‘I sent out 526 resumes before landing my dream job’

DOMINIC Soh has a masters degree and had to send out more than 500 resumes for over a year before he could he get a job.

SOMEONE said that it’s best to start preparing for your career before you graduate. I found that to be absolutely true, the hard way.

Armed with both a Masters in Engineering Management and a Graduate Diploma in Management in early 2013, I was ready to take on the world.

I applied for jobs in various roles and industries, covering management consulting, business development, administration, project management, marketing and engineering, and went for almost every single graduate position which I came across.

For the first year of the job seeking process, I searched and applied for jobs during office

hours and took time off during the weekends. Rinse and repeat. And I used the same resume for every job I applied for.

To cope with the need to pay rent and the bills, I did take up some part-time work as an English language tutor and did some casual work as a professional marker for the NAPLAN exams.

On the jobs side of things, it was either radio silence on the employers’ end, an invitation to the next stage of the selection process or a cordial and politically-correct sounding letter of rejection. Even for the lucky few applications which resulted in an interview, I didn’t manage to get to the next step.

Days became weeks, which became months, and soon enough, a whole year has passed and I was still in pretty much the same place post-graduation.

In essence, it doesn’t feel good to be jobless and it does take a toll not only on one’s finances, but self-esteem as well.

With this, I pretty much had enough.

Einstein’s insanity quote is good for all occasions.

Remembering Albert Einstein’s quote “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”, I knew that if I wanted my job situation to change, I had to do something different to make myself stand out from the throng of job seekers out there.

I then started a careers magazine with a friend from scratch, to create valuable work experience for myself and to help other job seekers out there.

In just six months, we transformed the magazine from zero clout and no traction to having a presence in six Victorian universities, reaching thousands of students. I also had the privilege of conducting careers workshops for The University of Melbourne, RMIT, the Victorian government and the City of Melbourne.

Working on the magazine allowed me to build up my personal brand, put myself out there, and network with industry professionals. I also discovered that my passion was in investing in and bringing out the best in others. Thus, a role in HR/recruitment/training would be ideal.

When I applied for jobs in HR/recruitment/training with tailor-made resumes highlighting my key strengths and my professional aspirations, I started getting responses and calls for interviews. And having a print magazine (which I brought to interviews) was tangible evidence that I was serious about investing in others.

In the end, it was only 12 days between when I applied for my current job, and being offered it.

In hindsight, I’ve learnt several unforgettable lessons which might be useful if you are currently job hunting:

1. Differentiate yourself through personal branding and finding what makes you shine in a competitive market. Non-differentiation is actually non-existence — one might end up being just another name in a pile of thousands of applications.

2. Innovate in the job search process. If the crowd is applying for jobs online, what can you do differently? Could you ring companies up to find out if they’re hiring? Or drop off your resume in person?

3. Adopt the right mindset. The wrong mindset thinks “I’m not good enough for this job” and “I don’t think they will want to hire me.” While the right mindset says “Even if I don’t have enough experience for this job, what can I do about it?” and “I want to join this company because I believe that I have something worthwhile to offer.”

4. Step out of your comfort zone. The worst time to pick up networking and communication skills is when you really need them. Start preparing yourself by attending networking events, careers conferences and employer sessions. Put yourself out there. Develop the confidence to meet others. It’ll all pay off at the end of the day.

With this, I wish you all the best in your job search journey. Aim high. Dream big. A great future awaits you!

Originally published as ‘I sent out 526 resumes before landing my dream job’