Step 1: Develop a resume
A resume is a quick way to show your experience to someone
If you do not have a resume – get some help
Use LinkedIn to contact people in your field for advice on your resume
- Get advice from career services, professors, or advisors that you are in contact with
Step 2: Make a LinkedIn account
- Place all the information that you feel comfortable putting on your profile
Step 3: Create an introductory message
- The introductory message lets the employer/recruiter know about your basic value proposition, a set of skills that you bring to the workplace.
- Put your education, skills, and the sort of positions you are seeking
Sample:
“I’m majoring in [insert major] at [University name]. I found your profile while searching through LinkedIn since I’m looking for employment opportunities. I have experience in [list your skills here] . Is your company hiring for any positions that I can apply for?”
IMPORTANT: It is possible to use the same message for every individual you reach out to, but it’s also important to recognize that personalized messages might get you more responses.
Step 4: Search for companies that you want to work for
Type companies you are looking to work for in the search bar
- If you are unsure of what company to work for, go on google and look at companies in your field
Look for what you value in a company:
- Small size can mean a more friendly environment
- A location close to your home can be important to shorten commute time
- Perhaps the pay is quite decent
Step 5: Connect effectively
Type your company in the search bar
Click on the company you’re looking for
Click people
Type job titles of the people you are wanting to connect with. Ex: recruiter, manager, etc…
Try to prioritize connecting with recruiters since it’s their job to hire people. This’ll get you more responses than trying to connect with employees. Oftentimes, a lot of people don’t check their LinkedIn.
- Important tip: Connecting with 100 people will likely get you much farther than applying to 100 jobs
Note that you are limited to 100 connections per week. Connections refer to simply clicking connecting on an individual, a process that’s much easier than you may think - The time-consuming aspect involves passively waiting for people to accept your connection
- LinkedIn is a method of expanding your job search by connecting with someone who might refer you to a hiring manager.
- Online job applications are monitored by bots that are looking for keywords in your resume; however, you as an applicant have no way of knowing
- It’s best to apply for jobs in conjunction with networking if you have the time
Step 6: Examples of questions to ask on LinkedIn
Questions to ask employees
- It’s possible to ask for a referral once you have spent some time connecting with an individual that hasn’t already offered to refer you.
Ask employees any questions that you may have about the job and their position
Beginning the conversation:
- What are your responsibilities?
- What do you like about your job?
- What is your work-life balance like?
- Do you enjoy the company of your peers?
- Do you have any recommendations for my resume?
- Does management treat you fairly?
- What kind of positions are available with my degree?
- What made you want to work for this company? (Put the company name in)
- What are the most important skills needed to succeed in this position?
Later in the conversation:
- Do you know of any other companies that hire new graduates?
- What is the interview process like? What kinds of questions were asked in the interview? • Is there anyone else that I can connect to in this company?
Questions to ask recruiters
- Do you recruit for any entry-level positions (You could ask about specific positions you’re looking for as well)
- Do you know of any other recruiters that are looking for applicants?
- Is it possible for you to review my resume?
- If you have no positions available right now, could I contact you back in a couple of weeks?
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you hear back
Step 7: Interview preparation
- Interviews for some STEM fields, such as biology, are mostly focused on behavioral questions with some questions being directly from your resume.
- Boil down your value proposition to your top three points from the hiring firm’s point of view. You can refer to this as a “mini-speech”.
- Be ready to answer the question: What are the most important things that I need to know about you?” You NEED to answer this question and you are not prepared until you can answer this.
- Interviews will usually be done through zoom if you are applying to companies far away from your location.
- If appropriate, bring samples of your work that illustrate your value proposition. (If not secret or proprietary). Samples could include hard copies of lab reports, thesis defense, published papers, previous work experience etc…
Step 8: Use resources to prepare for interview questions
- Career services can help with interviewing
- Google something like “common behavior questions during the interview”
- STAR (situation, task, action, result) the interview format is common for some fields
A few examples of behavioral questions
- Tell me about a time when you dealt with a disagreement with a colleague?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
- What do you want your last job to be?
Youtube can be a resource as well.
– One channel that greatly helped me: The Companies Expert
IMPORTANT: It’s impossible to prepare for every question, but try to have some memorized responses to common questions that you find in your search.
- As stated previously, asking employees to recall specific questions that they were asked can be helpful
Step 9: Do your best in the interview
- When you start the interview you could say something like “Thank you for taking the time to interview me, and I am excited about this position.”
- If you’re asked a question and you don’t know, it may be possible to say something like “I don’t know, but let me think about that –can I get back to you?”
- At the end of the interview ask something along the lines of, “ I feel as if I’d be a good fit for this position because of x,y,z. Is there anything else you would want to know about me? You have my contact information, so feel free to contact me at any time”.
Tips for international students
- Connect with a recruiter/manager to make sure that they hire international students. This is VERY important
- Some companies will not list that they don’t hire international students. In fact, companies will often ask in the job application if you are an international student or not. Some companies will even automatically disqualify your job application without ever notifying you if you are an international student.
- Entry-level jobs may not offer sponsorships, so you will need to work for some period of time at the company.
General tips for STEM majors
- Research experience is extremely important. Make sure that you are able to prove this and list it on your resume.
- Try to find an internship using LinkedIn
- Entry-level jobs in lab settings with Bio, biochem, and molecular bio degrees can be very stingy on their pay. Some companies will even pay as little as $20 an hour, so try to accept offers with higher pay. Additionally, there may be little to no room for negotiation.
- Engineering and computer science generally pay significantly better than the life sciences
Overall approach:
- I’ve created this document to share my LinkedIn experience. This is my method of showing how a vague open-ended problem, such as finding a job, can be broken down into simpler components that are closed-ended problems, a type of problem that involves a set of variables that is more manageable.
- The closed-ended problems, in this case, are the individual tasks that I performed to get my job. (I find this approach one of the best to solve problems in life outside of finding a job.)
- Video games are an excellent analogy to explain the idea of closed-ended problem solving. In a video game like Mario, you are given a set of tools, such as jumping and walking, to reach the flag at the end of the level. However, the tasks that you must accomplish change at every level as you encounter new obstacles.
- The concept of using a set of tools to solve a closed ended problem can be applied to the job search.
Consider the idea of making an open-ended problem into a closed-ended problem if things aren’t working for you.
For example, one alternative path I can think of is “Get a resume → Find a method to get an internship → Do your best in the internship so that the company has a favorable opinion of you → Ask if the company is willing to hire new graduates in the future → Ask which individuals you must contact → Wait for a response to interview → Go to the interview”
Good luck!