Episode 45 – How to Land Any Job You Want, with Raghav Haran

July 4, 2016 Podcast

In episode 45 of the Graduate Job Podcast, I am joined by innovative blogger Raghav Haran, as we discuss how to land any job you want, even if you’re not qualified. In this half-hour Raghav shatters some of the conventional myths about what you need to do to get a job as we explore what companies really want from their candidates, the more effective option for getting than a job than sending hundreds of speculative CVs, and how creating a pre-interview project can be the secret to getting you your dream job.  No matter where you are on your job search, this is an episode you will not want to miss. As always, all links to everything we discuss and a full transcript are available in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/landanyjob.  Before we start a quick request from me, your feedback helps me to create the episodes you want to hear, so I’ve set up a super simple and very quick survey, as I want the show to best serve your needs. It’s got 5 questions and will take you a minute, so please check it out at http://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey/ . I look forward to hearing your thoughts. But in the meantime, let’s crack on with the show.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • How to get any job, even if you’re not qualified
  • What companies REALLY want from their candidates
  • Why sending speculative CVs is a waste of time
  • The importance of speaking to people doing the job you want to do
  • Why you need to do a pre-interview project to stand out
  • The dangers of putting a particular job on a pedestal
  • Why you shouldn’t be scared of closing down your job options

SELECTED SHOW NOTES

Transcript -Episode 45 – How to Land Any Job You Want, with Raghav Haran

James: Welcome everyone to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your weekly home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each week I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, entrepreneurs, coaches and bloggers who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had a decade ago when I graduated.

So I’m back after a couple of weeks off where I was out in France watching some football at the European Championships….England were terrible, so the least said about that the better! Roy Hodgson, if you’re listening, I’m available for coaching to help you find that next job. But it was nice to have some time off and think about the podcast and where to take it over the coming months. I’ve got some brilliant guests lined up so stay tuned. Speaking of brilliant guests, have I got a cracker for you this week. I’ve gone international again for the best careers advice I’m joined from the states by brilliant blogger Raghav Haran, as we discuss how to land any job you want, even if you’re not qualified. In this half hour Raghav shatters some of the conventional myths about what you need to do to get a job, as we explore what companies really want from their candidates, a more effective option for getting a job than sending hundreds of speculative CVs, and how creating a pre-interview project can be the secret to getting you your dream job.  No matter where you are on your job search, this is an episode you will not want to miss. As always, all links to everything we discuss and a full transcript are available in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/landanyjob.  Before we start a quick request from me, your feedback helps me to create the episodes you want to hear, so I’ve set up a super simple and very quick survey, as I want the show to best serve your needs. It’s got 5 questions and will take you a minute, so please check it out at http://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey/. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. But in the meantime, let’s crack on with the show.

James: I’m very excited today to welcome to the show to a man of many talents, entrepreneur, designer, marketeer, and, most importantly of all for today, blogger at landanyjobyouwant.com . Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, Raghav Haran.

Raghav: Thanks James, it’s good to be here.

James: So, Raghav, I gave you the briefest of intros there. Would you like to give yourself a proper introduction and let us know what it is that you do?

Raghav: Yeah, so as a day job I work with New York Time’s bestselling authors and entrepreneurs to sort of fine tune their market strategy. I also work with a company called Mind Vally right now, and they basically work with big name authors out there to distil their big ideas and their information from their books into bite sized courses and launch them to millions of people. And I also work, as you mentioned, at landanyjobyouwant.com, is sort of where I pump out my career advice and help people get past the old, tired resume blasting and this career advice crap that you see online, and stuff that actually works.

James: Super and as Raghav mentioned, I definitely recommend his blog and it will be linked to in the show notes. So go to graduatejobpodcast.com/landanyjob and they’ll be links to the full transcript for everything that we discuss today, including all the articles that we mention. And today we’re going to cover one of his articles which went viral, “How to get any job you want, even if you’re not qualified,” in a bit of detail. So Raghav, maybe starting with that one at the beginning, could you talk us through maybe the fundamental mishmatch which you describe of what people think employers want, but what recruiters are actually looking for? Could you delve into this for us?

