"Decide" a reservation or a postponement, kid, or go where there are a lot of vacancies...". What to do if the job search process has dragged on for months - advice for IT professionals from IT professionals

«I see a lot of posts: ‘I can’t find a job for X months.’ Over the past 4 years, I think most of us have gone through a job search,» wrote Serhiy Babayev.

To his question, Babayev himself gave the following answer: «In my opinion, the main thing is to create a flow. Don’t wait for a perfect vacancy or a „100% match“. Send out resumes for all possible positions. DOU and Djinni are great, but they are already overheated. Use all available platforms (their list will easily be suggested to you by the „well-known assistant“). Don’t be afraid to send, even if you don’t know 1–2 technologies from the list. You can learn in the process. The important thing is to get a contact, a conversation, a chance.»

What do IT specialists advise?

» Don’t listen to people who haven’t encountered searches in the last 3-5 years. They are naturally arrogant crabs (mostly). I came across a guy on the way who literally said: 'what’s the point of looking for that job, you find 1-2 American customers and work',» Senior iOS & macOS Software Engineer Ihor Malovany wrote in the comments.

» Develop your own brand of specialist. This will always work in your favor,» answered UX/UI designer Svitlana Naumenko.

«The most common problem of such people (I’m not saying that everyone has it, but it’s common) is a poorly filled out LinkedIn profile. And it turns out that the first thing that catches your eye on the page are posts of despair, not how valuable the employee is,» added Senior Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Yaroslava Hrychanenko.

» Leave a positive impression of yourself at previous places so that there is a constant flow of offers and even if you are not currently looking, communicate politely,» — Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Systems Vadim Sviridov.

» My advice is to start tagging and writing to recruiters or other responsible persons yourself, don’t wait for them to answer you, be a little more persistent,» — Senior Frontend Developer Valeriy Prymacok.

«They wrote about contacting recruiters — I agree, it always helps, you can even write to recruiters of companies you like in vain. Also, be critical of your CV, ask ChatGPT. Track your feedback in the table, if, for example, 5-10 ignores in a row, it means you need to change your CV or cover letter (we always write it separately for each vacancy). Job search should be a comprehensive process.
And another bonus: if you found a vacancy on Dow, you were redirected to the company’s website and immediately asked what salary you expect, don’t rush. Try to find this vacancy on Genie and play with your settings there to determine what kind of fork they actually have. It worked in about 30% of cases,» — Middle QA Engineer Maria Kalkatina.

«Work comprehensively: CV, LinkedIn, job platforms, directly on company websites. Your data should be synchronous (for example, use the same profile photo in CV, LinkedIn and on search platforms) and contacts should be available. Responding to the vacancy (where it is posted) and additionally writing to the recruiter with work contacts increases the chances of your candidacy being considered,» — Backend developer Alla Kaplya.

«1. A high-quality CV, short and to the point. 2. Don’t send it to all 100 companies at once, but, for example, to 10 every week. 3. Be sure to prepare for the interview: theory, questions, presentation of experience. 4. Understand that everything is OK with you, it’s just difficult right now. And in every „no“ see that you can improve and learn in parallel,» — Manual QA Engineer Marina Polska.

«» Decide «on reservation or postponement, kid, or go where there are a lot of vacancies…»,» advised QA Engineer Yevhen Skubytsky.

» I’ve been out of work for X months, and my advice would be to constantly attend courses, conferences, and get-togethers, and not just sit at home because of Covid or the TCC! XYZ, do everything possible or not possible, and develop career opportunities, you can’t sit at home and wait for everything to pass… it won’t pass, it will get worse…», — Product Designer Product Designer.

Tips from HR, recruiters and career consultants

» Analyze your values. Look for a place where you can really benefit and see the results of your contribution. When the focus shifts to this, the right position will definitely be found,» wrote HR Valeria Zhuravlyova.

» Write to former colleagues, clients, and managers asking if they have any open positions right now. I often recommend this at career consultations and see that people are shy about asking. But if you had good cooperation, then why not? If you are recommended, your chances of getting a job increase significantly. And in some companies, your colleague will even be paid a bonus for such a recommendation,» — career consultant Olga Sadula.

» Do not engage in mass mailing. Adapt your CV to the focus and requirements of each vacancy, send 10, not 100, but specific ones, where your skills most closely match the vacancy description. Monitor constantly, and if possible, apply for fresh ones on different platforms, and review the LinkedIn feed with recruiters' posts, and if there are relevant posts, write directly,» — Technical Recruiter Inna Drozdenko.

» Always ask for a detailed answer as to why you were rejected. And not through the wording «explain», but through gratitude and «this will help me become better»,» — HR manager Viktoriya Svishch.

» Tell your friends at a picnic, old acquaintances you met on the street that you are looking for a job, write posts on Li, Instagram (make a page, for example), Facebook, threads, new acquaintances — don’t be shy about telling them that you are looking. And all this together and simultaneously with active searches on Li, Djinni, DOU,» — Technical Recruiter Dmytro Bravchuk.

» If you have information about which recruiter is running the vacancy, write to him in a private message. There is a good chance that your CV will be considered as a priority,» — IT Recruiter Margarita Nariauskaite.