Julia Pollak, chief economist with ZipRecruiter, joined Cheddar News to offer tips on what recruiters are looking for in a job candidate.

Closing Bell

Top Tips to Land Your Dream Job

Well, it's career friday here on cheddar news when we share our top tips and advice for job seekers and today we want to hone in on the interview process and get the perspective from the other side employers. So joining me now is Julia Pollock, chief economist at Zip recruiter Julia. It's great to have you on the show here and from a recruiters point of view. What are the signs of a strong jobs candidate? Well, employers are looking for Doers for people with leadership skills who are self starters, especially for remote jobs where they know that you can't always be monitored that well. They're also looking for people with dependability and work ethic. They want someone with an infectious personality. So smile in the interview. That's really important. Employers want someone who will be pleasant to work with for managers for coworkers and critically for customers. And we all know that companies are struggling to improve customer service since it tumbled at the start of the pandemic. And then lastly, you know, companies don't care quite as much about credentials and degrees anymore. They care more about portfolios and reviews. So show them that you have demonstrated skill. That's great advice Julia. Any red flags? We talked about the good. What about the bad from an employer perspective? Well, the interview will form an impression about you within just a few seconds. And so it's very important to make a good first impression and you can do that for your body language, sit up straight, use eye contact and seem confident and approachable. Uh, it's a red flag if, if people, uh reschedule the interview too many times if they're disorganized. If they've done no research on the company. It's a big red flag. If they have no questions to ask. Those are all sorts of things that interviewers look for. Um Well we do see an environment was still a tight labor market according to the january jobs report but layoffs continuing to roll in Julian. So how do you get your resume to stand out so that you can land that interview eventually? Well the most important thing with resumes is that they need to get you through the door and that means they need to be readable by computers. About 75% of resumes are read first by a computer by a robot. And so simplicity is key simplicity when it comes to formatting, when it comes to the job titles you use when it comes to the way you describe the tasks you performed. Uh Those computers are looking for a strong match. They want uh the job posting and your resume to be compatible. And to have a lot of shared terms in them. So look closely at the job posting and tailor your resume to it as much as possible while of course still being very true to your own background. So I know you mentioned that you as the person applying for the job should come to an interview with some questions prepared. What should you also prepare to be asked of you? What are some common questions that occur during, during interviews these days? Well the wonderful thing about the internet is that you can type commonly asked interview questions and you will find hundreds of them out there. And you know there there are things that you can really be quite sure that the interview is going to ask. The first thing most interviewers ask is, Hey, so tell me about yourself. And often candidates will have a deer in the headlights look and not know where to begin. That is your moment to shine. If you come in prepared, you can really shine with a question like that. Give a, you know, a short 30 seconds to one minute answer that tells them about your background, that tells them why you're excited about this job, Why it's such a great match for you and what you hope to achieve in that job, Julia Paula. Great advice, Julius, a chief economist at Zip recruiter Julia. Thank you