Raghav: Yeah, so the way that job seekers traditionally approach these applications is that they usually go on these sites like LinkedIn or Monster Career Builder, and they scroll through the job postings and they find something they like. And they look through the job description, as long as they hit, I guess, most of those things they send off a resume and they hope to hear back. That’s kind of the traditional way that people approach things. What employers actually want is not, like the perfect resume. They don’t care about a perfect cover letter. They don’t care about the perfect application that hits all those specific requirements that they say that you should have. What they want is for you is to basically solve their problems. So if they’re hiring a UX designer, what they’re coming to it, they’re coming to that application with the mind-set of, “Okay, we need someone to design stuff for us.” If they’re looking for a marketer they’re coming to it with the mind-set of, “We need someone to market things for us.” My basic premise is that, if you can solve that problem then basically everything else becomes practically irrevelant.

James: Yeah, and that’s a brilliant point and you talk about how, even if they say they want 3 to 5 years’ experience, this is negotiable. And a lot of people, won’t maybe see that and just immediately not even bother applying. Would you say that there’s a limit though to how much experience you can circle around by being able to demonstrate that you can do the job?

Raghav: Well, you have to actually be able to do it. That’s really the only real requirement that I’ve seen in my experience. So, I mean, someone with, I guess, 10 years of experience obviously would be able to do certain things, in that role, that someone with 1 year can’t. So, I guess, there’s kind of like a disconnect there. But, for example, if you’re coming out of school, you’re like a new grad, graduating from an undergrad or master’s program, chances are that you can probably do a job at the same level as someone who has maybe two or three years’ worth of experience, even if you have like zero. So, I think that the essential thing comes down to, is can you actually do it or not. If you can, then you don’t need the years.

James: And you talk in the article about the four steps to getting the job, could you take us through what step one is and what that looks like?

Raghav: Yeah. So, instead of shot-gunning your resume out to like 50,000 different employers hoping to get like two or three responses back, what I recommend is focusing on basically three to five jobs that are hiring right now that you are super super interested in. So, what I personally did, for example, when I was applying for like design gigs is I focused on a few specific companies like Quora, I focused I think on Shutter Stock, and a few other companies. And that’s kind of step one. Instead of shot-gunning your resume out to like a billion different people, yeah, just focusing on a few and getting that right.

James: How would you recommend people begin to focus down? Is it just a question of picking companies that people want to work for? Or particular industries? How can people take that first step to maybe narrow down to their select three to five?

Raghav: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people have this concern that they need to keep their options open, they don’t want to close any doors. And that’s completely fine. I mean, this is just for specific, like I mean, if people want to apply for like 50 companies that’s completely fine. What I’m saying is that you should focus on like three at a time, three to five at a time, just so you can get application process right. I guess the way that you would narrow it down is, like, the way I narrow it down is by figuring out which companies that I actually want to work for, whose products I like, whose missions I like, who I feel like I can learn a lot from. And you can kind of get an idea of how the companies like before you work there by actually talking to people who work there. So, that’s kind of what I do there too.

James: Excellent, which takes us nicely onto step two, which is, “Outline what you’ll be doing on the job.” So what sort of ways do you recommend that people can begin to find out exactly what the job entails, because often you read a job description of what you might be doing, and what you actually do in the flesh is something very very different.

Raghav: Yeah for sure. So, let’s say you’re applying for like a marketing gig. So, step one would be to identify three different jobs that are hiring for your role. So, let’s say you want to be a marking manager. So, three different job titles, three different companies that are hiring for a marketing manager gig. And number two would be doing something like, you can either look at the specific job requirements that are on the page, or you can actually email someone who is working in the job title that you want to work for at that company, and actually ask them a specific list of questions to sort of figure out what you would be doing on that job ahead of time.

James: That’s a brilliant advice and one that I recommend with my clients, especially with LinkedIn, being able to use the alumni search tool where you can quickly just tap into you alumni network from university and, you know, these people are a semi-warm contact, and so open for actually replying to you and, you know, always happy to speak about it is that they do. Everyone, as you talk about in one of your blogs, everyone likes to be the expert, and the person who can give you the advice, and lead you through it is they’re doing.

Raghav: Yeah, so the kind of, the questions that you can ask them are something like; What sort of things would I be doing on the job on if I were hired? What sort of projects are you working on, on like a day-to-day basis?  What kind of challenges are you having right now? And kind of, after you talk to them, after just having like a 15-minute conversation, that really sets you up extremely well to be able to prove that you can do the job ahead of time.

James: Are there any questions which you wouldn’t recommend people asking?

