A Benche's Perspective

This continuation jumps to the latter part of the title (also the part that doesn’t fit with the rest of the crowd) – job hunting.

I’ve been job hunting the past couple weeks and if you’ve been through the process before, you’ll know that it’s absolutely grueling and mentally draining. It’s not easy getting the job that aligns with what you’re passionate towards – not in Vancouver at least. If you’re one to want “a job”, there are tons of options. If you’re one to want “the job”, well, you’re dancing with an entirely different beast.

I’ve tried many different techniques and approaches when it comes to job hunting and I can break it down into three stages: Preparation, The Hunt, and The Dance.

I’ll highlight a few learnings that I’ve gained through my experiences. Depending on which stage you’re at, you can skip to it and only read that part. Just a friendly disclaimer, don’t bash at me if these were things you already know (this just means you’re well on your way).

Alright, here we go!

Preparation

1. Build a resume that stands out

The way I see it, your resume is an extension of yourself. It may be the first thing that people see with your name on it – might as well make it count! Here are some things you should keep in mind when building/editing/revamping your resume:

Tailor your resume to the industry/positions you apply to. For example, if you’re apply to a customer-facing role, you may want to change “Work Experience” to “Customer Relations Experience” (given that you have experience in that)

Showcase quantitative results if applicable. When you write about the things you have done, try adding in some tangible results – it’s always nice to know what impact you had at the end of the day

Cut, cut, cut. Don’t write paragraphs. Keep things short and sweet and make every word count. The more your resume looks like an essay, the less it appeals to anyone (including yourself)

Add some colour. I’m not talking about neon green or smearing the entire rainbow onto your resume. If you pair the black with one other colour, it makes all the difference (especially when you use it as a hierarchical tool – e.g. headers vs content). One thing to note is that the colour you choose should be visible when your resume is printed out in black and white

Yes, it’ll take time, but trust me.. it’s worth it when people print out your resume and start telling their coworkers how cool your resume looks. And yes, that does happen.

2. Social Media Audit

Apparently a lot of organizations now do a social media audit on their candidates. This means they’re out to stalk your social media accounts and checking if you have some “unspoken” habits that they might not be a fan of *cough* hard-core partying photos *cough*. Just make sure that your social media presence is relatively professional and that you’d like to hire yourself if you were an employer. I’m practically a hermit, so I have nothing to worry about.

3. LinkedIn can be and will be your best friend

Make sure your LinkedIn is up to date! Why? First, people will likely check out your LinkedIn. Second, you can also easily apply for jobs via LinkedIn! If you don’t have a profile – what are you waiting for?!

4. The infamous cover letter is still a thing

For some (and when I say “some”, I mean most) applications, they’ll request that you add a cover letter. I have heard, seen, and experienced myself how the moment a cover letter is needed, people just move on to the next opportunity. Again, this is probably the one thing that most people dread about job hunting. The tip I have for you is to build out a cover letter that is tailored to the positions you’re applying for and you can interchange most of the information to make it applicable to another organization (e.g. company name, position name, etc.)

The Hunt

1. A coffee chat is the best ice breaker

If you’re looking to knock on a door (apply to a job), the best way isn’t to stuff a flyer (your resume) at the mailbox – although it does work sometimes, it’s always nice to start with a coffee chat.

I’d suggest that you email a point-of-contact (anyone from the organization that has some relation to the department/position you’re looking to apply for) and ask politely for a coffee chat! The coffee chat isn’t for you to pitch yourself, but rather for you to ask questions and get to know the organization a bit more (who knows, maybe it turns out that it’s not what you expected). Not to mention, you’ll have a chance to connect with someone from that organization! Having coffee is the best way to remove yourself from “the hunt” and focus more on genuinely connecting with another human being (ironic that I called this stage “The Hunt”).

