Used to be a recruiter and an employer branding consultant and it was such an eye opener. First thing is your CV. You have to get past the AI gatekeeper but there are some really good AI tools out there that will help you assess your CV and give you a score on what the AI will pick up. Then suggest ways section by section to get to 100% or as close. The other thing is, interview role playing! I am hit and miss in interviews so a friend and I will practice over and over and over again until I have perfected my answers but also have a bank of delay tactics to give myself a chance to get back on track or ready made questions for when my mind goes blank!
Flipping the interview back on the interviewer to get them to open about about what they love about the company, culture, their own career path, how you can add value to their team etc - anything that makes them talk about themselves and become human. Pick up little cues on what they are into and find common ground. They won’t realise that they have been yabbering on but think you’re a great person to talk to and want you on their team!
People always talk about candidate expectations being misaligned but some of my clients - wow. You would think they were offering a job to replace the King Charles based on their unrealistic expectations on what candidate they would find for salary offered. Best companies were the ones that knew their businesses or brands were not on the top of candidates list and they had to work harder to attract (and retain) candidates and far more respectful of the effort candidates put in as word gets around. Example is British American Tobacco. My favourite company to recruit for! Worst employer I’ve ever come across - L’Oriel.
Lastly - by the time you see a job post it’s probably half filled. So spend one day a week researching news etc of businesses which are growing or expanding etc. Find a name in the article, use free tools like RocketReach to find the work email of that contact and just drop them an email saying how interesting that all sounds and how you’d love to know how you can be part of that growth and what skills you can bring. Use RocketReach free credits to get the direct contact details of that name you find or use it to map out line managers and recruiters.
Never use the word ‘I’ on speculative email especially at the beginning. I get unsolicited job hunting emails of ‘me me me, I, I, I’ and they go into the junk bin. I don’t care about what they want. But If someone can feel my pain, and can suggest what they can bring to help me - I’m all ears!
It feels impossible but the “The Universe Is Full of Magical Things Patiently Waiting for Our Wits to Grow Sharper” - you got this!