How to get an Interview call?

There are 4 steps to get a job.

1. Network

2. Evaluate Yourself

3. Practise till it becomes your muscle memory

4. Perform
   

Now, once you are ready to apply for a job what works best lets go step by step

1. Network

Remember the online jobs might be outdated and not updated. The more advocates you have, the higher are the chances of them referring you to get an interview call.

Now how do you find contacts, if you are very new in the city and know no one at all?

One of the ways is to find positions you aspire to work in, connect with them. BUT, you don't connect with them by saying hi, please refer me. You connect with them on LinkedIn with a message to ask this :

“Hey, I am a student in MS in Electrical Engineering in San Jose State University and I wanted to learn more about what it is like to be working as an RnD engineer in an EDA company. I saw your profile and found it interesting. I was wondering if you can spare some time like 10 minutes to talk on the phone. I would love to know what your day looks like? What do you like about the job and If you can help me recommend what I should do to increase my skills relevant to the industry”

You break the ice and meet as many people as you can in student conferences, tech talks in your universities. But when you meet people, showcase to them that you are very curious to achieve your goals and want to learn whatever is required to achieve that.

Once you start building genuine connections and when people start to trust you, your capabilities. You will be the first one to come to their mind when they are aware about any openings. They would advocate for you to get a chance to be interviewed.

Also, there are many people in the world who genuinely want to help you if you ask for it. But out of a busy schedule, they might not be able to spare time. So think about their time and try to reach them out asking for a few minutes.

If they are ready to refer you for a job position, don't email someone do you know any job openings to refer me? Send them specific opening position details with a paragraph as the referer writing email to the recruiting manager to explain why you are relevant for that job. This will help the person who is referring you to directly forward your email. And when the task is so easy for them, they will get time out of their busy schedule as it's just a forward they need to do. Help someone who is referring you to get faster help.

2. Evaluate, Practise, Repeat

Let's talk about resumes. The first person to scan and select your resume might be the one who does not know about your field or domains. Not knowing acronyms and you writing some acronyms in your resume which are not in Job description will put the recruiter in the mind state that you don't have the skill and don't end up selecting your resume.

The best practises are:

Tailor your resume to be specific to the job position you apply to.

• It should look like this resume has been perfectly made for this position. If the job role asks for a specific role in "testing/verification" showing your skills and projects in development/design is less effective. If the job is for a sales person and you are showing your proud achievement in ads and marketing although it shows that you are a capable person, it also show you are not in the right domain.

Skills mirror to Job description

• When you see a Job Position with Skill A,B,C. Have your resume write skills in the same order. This will give a magical effect on the recruiter when he/she is trying to match your resume. When a person sees matches exactly as they expect their mind says “This resume is made for this position”. Also, if the job position has the full form of abbreviation (eg. Universal Verification Methodology) which is also called UVM. But a recruiter who might not know that UVM is Universal Verification Methodology and the job position has an abbreviation and you might have written skill name as its full form has high chance to get ignored as a recruiter might not know. So mirror the acronyms/full forms as in Job description.

Use Action Words to start your Project or experience description

• Eg : Sole project executor of, Responsible for, Designed and Synthesized….

• Try to write what value you brought out of that project or that job experience or responsibility you had.

Also, remember that your 1/3rd page of the resume should be interesting and should catch the attention of any recruiter. If that does, only then they will see further. So make sure you cover as much as you can precisely in 1/3rd.

Research says that women underestimate themselves when they apply for a job thinking they are underskilled as compared to what job openings say. So they hesitate to apply for a job which reduces their possibility of getting a call for an interview. Never do that. Keep applying, reaching out and working hard on yourself till you get it.

Since this is about making your best resume and evaluate continuously relentlessly networking and building your resume. Also, know what you say you know in your resume with more than 100% because in the interview that will matter the most. Getting a call has a 0% relation with cracking the interview. Keep an eye on our blogs for the 4th topic which is Performing in an interview.