talking about this. I think you should have 1-2 social media channels to market your work while you are still in the student / recent graduate period.
It doesn't matter which one; I think you should choose whichever you like to produce content more. In these channels; only the work you do, your comments on the market, your determinations etc. This channel will become your portfolio in the coming years. Behance is a good example of this portfolio. What is Behance? A catalog used by people
in departments such as Architecture, Graphic Design and Environmental Planning to showcase their projects. In this way, people can present their own showcases without trying to convince each company they go to, and companies can have a fore-sight about that candidate. The plus of social media according to Behance; “Discovery trading” is more prominent in social media. In other words, people related to your market can see your content while browsing social media and can offer you a job spontaneously without the need for your job posting.
This is our aim in the medium-long term. To be able to market our work to companies. Because friends, the information itself is not important anymore, believe me, it is not important at all. It's been 15 minutes since we started this recording, and in that 15 minutes, terabytes of data on each topic has been produced. What matters now is the power to market that information. So whatever your department is,
focus on the ways you can market that knowledge as well as the knowledge. I think Twitter is one of the best channels in this regard, but depending on your request, it can be Instagram or Tiktok. I would like to give an example to explain this subject a little more; Take, for example, a typical job interview. It takes between 20-30 minutes and the questions to be asked are clear.
“Why did you leave your last job, where do you see yourself in 5 years, talk about yourself etc” However, social media is unlimited. People who are curious about you can best review you and follow your opinions. When you try to express yourself in a short time, you will always be incomplete, social media prevents this. The human resources officer or company official who will hire you says: “Yes, this person really knew the industry. He
has a visionary approach and new ideas on this subject, let's work with this person”. At this point, I would like to expand on a part that I have briefly touched upon, because it is very valuable for you. In fact, you may receive offers from many places without your knowledge. Now, this is one of the new trends in the career world, friends. Now, the officials of many companies do the hiring directly and do not write on career sites etc. while doing this. It first started in the entertainment world and continues to find its way into more and more industries. Of course, this does not mean that; “The executives themselves have started recruiting, so there will be no need for career sites.”
As I mentioned at the beginning, the cake is much bigger now and it is not possible for us to run this cake with the materials at hand. There are many more companies, many more job postings. This market just needs new materials. Career sites will continue to operate, maybe even grow, but on the other hand, new generation recruiters will also take their share from this market.
At this point, your task is; using almost all channels on the road to success. Sometimes several of these paths can come together in the same journey. For example, when you go to a job interview, you can open a topic on your social media channels and increase your chances of getting that job. I say this because I've experienced something similar. The recruiter at a job interview I went to said that he was following the Career Hub Studio channel and was curious when he saw it on my resume; we talked a lot from there. He said that he thought the page was actually a team effort, and he was surprised when I said no, I'm on my own. Afterwards, there was no job for other reasons, but we had a good bond with that person, I think it was more productive than an average human resources officer interview.
Of course, one last point needs to be emphasized again; These items should be your thoughts after meeting the minimum expectations at the company, not before. For example, if the workplace is too far from you (and you are sensitive to distance), the other three items don't matter. Experience or something else, it doesn't matter. Your priority should be the main needs of that job posting.
This is what I'm going to say in general. If you have questions, comments, thoughts and/or criticisms about this subject, you can send them in the comment section. If you think that you are fed by the video, if this video has contributed something to you, you can support us by liking this video and subscribing to our channel. Moreover; If you have new topic suggestions, you can always send them as comments. Have a nice day, see you in the next videos.
2023-06-05