'Pragmatic Little Shifts' to Consider when Applying for Jobs

By Shannie Rao

Alexa Shoen

Ambient coffee shop music played in the background as Alexa Shoen welcomed us into the Zoom room. Making small talk about who had won The Grammys and where everyone lived, she exuded confidence and brought this energy into the opening of the presentation. Shoen is a career coach who published #ENTRYLEVELBOSS—part memoir, part how to guide—in May 2020 after founding an online education company under the same name that helps jobseekers and recent grads.

The presentation focused largely on how to approach the job search in a more modern way that makes it less intimidating and mysterious. At the core, she offered five “pragmatic little shifts” to help in the process of getting a job:

1. Targeting the search to take advantage of what industries are seeing a boom right now

   This involves an understanding that sometimes you have to take opportunities that are available at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t move into the industry you initially wanted to be in at a later date. Shoen also emphasized the importance of moving quickly when you do have information on a good potential opportunity.

2. Organizing applications around what jobs you really want, rather than just applying to the postings you come across (Shoen suggested focusing on a role + an industry + a location)

   Once you’ve figured out what it is that you really want, you are able to then make yourself into the best candidate for this specific position or set of positions. Through this, you can sell the ways in which your being hired adds a benefit to the employer which is important in getting the job.

3. Hacking your skill set by figuring out what demonstrable skills you have and creating your own opportunities to develop them.

   Shoen’s greatest emphasis here was that there’s no such thing as “legitimate” or “illegitimate” experience. Creating opportunities for yourself that teach the skills you want to have is a great way to be able to demonstrate skills and put experience on your resume. There are also lots of opportunities out there that—if you think creatively—will allow you to work on honing those skills.

4. Navigating the world of networking remotely 
   Here, it is important to come across as having genuine interest and curiosity. Shoen emphasized the importance of never asking people questions that a simple Google search could answer instead. Rather, show that you already know a lot and want the specifics of a person’s knowledge. Networking with people just a few years ahead of where you are now is a great way to get advice and also make connections that could lead to potential job offers down the road.

5. Staying positive and not being too embarrassed over not having things figured out yet

   Shoen reminded everyone that there will always be someone who’s a bigger mess than you. Beyond that, she emphasized the importance of measuring success based on connections rather than applications. While this can be a hard mental switch to make, it helps to make the process feel less passive and out of control.

After a few questions and a reminder that finding the best job for you often requires a lot of Googling just to know what jobs are out there, Shoen concluded by telling everyone that the process is both more and less scary than we think. I, for one, appreciated this lack of sugarcoating and informative understanding of what active steps can make the job search process more streamlined and effective.