u/kalvinoz

[AusCorp CW: mentions of AI usage]

I wanted to share my experience job hunting in this economy in Sydney. I got some good tips, perspective, etc, from this sub, so here's my contribution.

Background (keeping it a bit vague to not dox myself):

• ~20 years of experience in BA-ish field
• Worked in management consulting (MBB) and big tech (FAANG and Australian big tech)
• Not a great professional or personal network (moved to Sydney mid-career)
• Laid off mid last year

The numbers:

• 180 applications
• 70% (any) response rate
• 15% (initial) positive response rate (had at least a phone screen)
• 8% interview rate (most screens failed because of salary expectation or just skill mismatch)
• 2 offers
• 1 job

Process:

• I relied almost exclusively on Linkedin job postings. I tried a few other things (Seek, Expert360, Jack & Jill), but Linkedin was the most reliable source
• My approach was to scroll through the recommended jobs and to save anything that looked vaguely interesting
• After that, I ran the saved posts through my favourite LLM to review them against my CV and a few other bits of information – that helped me weed out the ~90% of roles that were actually not good for me (typically because they had some hard requirement that I was missing, or just the wrong seniority)
• For the roles that I decided to apply for, I also used AI to help with the cover letter and any other application questions. I fed it examples of cover letters I wrote and a lot of detail on my experience (well beyond what I put on a CV). The results were pretty decent (I had a couple of interviewers compliment something in my cover letter). I tried to use AI to also do bespoke CVs, but found that it botched the format and always claimed I was the world expert on whatever field I was applying to, so I ended up using a standard version I was happy with
• AI was also really helpful to prepare for interviews: write briefs on the companies and interviewers, offer some questions I could be asked and how to best answer them, that sort of thing. Also quite helpful for mock interviews, especially more technical ones

Words of advice for candidates:

• keep track of everything you have going. It's a numbers game, and it's easy to lose track. write down what you applied for, when, the status, and save the link to the JD
• optimise. Even if you don't want to use AI, at least have the most commonly asked information stored somewhere so it's easy to copy-paste (e.g., employment and education histories, a cover letter template)
• find your network. If you know people in a similar situation, help them out where you can. If you come across a good role for them, send it across. If you know someone in a company they're applying for, make an intro. Go for a coffee, a walk, a chat
• be nice to the people who help you. E.g., if someone refers you to a role: I always dreaded referring people because the recruiting processes of the companies I worked for were shit, and it became awkward. if you don't get the job, just send them a note "hey, that role didn't work out, but I really appreciate your help. let's grab a coffee sometime."
• practice makes perfect. I hadn't interviewed in a while, so the first few interviews were a bit hard. Once you find a couple of good stories, you'll get better at telling them in an engaging way, and also adapt them to whichever "tell me a time" question you get

Words of advice for hiring managers/companies:

• yes, the candidate used AI. AI-assisted applications are the norm now, deal with it. You're probably going to make a decision in under 2 minutes, and this person very likely spent way longer than that applying, and they have to apply to A LOT of jobs. Look at their actual skills. If they match what you're after, give them a chance. don't be petty.
• don't restrict yourself to "I want a candidate who has been doing this exact same job for 10 years with these exact tools in this exact industry" – chances are you're not a rocket scientist. Most industries and tools in the corp world are really not that hard to learn. If someone has the fundamentals, maybe you'll be surprised by how useful a fresh pair of eyes will be compared with the same 3 people rotating through the same 3 roles in the same 3 large companies in the industry
• your application platform sucks! This is not universal, but the most used platforms (especially Workday!) are absolute garbage. So many screens, so much re-entering the same information over and over again. I did not find a single system that did a half-decent job at automatically reading a CV – even in the most plain text format. Also – do you really need my home address, ethnicity, sexual orientation and arrangement of my birth marks?
• don't ghost candidates. It's bad if you don't bother replying to an application (seriously, how hard is it to send out an automatic email?), it's terrible if you don't contact them after a screener or, worse, an on-site interview. They'll remember

Alright, now for the naming names:

• good: Canva (the recruiter gave me detailed feedback on my interviews and where I fell short - 5 stars), Uber (great communication and transparency during the process)
• kind of good: Woolworths, CommBank, Amazon took the time to reject every single one of the many applications I sent their way
• bad: Government (Federal and NSW) – as a strong believer in public service, it's concerning to see the box-ticking pseudo-objective way in which government roles are hired for. Also, do you really need 3 months to reject an application?
• ugly: being rejected after a corporate astrology questionnaire by Stryker was a special moment. Any and every external recruiter I engaged with was useless. Google's application process (it's a form with 4 questions, which are just 2 question repeated) and hiring process (long-drawn, unclear number of rounds, final decision by some ivory tower committee), and portal (am I really still being considered for a role I applied to 5 years ago?) suck balls

And now off to uninstall Linkedin and not open that god-forsaken website for a (hopefully) very very long time.