How to apply for a job posting and get invited to an interview

Why it is important to respond to job openings correctly

There are many people who want to work in IT. In numbers - up to a thousand responses to one opening. For example, a frontend developer vacancy collected over 1,000 responses in two days.

But this doesn't mean that HR managers are now only fending off candidates and that finding employees has become easy. On the contrary, finding a specialist in a highly competitive environment is more difficult than a couple of years ago, when IT specialists didn't exist at all.

In the "golden" era of IT professions, a few specialists who knew what they were looking for responded to vacancies. Now, an HR manager needs to review 1,000 responses.

The end result is the same. HR will invite ten people for an interview. But behind these specialists stands a large wall of irrelevant candidates. It's more difficult for the HR manager to find valuable talent. You may simply be overlooked. What to do about this, we'll tell you below.

Prepare for the response

Preparation means collecting information about yourself and the company. Here's what you need: 

• CV or resume.A document with your skills, education, work experience, and contacts.
• Portfolio. Examples of work and projects. HR managers recommend creating several portfolios. For example, if you are a copywriter and want to show your texts to an employer, it is better to segment your work. For web studios, select SEO texts, and for magazines, choose longreads. For each work, you need to add a description: how you helped, for how long, what benefits you brought to the company. This is suitable for any profession.

• Cover letter template. Writing a new letter for each vacancy is time-consuming and difficult. Especially if the candidate is actively looking for a job. It's better to create a template with information that doesn't change. If you're a developer, this could be a tech stack and a brief summary of your experience. You can then change the template based on the company's needs. For example, you can add additional information about your experience or ask clarifying questions about the product and the vacancy.

Write a cover letter

There are no strict guidelines for a cover letter. But there are two simple rules: what to write and what not to.

Imagine that an outsourcing company is looking for a junior frontend developer with at least one year of experience. The HR manager received two responses.

What Kirill did wrong:

❌ Didn't look at who the company is looking for.The employer needs a confident junior developer with commercial experience. Kirill's response would be partially suitable for a free training internship for beginners.

❌ Spoken badly about an employer. Even if your last work experience was unpleasant, you shouldn't talk about it. Neither at small startups nor at large companies.

❌ Described your hobby in detail. Talking about hobbies is possible and even necessary. But in this case, Kirill didn't share any of his knowledge and immediately switched to his hobby. I devoted most of my response to it.

Why Ivan is great: 

✅ Talked about his skills. Briefly described the technology stack.

✅ Talked about his experience.He demonstrated relevant experience in his response to the vacancy. He talked about the project and teamwork.

✅ He showed interest in the company and studied the website.There are many vacancies, and it's difficult to pay attention to them all. But it's definitely worth checking out what the company does.

✅ He demonstrated his skills in practice, without waiting for an interview.Ivan doesn't know whether he'll be invited to an interview. But he knows time is short. Sometimes vacancies fill in a couple of days, so he needs to demonstrate his skills here and now. If the vacancy has already been filled, Ivan can be added to the reserve and invited for an interview later.

What to do after a response

Sometimes not only a refusal, but also an invitation puts a candidate in a stupor. To avoid this, learn how to behave in all situations.

• If you received an invitation.Continue business correspondence, arrange an interview.

• If you get rejected.Don't worry about rejections. Even experienced developers who have been in the profession for ten years get rejected. The reasons can be different: you have already collected the required number of candidates, your experience is not suitable, the HR manager is drowning in responses and rejected everyone after the hundredth candidate.

• If you haven't received a response.If the HR manager doesn't respond, it doesn't mean they don't like you. They might have been sleeping, eating, not seeing you, or just busy. The candidate might contact you a second time. If the HR manager really missed your response, they'll see you've written again. This will show your interest in the vacancy.

Briefly about the main points.

• Adapt to the company's needs.Business is only interested in its tasks and the people who can solve them. Talk about yourself from the product perspective and solving problems in a specific company.
• Research the companies you are applying to.The salary shouldn't be the only interesting fact. Find out what the company does. This way, you will be on the same wavelength with the HR manager and interviewer during the interview.
• Don't worry about rejections and missed applications.They happen to everyone and this is normal. It all depends on the company and its needs.
• Make sure your contact information is accessible. For example, if you specify Telegram as your contact method, make sure your profile is public.