5 Mistakes With Your COVID-19 Job Application

Meet Deseperate Dave. He is our very own in-house fictional character who has volunteered to play the role of the noble martyr for us today. You see, Dave is just like many of us (except the name). He wants to do well in life. He did all the right things when it comes to school and university. He dreams of making it big in his dream field: the aerospace industry. Desperate Dave maintains a meticulous spread sheet that stores the entire list of his job applications during COVID-19. Most of his applications have failed to even get a reply from his targeted employers. Some of them got converted into phone calls, out of which he progressed to precisely four actual interviews (including the COVID-19-style online interviews). Out of those four, he managed to get into the second round of interviews for just one position. Rather devastatingly, he lost out to fierce competition in the end.

Drawing from past application experience, Desperate Dave carefully tailors his application documents for this new position that he just spotted on his favourite job search engine: “www-dot-3rd-Grade-Jobs-dot-wrong”. Dave is optimistic that the experience of past failures could give him an edge. He reassures himself that at the very least, being the first person to apply has to count. And this just happens to be his 100^th job application of the season. Lo and behold, it turns out to be yet another failed attempt. He gets frustrated, and silently curses COVID-19, the perceived partiality shown by employers to an arbitrary ethnic or gender (just not the same one he has a sense of belonging to), the fact that he does not have the right visa status (you see, Dave is an immigrant), the fact that he needs his employer to sponsor his visa, and so on. Eventually, he realises that frustration isn’t helping. Driven by the fear of missing out (FOMO) on the next self-scouted position, he drags himself, and gets to work on his 101^st job application. Oh, snap!

And that is precisely where I would like to step in, and argue that there are at least 5 things going wrong here. I will go through each one of these points briefly before I propose remedial actions as a conclusion to cure Dave of his “Desperation”.

This essay is supported by Generatebg

Challenge 1: Completely acknowledge that the world is unfair

Of course, governments and governing bodies aim to achieve equality and/or equity among the governed entities. But this can never be fully achieved, because it is in our very nature to be not that way. Nothing about nature is fair or equal or equitable. Every sane person knows this fact, at least intuitively, even if one has never thought deeply about it. However, knowing something is very different from fully acknowledging it. If Desperate Dave really acknowledges that the world is unfair, he would stop being sour and complaining about it, and start thinking of innovative ways to tip the unfair scales in his favour. Now, I am not suggesting anything immoral or illegal here. A simple rule that I picked up (I didn’t invent it) is “I may employ any means necessary to achieve my goal, as long as it doesn’t  hinder anyone else’s right of path to progress”, and at the same time, adheres to my sense of morals and ethics. This kind of a framework at least gives Dave the possibility of tipping the scales in his favour.

Challenge 2: Competing hard to be the top candidate out of a list of 250 is a loser’s game

Hard work and perseverance never let anyone down, right? Well think again, Dave! Both of these are great qualities, but one needs to align these with the right goal and the right direction. There are more variables in this equation. In general, I would suggest that competition is good in games and sports, but competing hard for job positions is a loser’s game, and should be avoided, if possible. I had a motivated person write to me, saying that he made it to the top 20 list of candidates out of 250 for a top racing team, and lost out to competition in the end. I asked him, “What if you were the 4^th best and the team only selected the top 3 in the end? Think about it. I argue that you are playing a loser’s game.”

I just happen to be working in the racing industry at the time of writing this article (one of the reasons why the person came to my counsel in the first place). To rephrase my point more precisely: If Dave’s application-set is unsuccessful on 96% of the occasions, it literally means that only 4% of his targeted employers are valuing his skills enough to even make the effort to reply to him. Either that or they are just plain desperate.

Dave’s application documents could have flaws, but the root-cause for such a poor skew in results is most likely not in the documents. And adding (by learning) a few of the latest hot and attractive market skills (I am looking at you, machine-learning-expert-in-30-days) in the resume is probably akin to using band-aid to stop a crack in a water-storage dam. In this game, each person wants to add one more collectible in his or her showcase just to proclaim that he or she is a cut above the rest. I would term this as a rat-race, and employers do their best to wade through this issue as well. The true root-causes can only be revealed to Dave when he gets honest with himself, avoids competing in a rat-race, and is genuinely willing to be wrong. Once Dave figures out the root-cause(s), he knows at the very least one step he needs to make in the right direction. He could start with that. He’s a smart guy (according to his CV), after all!

Challenge 3: Why work hard to get good at the wrong stuff?

A common attitude I get from market-challenged young professionals is: “I have the skills. Yet my potential employers are unable to see the value. There must be something I can do to get better visibility.” Another common attitude I get from market-challenged fresh graduates is: “My university degree has given me strong fundamentals. But potential employers are demanding 3-5 years of work experience from me right out of the university. How is this fair? How do I gain experience without any opportunity to start my first experience?” Desperate Dave thankfully happens to feature just the first attitude.