Raghav: Don’t ask for a job. Don’t ask them about the job postings that they have. Don’t ask them if they’re hiring. Don’t ask them if you’re a good fit. Don’t ask them, like, don’t ask them anything relating to the job at hand. Just ask then, just kind of evaluate whether it would be a good fit for you. Come with it from that mind-set. Like, what kinds of things are they working on? What sorts of projects you would be doing if you were in their shoes? What’s the culture like? Basically just kind of getting a sense of what they are like and you evaluating them.

James: And how would you recommend making that initial approach? What should of things should you be asking for? Is it as simple as just saying, “You know, I’m looking for, or, I’m interested in a job at your company, have you got 15-minutes for a chat?”

Raghav: Yeah it could be that. You could say something like, “I noticed you’re hiring for xyz-role. I think it might be a fit, but before I apply I just want to make sure it is. So I have, so I’d like to chat with you for 15-minutes to ask you a few specific questions about your experience there.” That could be a good way to go. Or you can just email some, if you can’t get in touch with a marketing manager at the company you want to apply for, you can just apply, you can just talk to marketing managers in general and ask them the same question. Like, you can send them an email that says, “Hey, I’m thinking about transitioning into a marketing manager role. Do you have a few minutes to chat? I would love to ask you a few specific questions about your experience at xyz company.”

James: And it such a powerful thing when you can go to a company and say, “Well, you know, I’ve spoken to,” when they ask why you want to work there, you can say, “Well I’ve spoken to this person, and that person, and that person about what it’s like and, you know, they’ve given me such a great insight.” Just shows that you’ve gone the extra yard and, you know, you’ve put the effort into finding out about the company.

Raghav: Yeah.

James: When you approach people, would you recommend going for senior people, or is it more junior people who are doing the exact job that you might be applying for?

Raghav: Either one works. I find that junior people are generally more easy to get in touch with. And usually they can give you the same sort of level information. The one benefit of applying, of talking to someone who is higher-up is that if you ask them for a referral several weeks later, their referral has much bigger weight because they have more expertise. So, either one works.

James: Excellent. So we’ve picked our companies, we’ve spoken to a lot of people who are currently doing the job, and it really sounds like it’s what we want to do. Step three; you talk about doing a pre-interview project per company. Could you explain to us what the pre-interview project is?

Raghav: Yeah, so it’s essentially a way for you to show that you can do the job before you actually get that job. So, as an example, if you’re applying for a like a UX  design gig, that might be like actually designing a new feature for the product ahead of time and sending that in. If you’re applying for a sales gig, that might be going out and selling the product to a few of your friends before you actually get the interview in the first place. If you’re applying to, like, I don’t know, a data science gig where you can’t analyse something, it might be as simple as coming up with a few specific ideas of how you could help once you get that gig. It could be like a 90-day plan, of what you would do in your first 30, 60, 90 days on that job. So, basically, it’s just any way that you can be proactive and go above and beyond to prove that you can do what they’re asking you do.

James: Well, I love it. And when we spoke with Prash Majmudar  the CEO of, CTO of a data science company over here in London, and he said exactly the same thing. He said, “You know, don’t send me a CV, just send me a link to a project on GitHub where you’ve done some datamining. You know, show me what you can do opposed to telling me what you can do.”

Raghav: Yeah.

James: So, Raghav how did you use pre-interview projects personally for some of the internships and jobs that you’ve got?

Raghav: Yeah, so, I used it a lot. My personal background is in both design and marketing. So, I actually used it to get jobs created for me at a company called Shutter Stock in New York City. So actually, I did this pre-interview project where I ran a usability test. In the US world that means, like, basically testing out how random people use the Shutter Stock product, and based off of that I redesigned part of their product and I sent it in to one of the interviewers, and based off that they actually created a specific position for me within their company. I did the same thing for AirBnB. There’s a bunch of other companies. Mind Valley, the company I’m working for right now, I got a marketing gig from the pre-interview project. And there’s a bunch of people who read my posts from fields like, marketing, design, tech, engineering, finance, like basically every field under the sun, and they’ve done similar things.

James: What sort of responses did you get when you sent these in? Were people wowed by them? I mean, what did some of the hiring managers say?

Raghav: Yeah, so, they really appreciated it. Pretty much every single person, pretty much like 100% of the people that I sent it to were like, “Wow this is great.” And they usually forward me over to HR and they forward my resume over and usually that gets me the interview really quickly.

James: And how long did they take you? Did it, I mean, how much effort were you putting in for each one? Are we talking hours or days or weeks, in terms of pulling them together?

