do genuinely find it fascinating how indeed.com is like the biggest job-hunting website out there and yet manages to be profoundly useless in every possible way
i apply for a job. i never hear back.
i search for “entry level jobs”. i am shown listings for things like “military intelligence officer”, “senior veterinary surgeon”, and “forklift engineer”.
i search for “jobs in bookselling”. i am told that there are 9 bookselling jobs in my area. when i read the listings, 8 of these 9 jobs are care assistant roles and the 9th is a pyramid scheme.
i search for “jobs within 5 miles of my location”. i am shown jobs that are on the other side of the country.
i type in “proofreading”. i am shown listings for “ai training”.
i search “creative industry jobs”. half the listings are for finance companies and the other half require a degree in data science.
i receive an email. “based on your profile, indeed thought you would be a great match for this opportunity!” the linked job requires a degree that i do not have and 5 years of experience in a field that i know nothing about. the email does not explain why this opportunity would be “a great match”.
i receive an email. “based on your profile, indeed thought you would be a great match for this opportunity!” underneath, in the body of the emaill, it warns me that i will not be able to apply for the job it has sent me because i do not meet the criteria.
i apply for a job with a temp agency. i never hear back. 2 weeks later the agency website goes down and never comes back up again.
i apply for a job. 6 months later i get a stock email telling me my application has been unsuccessful.
i apply for a job. i never hear back.
indeed (and most job sites) absolutely suck but im a veteran of their bullshit so here are the tips i can offer to you
- take advantage of indeed’s tools and configurations. i know this sounds condescending but theyre easy to miss. when you search for a job, you can make a pre-set configuration of job search filters on the top of the UI for a search. this allows you to edit for location, how much it pays, education required, etc. indeed will save this configuration and you can just click on it every time you go
- indeed also allows you to completely remove a company from results. this is very useful for the “ai training” listings, which spam up editorial jobs at any level. click the three dot button on the job listing, then “not interested” on browser, or the thumbs down icon on mobile. this will give you the option to completely remove that company from future searches. you can also hide specific job titles and pay rates.
- MAKE SURE YOUR RESUME IS ATS OPTIMIZED. I cannot stress this enough. ATS is the automated system most companies use to parse resumes and sift through hundreds of apps. if it’s not able to parse, you’ll get auto rejected nearly every time – this happened to me for weeks before i changed mine. Try to keep it to one page and keep it plain if you’re not a designer. Resume dot com has ATS-friendly templates you can use for free.
- Make your resume bullets achievement-focused and use numbers. Don’t just say what you did. Say what you accomplished. Instead of “Managed morning shift at Kroeger,” put “Managed 12 cashiers in a fast-paced retail environment.” Instead of “drove delivery trucks,” write “Drove over 30 daily deliveries across three states.” Use whatever resources you have at your disposal to punch up what you did. Brag a little. “Was named employee of the month for June 2023 through August 2023,” “Turned around [x number] of deliverables in [time] for [project].” This is probably the biggest mistake people make with resumes.
- Have a cover letter template that you can easily tweak for your desired job. Lots of places will ignore your app without a cover letter, but they’re time-consuming and annoying extra work – in my experience, slightly tweaking a standard template will do just fine and save you energy.
- don’t bother with the indeed emails theyre bullshit, just unsub lol
again, I hope this doesn’t sound condescending – I say this stuff because I made all of these exact mistakes a billion times before other people gave me this advice, and it’s worked wonders for me. I hope it helps, sincerely.