2. Reach out to your network

People generally like to help one another. If you reach out to a few close friends or mentors you’ve had and let them know you’re in the job market, chances are, they may have someone to connect you to or an opportunity they’d refer you to! I’m guilty of not doing this one because I always feel like “I need to do this on my own”, but reality is, a lot of careers start from a simple referral. I’ve began to lean on others for support and I always find a way to give back to them to show my appreciation. If anything, it helps strengthen the relationship between you and them.

3. Sit your butt down & just apply for it

Applying for jobs is an extremely time-consuming process, but it has to be done. Chances are, you’ll hear back from 5-10% of jobs you apply for (if you’re lucky). If you’re aiming for quality > quantity, you might not get anywhere.. so the key thing that I found is to sit my bum down at a coffee shop and apply, apply, apply. Any lead is better than no lead and once you start hearing back, it’s a giant ego boost that’ll keep you fuelled to keep applying. Even when I have leads, I am constantly apply because that’s my way of keeping options open. Nothing is certain until you put ink on the parchment.

The Dance

1. Bring your best shoes, socks, and everything above

In other words, bring extra copies of your resume (printed in colour on some standard/good paper) and other documents that you feel would help make a great impression. I’ve been to interviews where the interviewers had printed out my resume, but it was in black and white and double-sided. The moment I see that, I pretend I didn’t see it and proceed with offering my resume that I printed myself… in colour, single-sided, ready to rock n’ roll. They always appreciate it! If you have documents of work you’ve done and are extremely proud of, bring them too. If given the opportunity during your interview, whip it out – it’ll impress anyone.

2. Show your love, passion, and everything in-between

You applied to this position and organization for a reason. When you’re dancing with your potential employer, make sure you show them all your moves. Be genuine about it and make sure they know that you’re going to be the best fit for the position (at least from a cultural and passion-perspective). Most companies now look for cultural fit more than anything, so do showcase what tangibles you bring to the table, but also share the intangibles that they can’t get from another candidate.

3. Don’t be afraid to follow up and thank them for their time

I’ve once had 25 email interactions within a single thread with the Head Recruiter of a potential employer (we’ve had more threads before this one). If you’re worried that you may have sent too many emails, think again.

My rule of thumb is to always email the person that interviewed you a day or two after to thank them for their time and add a little bit more so that they have a great impression of you. You’d be surprised how many people don’t do this and just wait around for the next steps. Remember, small gestures add up.

Wrap-up

Everyone approaches the entire job hunting journey a bit different. Find out what works for you and stick to things that work. The things I highlighted above are things that have worked for me and I hope you were able to take a thing or two away and make it your own.

At the end of the day, to be the cheesy person I am, I understand that hunting for that ideal job isn’t easy, but “never give up something that you really want”.

Cheers,

Fact is, I don’t eat breakfast. It’s not that I don’t like breakfast, it’s because I’ve been traumatized as a kid.

You see, my mom forced me to eat breakfast when I was around 7-8 years old. It consisted of warm (it was piping hot) milk that had an egg in there.. (seriously.. it was really odd for a westernized asian kid to adopt).

+

Like any obedient asian child, I gulped it down while squeezing my nose as to think it would help reduce the pain and suffering my taste buds had to go through (alright, I will admit, it kinda helps a tad).

After that, I grabbed my knapsack (who uses this word these days..) and headed off to good ol’ 12th Avenue Elementary.

I went through my regular school routine, “paid attention” to the teacher, nodded my head at every english sentence thrown at me, and went about my day. About 30 minutes before lunch, it happened...

I wasn’t feeling so good. My stomach was angrily rumbling. It felt like a Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather rematch in there with an audience large enough to break the world record for screams, yells, and cursing. A split second later, I found myself running to the closest garbage bin and it all came streaming out.

Yep. I threw up right before lunch time... my favourite time of the day!! It was a sad, sad day.

The teacher saw that I had tossed my head into the garbage bin and immediately came to my rescue. She took care of me and made sure all the awful egg-infused milk was out of my system. Next thing I knew, I was in the principle’s car heading home.