Raghav: Hours, I would say. Probably like three to four hours, it kind of depends. But, it has, it might seem like a much longer time frame versus just shot-gunning resumes out, but it does have a much higher conversion rate. Probably won’t convert 100%, but it probably has, you know, you can probably convert, I’d say, two out of four or one out of four, which is much greater than sending out 1000 resumes and getting like two interviews.

James: Of course. I love the comment in the blog of, “Doing a pre-interview project makes you stand out because the secret source is hard work, so most people never do it,” which is very true. I mean, people don’t do the, they always take the path of least resistance which is, you know sending off, as you mentioned, the CV and cover letter to a random email box and just not getting a response.

Raghav: Yeah, I mean, it’s a great way to set yourself apart, because even if everyone knows logically that this is the right approach, they still don’t want to put in the work, they’re still afraid of getting rejected, they’re still afraid of wasting all their time. So, 99% of the people who hear this podcast or who hear, who read my blog still won’t actually do it, so the 1% who do will get all of the results.

James: On the course you’ve got at Land Any Job You Want, you’ve got hundreds of people going through the course at the moment, could you give us a few examples of where people have done have a pre-interview project that’s been really impressive and gotten them good results?

Raghav: Yeah, there’s a lot of different examples. There’s some, for example, one person got a job at Citrix. They had this software called GoToMeeting, so, what she basically did, was put together this large slide deck of potential market opportunities for Citrix, like the market penetration opportunities in East Asia and in the UK and things like that. So she actually put together this large slide deck and sent it over to the marketing director and got this gig straight away.  There’s another person who, they got an interview at Twitter. He did like a prototype, he basically created this new feature, this new prototype of a new feature that he wanted Twitter to have and he coded it up, he sent it over to, I think it was the Director of Product Management or something, and that was an offer straight away. So it’s worked for a lot of people.

James: You mentioned that a lot of people who are listening are going to probably think, “Ah that sounds great,” but aren’t going to do it, because they’ll probably come up with excuses for , “Well, that sounds good in America but, you know, it’s not going to work in the UK,” or, “It’s not going to work in my particular industry.” Do you find, in your experience, this works across most industries?  I mean, it’s not going to work in medicine or, you know, law or dentistry where you actually do need qualifications. But, otherwise, do you think it works in most industries?

Raghav: Yeah, I mean, so the way I think about it not like, oh whether it’s going to work or not. I actually use this as almost like a vetting tool to see if the company is good enough for me. So, for example, if this pre-interview project works, if someone is impressed, if the company is impressed that you did it, then that means that mean they’re impressed by proactive-ness. That means that they’re impressed by people going above and beyond. That means that they’re impressed by people not doing the bare minimum to get a job. And if they’re impressed by you doing those things before the hiring process, then they’re going to be impressed if you do it after you get that job, and that means that they appreciate proactive-ness, they’re going to give you a lot more responsibility, they’re going to promote you higher up, and all these different things that are kind of a reflection of how they are after you get that gig. So, I almost don’t, if they reject me, if it doesn’t work, I don’t look at it as a negative, I’m like, “Okay that’s good,” because I know that they’re not going to appreciate it after I get that gig.

James: That’s a brilliant point, and one of my previous guests, Rob Bence, we were talking about how to get a job in property and, you know, he gave the example of, “Would you actually want to work at a firm where you could get the job so easily?” You know, if you send a box-standard CV and, you know, they give you the job after that, what sort of place are you going to be working at that just takes in people without any care or attention. You know the job isn’t going to be exactly challenging and exciting, you’re not going to be doing things that are going to excite you if they’ll take anyone like that.

Raghav: Yeah, exactly. And one kind of underrated benefit, unexpected benefit that you’ll get out of doing something like this is how they treat you after they get the job. So, let’s say you’re going for like a software design, software developer gig, and one person gets the job straight from submitting their resume online, but you get the job from, the same exact job by submitting a pre-interview project. Even if you’re in the exact same department with the exact same job title, the perception of who you are is going to be a lot more different from the other guy. You’re going to have a lot more leeway, you’re going to have a lot more freedom, and I’ve personally experienced this in a lot of different companies.

James: So, Raghav, were you known as the pre-interview project guy at the companies that you’ve used it to get jobs at?

Raghav: Well, I was kind of known as the hustler, like the person that went above and beyond, so because of that I was given more responsibility, I was given more leeway to start my own projects, and kind of do my own thing, not be burdened by micro-managers and things like that. So, yeah, it does make a difference down the road.

