During the first half of winter term this year, I was involved in two different job application processes. I learned a lot from both and think they are worth comparing for the purpose of this blog post. For both applications, it only involved a quick sending of my resume through Handshake. Most applications I have noticed ask for very minimal information and of course a resume. It became clear to me really quickly the value of a strong resume because in that initial application, the resume is really the only point of reference for them to decide if they want to follow up with me or not.
After a few days, I eventually received a call/email from a recruiter to set up phone interviews. It is well-known that a phone interview is often used to initially get a feel for the applicant, and screen people out of the process. But through my experience, I realized that it is also a great opportunity for the applicant to get a vibe of the company as well. The phone interview ended up playing a big role for me in terms of the rest of the hiring process. The recruiter I talked to for the first job was very professional and our conversation flowed naturally. I was excited about the next interview because it seemed like I would mesh well with the other employees at the company. The second company I did a phone interview with was a little different. The recruiter I spoke with told me she was working from home, which is fine. But I felt like it lacked the professionalism that my other interview had because there were lots of distractions on her end like barking dogs.
Overall, both interviews ended up going well because I was able to move on to a second interview. But it was an interesting process to experience and learn from for future interviews and application processes.
3 replies on “Job Application Experience”
I have also found that the resume is potentially the only information that a prospective employer will see from an applicant in the Handshake application environment. This really lends itself to producing a quality resume at this point in our stage of life, which can then be built upon later with associated documents/products to sell ourselves as candidates.
I find it interesting that you showed dissatisfaction with the second interview. I think that with current events there will be a greater number of employees working from home because so many have been forced to due to the reaction to COVID-19. Though perhaps it was not disruptive to the interviewer/employee, we will see limits placed on the home work environment, for the comfort of the interviewee/customer.
I think phone interviews are changing the way their role plays in interviews now. I can see how an unprofessional phone interview can change the way you view someone or a company. I had one last fall where the recruiter only talked about himself for most of the interview. It made me feel uncertain about if I wanted to continue the process with that company.
Great post! I have never personally done a phone interview, but it was really interesting to hear about your experience with it. I have done webcam interviews for first rounds before, and it sounds like a bit of a different experience. Which one did you end up going with?