Ever since that day.. breakfast was crossed off my list of daily meals. Yes, it’s unhealthy, but hey.. If you experienced what I experienced, you would understand.

I think I can count with a single hand how many times I eat breakfast in a month. #truestory

We started strong in Istanbul. I coming from Europe and Ruben arriving from SE Asia. It was the perfect meeting point because Istanbul had a “European” and “Asian” side.

And of course, knowing Ruben, he dives straight into the sweets and forces me to join in with him because he didn’t want to feel like a fatty. 

And you know, for someone that doesn’t eat sweets much.. the sugar crash can be deadly sometimes. You took a lot of selfies while I passed out for a bit... but that’s okay..

...Cause as your best friend, I always find a way to get back at ya.

For some reason, that picture of you passed out reminds me of a fish on a cutting board..

As best friends, we’ve been through thick and thin. Both literally and figuratively. I’ll still remember that time when you dared both of us to eat a whole corn leaf... and it totally backfired on you after 15 minutes of chewing.

And the time we made it to the top! Although the top was only about 63m above ground.. #startedfromthebottom #thatwasquick

For some reason, I kept calling us, “we Asians”, when we talk to people. You were a champ though, as you clearly played your part and picked up some Asian picture taking skills - that was a good shot btw. 

And also the good and bad times too.. Being addicted to these street mussels in Instabul. I swear, they put crack in that. From living the good life, to scrapping for coins to see how much we had left for food near the end... good thing we found a few Liras for one last mussel.. We chose this over an actual meal #thatwasamistake

Then making our way to Athens, the first European city you set foot on. Funny enough, by the time we left, the Greece crisis began... #itsnotourfault

We sped our way through Santorini at a whopping 40km/h and never looked back, well, only to see if anyone was tailgating us cause we were holding up traffic half the time.. Man, I told you to reduce your Coca Cola and ice cream consumption.. #rubensfavouritedrink #cocacola

And remember the time you tried to tell this poor dog that you were his father? Clearly he was not impressed. And I’m pretty sure that’s not the right way to carry him.. #shitrubendoes

Regardless of the things you do, you’re a great bud and I wanted to share that to the world. The best I was able to do in Barcelona was make you a wallpaper on a iPhone 6 at the Apple store. You’ll be famous one day - no need to thank me. #lotsofpeoplewerethere #guerillamarketing

Being my best bud, you’ve endured through quite a bit, which includes the corn challenge that I brilliantly came up with. It wasn’t too bad though, 36 hours of corn-only diet. I bet you loved it.

Then again... it probably left you with very little energy...

Cause you ended up sleeping everywhere!!!

EVERYWHERE!

Thank god you tried to force yourself to puke it back out to make room for a normal diet. It’s okay Ruben, you can trust me with your secret that you’re bulimic. #icankeepsecrets

And when no one wants to sit around you while you talk about Silicon Valley or HTML+CSS or Web Analytics or anything and everything to do with tech... You can be assured that I’ll be standing at a distance taking pictures #thatswhatbestfriendsdo

Arriving in Porto, we shared our first bottle of Port wine together. Little did we know that after drinking the bottle, we were too tired to go out.. #fail #wereallytried

So instead of learning from our mistake, we kept the wine coming... to be fair, it was really good wine #wheninporto

...and of course, we do things we may regret. It was a lot of fun though!

Yeah... disclaimer.. don’t feed Ruben too much wine. It gets a little disturbing. #yourflyisopen

But like any best friend.. 

We do stupid things together.

I’m glad we didn’t kill each other in the month that we spent seeing each other every-single-day. On the flip side, I think it reinforced the fact that we are indeed best friends because we’re willing to compensate for one another, willing to try new things together, and willing to dive into the unknown together. I am really glad to have you in my life.

Happy 24th Birthday Ruben Daniel Ugarte! 

Yours truly,

Che