James: That’s always a good thing. So we’ve got our brilliant pre-interview project, it’s going to excite people, it’s going to work. What do we do with it then? How do we make sure that it gets seen by the right people?

Raghav: So, the way that I would go about it, ideally, if you talked to somebody at the company before you did this, I would submit the project to them. You can say something like, “Hey, marketing manager at AcmeCorp, based on what we talked about in our conversation, you mentioned your challenges were x, y, and z, you mentioned working on x, y, and z. I noticed that you’re hiring for this specific role, and after our conversation I thought it would be a great fit, and based off of what you said I put together this little project based on the challenges that you had. I think that the role would be a great fit. I think this would be a great way to prove the value I can provide to the company. I hope to hear from you regarding next steps.   P.S. I already applied online.” So, if you come at it with that angle, generally speaking, they will either forward your resume over to like, the HR people, they would do the interview themselves, they would appreciate you, and that kind of gets the process going.

James: So you recommend sending it to, what, the person who you’d be working for as opposed to say, the CEO or someone in HR?

Raghav: Yeah, I mean, definitely not HR, I mean the people who are in, I mean, I guess it depends, but the people who are in HR, the recruiters, they tend to not be too receptive in my experience because they want people who, because their job is basically to read resumes, right? So, it’s much easier for them if you just send a resume. But, if you send it to someone, if you’re working for a start-up saying you send it to the CEO that might work, if you’re working for a big company like Microsoft or like Amazon or some gigantic corporation, maybe the person you talk to and already have a connection with might be better.

James: Well, that would make sense. And, would you recommend following up? So, doing a multi-pronged approach, so sending them email and hitting them up on LinkedIn or Twitter? Or is it just, you know, do one and bide your time?

Raghav: Yeah, I mean, I just send on email. If I don’t get a response back in a week, I’ll follow up, if I don’t get a response back the next week, I’ll follow up. If after two follow-ups, two or three follow-ups I still don’t get a response, I’m like, “Okay, I guess that’s not gonna happen,” and I just apply online and keep rolling.

James: In your experience then, so would you use this as a major talking point when you then go in for the interview? And, I guess you still need to, you still need to do the nuts and bolts and make sure you know about the company, and know about the job, and what that all entails, and interview well I guess.

Raghav: Yes. So, I actually send this in to every single interviewer that I’ve ever have. So for example, if I do a pre-interview project to get me the interview, I don’t assume the interviewers already know about it. I also, before the interview date, I would tell, I would send an email to all the interviewers saying something like, “Hey, by the way, I did this project based on what I talked about with this xyz person, this marketing manager at your company, he mentioned xyz, and based off of that I did this project. I sent it to him already, but I thought I should send it to you guys as well in case you want to talk about it tomorrow during our conversation. And they usually really appreciate that, and you get to, basically, and they tend to appreciate the fact that you sent that in before the interview.

James: Definitely, I can imagine that. So, we talked about why people might not do this. In your experience what holds people back from doing something creative like this?

Raghav: It comes down to, I think, the fear of wasting time. So, the idea that, okay, I’m going to spend three or four hours on this specific project. Even though I know it works, even though I read this blog, and it sounds logical, even though I know it’s worked for people in the UK, in Serbia, in India, in the US, in all these different places. What if I spend three hours on this and I send out the email and I don’t get any response back? That’s going to feel really bad. So, I think that, I would take, my counter to that would be to take a long term view. So, I mean, if you send out 1000 resumes, as opposed to doing this pre-interview project, instead you tweet your resume, and keep sending it out, and doing these different things, that’s not the right process for the long term. If you follow the right process and sort of do the job before you get it, if you prove that you can add value for the long term, you might have a few misses here or there, but in the long term it’s going to work itself out.

James: That’s very true. I love in your blog post, “How to Figure Out What You Want to Do,” you talk about people’s fears around, you know, trying to find the perfect job and the dream job. What do you say to people who, in their mind have a dream job that have idolized or idealized that’s holding them back from actually doing anything at all?

Raghav: If there’s one specific job that you are putting on a massive pedestal, I would say that’s probably not a good thing. I mean, it’s like a relationship, right? I mean, if you are idolizing one girl or one guy, and that’s the only person I ever want. What does someone else say to that? Okay, there’s a lot of other fish in the sea. Same thing with careers. There’s a lot of different companies, there’s a lot of different, there’s like tens of billions of jobs out there, tens of millions of businesses all over the of the world, they’re all hiring, tons of them are great, they’re not all, they don’t all have bad bosses, tons of those companies have great culture. So there’s a lot of stuff out there. And, really it takes time to figure out, by basically talking to someone who’s already working there, by talking to people who are in the roles that you’re in, that’s like, the best way to figure out specifically what you want to do.