These attitudes focus on optimising the solution for the wrong set of problems. It is very important to realise that it is not Dave’s skills his potential employer is interested in, but rather, the application of his skills that interests them. Instead of self-evaluating his skills as market-ready, when was the last time Dave put them to test on a practical solution that actually helps someone? Documentation of such a solution and proper presentation of the same could be one way of genuinely guiding potential employers see the value that Dave brings to the table. Platforms like LinkedIn have solved the problem of lack of visibility a long time ago. If Dave still believes that he has the skills, and visibility is the issue, I suggest that he think again.

As for the fresh graduate out there, it is important to understand that your potential employers have a necessity to remain profitable. And to do so, they are incentivised to hire people who bring value with them. They would not demand for something that is not available in the market. This means that if an attractive employer is demanding 3-5 years of experience for fresh graduates in your field, there are probably fellow students in the market who are able to offer this. Have you considered volunteering for internships free of cost to put your university skills to test? Have you considered the possibility that you’ve chosen a rat-race ridden field of graduation? If so, how do you go about it now? University seldom prepares you for such real life scenarios with real life consequences. The sooner you prepare yourself, the better.

It is prudent to avoid falling into the trap of solving the wrong problem. If Dave treats the market as a true reflection of his value, and acts upon its feedback to actually get better at his craft, presentation and visibility are the final pieces in the puzzle.

Challenge 4: Not giving into the myth that we are living in tough times  

If it is not COVID-19, it is the financial crash of 2008. If it is not that, it is the dot com bubble of the 2000s. If it is not that, there is always something else. Dave has enough reasons to believe that the times are tough, and his chances are slim. And to a certain extent, he is right! However, any negative theme that is driving change around the globe brings with it, new problems. These new problems need solving. Solving problems is what makes us valuable in our respective societies. The bigger the problem Dave solves, the higher his social reward (also known as money) for it is. And that is rightly so. Solving problems simply means that Dave is helping people. Dave can choose to look at the doom-and-gloom side or the bright-and-sunny side. The practical approach is to objectively look at both, and use the best perspectives to move forward, instead of being stuck, or worse, moving backward. The diagram presented remains valid independent of tough times, and can be used as a feeler-guage for one’s own level of skill in the market.

Challenge 5: Not giving into pride and arrogance

I have struggled with this challenge in past. I have also seen numerous peers struggle with it. As I was overcoming this challenge (back then, I didn’t know if it was a good thing), my peers who did not overcome it faded away slowly. The specific nature of this problem is as follows: Desperate Dave is driven to work in the niche field of his interest (aerospace). He is so passionate, focused, and dedicated, that he rejects other opportunities in order to not compromise on his aim. This involves a certain level of pride and arrogance. It becomes unsustainable when it comes at the cost of a negative bank balance (also known as debt). Don’t get me wrong. Dave can be as proud and arrogant as he wishes to be, as long as his bank balance keeps growing at the end of each month. If this is not the case, mathematics and statistics are not working in his favor. The rule of this game is “You’ve got to be in to win it.” In fact, I have realized that this turned out to be one of my biggest strengths. Peers who were far better than me intellectually could not sustain their pride-driven campaign, while I just managed to stay in the game long enough for the Gods of odds to turn in my favor. I did not go out of my way to apply for positions of no interest just for money’s sake. But I stopped saying no to opportunities that showed up at my door-step. I even got to live in two exotic countries by taming my pride and arrogance. Dave’s results may vary, but if this makes logical sense to Dave, I recommend that Dave start taming his pride and arrogance as well.

Challenge 6: Go above and beyond your own promises

The right kind of value impresses. It goes above and beyond the promises you make. Employers face the problem of people who claim a lot in their CV, but under-deliver when it comes to execution (yours truly has come under the hammer for the same reason in the past). What if Dave could reverse the problem? What if he goes above and beyond, and delivers more value than he originally promised? For instance, when he promises 5 points of value-discussion to his reader in a random blog article, why not go ahead and add one more point that adds value? I see what you did there, Dave! 😉

Conclusion:

• Challenge 1: The world is unfair. Find ways of exploiting this fact to your advantage in a moral way that doesn’t hinder anyone else’s right of path to progress.
• Challenge 2: Do not compete in a rat-race. Focus on root causes for poor results, and start addressing them. Be brutally honest with yourself for maximum benefit.
• Challenge 3: Do not work hard to solve the wrong problem. Focus on improving your craft practically, and the rest will follow.
• Challenge 4: Do not give into the myth that we are living in tough times. Negative themes create new problems to solve, and therefore, fresh opportunities.
• Challenge 5: Tame your pride and arrogance. “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”
• Challenge 6: Go above and beyond your own promises to create value that impresses.

I hope you found this article interesting and useful. If you’d like to get notified when interesting content gets published here, consider subscribing.