James: But, of course, it’s not the case now where you’re going to be in a job for 20 years or 30 years. People tend to be more through careers at a much quicker rate, whether it’s three or four years in industry or one to two years at company. It’s just about making that initial starting and then learning from that, and going to the next place.

Raghav:  Yeah, exactly.

James: You mentioned earlier in the interview about closing doors.  You talk about, in one of your blog post about, “Don’t be afraid of closing doors.” Could you delve into this about what you meant with this one?

Raghav: Yeah, so, wherever people think about getting a new job, the place that they’re at mentally is sort of like, I’ve got all these different interests; I want to help people, I like analysis, I like thinking logically, I like the outdoors, I like this and that. And they come at it from the point of view of like, okay, so if I tie that to one specific job title, like marketing analysist, what if I want to transition to like, finance later? What if I want to transition to this different field? What if I feel like I hate this and some other field was a better fit? Would I be closing all those doors? I don’t want to get too specific. And I think that’s, I’m not sure, that’s a very common thing among younger people, people in their 20s, early 30s, they tend to be very non-committal. What I would say to them is that there’s no such thing as limiting yourself too much. Like I said, there’s tens of millions of companies, tens of millions of business out there. And even if you get super, even if you say that you’re a marketing analyst for tech companies that have employees between 20 and 50 people, even if you’re that specific you will still have like billions of options. So I don’t think there’s any sort of such thing as closing too many doors.

James: That’s a brilliant point. And, you talk about with one of your blog articles – if you’re looking for someone who did specialise, you’re a small company of 20 to 30 people and you’re looking for a marketing manager, who would you go for? Would you go for the person who specialises in companies with 20 to 30 people, and that’s all they did? Or would you go for the person who does a little bit of that, and well a little a bit of marketing for start-ups, a little bit of marketing for big companies? You know, you go for the specialist.

Raghav:  Exactly. I mean, the listener of this podcast can probably, you’re in the same shoes, right? If someone is listening to my pre-interview project advice, what are they thinking? They’re thinking, “Is this going to work for me? Is this going to work for my field? Is this going to for my industry?” And whenever you apply for a job, they’re thinking the same thing. They’re thinking, “Are you going to be a good fit for that company? Are you going to be a good fit for that specific project that they have going on? Are you going to be a good fit for that specific culture” So, the more specific you can get in whatever it is that you’re doing, the more you’re going to look like a tailored fit for them.

James: Listeners, that is very wise words of advice, and I definitely recommend that you implement it. Raghav, unfortunately time is running away with us. But, before we finish, let’s move to the quick-fire question of our, our weekly staple questions. So, put you on the spot now. What one book would you recommend that our listeners should read?

Raghav:  One book. So, this has nothing to do with jobs, nothing with careers or anything like that. I would recommend a book called, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” by a guy named Viktor Frankl. So, this book is about, so Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist back in the Holocaust. He survived like four different concentration camps in Germany. And this guy was a psychiatrist there, and he basically documented what specifically made certain people in that concentration camp survive and persevere, versus other people who just gave up, based on the hardships of their circumstances. So it’s an absolutely unbelievable book. It basically talks about why you need to have purpose, why you need to have something to live for, why you need to, basically, give yourself some sort of goal and aspiration to do, because it actually makes you stick with things a lot longer. It’s a crazy book, I recommend it to everybody.

James: I echo that, it’s a brilliant book and definitely one you should pick up. And you said it’s not directly related to jobs but, you know, goal setting, mind-set, having a drive, they’ll all certainly help you with your job search. And now then Raghav, what one website would you recommend that our listeners need to check out.

Raghav: One website, apart from mine, I would recommend Cal Newport’s Study Hacks blog, I think it’s called studyhacks.com, I think is the website URL. He provides super practical tips not just for, he’s main goal is to teach how to study in college, but those basic frameworks are applicable to practically everything you do in life, so I recommend that.

James: Brilliant, that’s not one I’ve come across but I’ll check it out and link to in the show notes. So check out the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/landanyjob/. And, finally Raghav, what one tip would you give our listeners that they can implement today to help on their job search?

Raghav: I would recommend, I think one thing that people don’t do that they really should, is talking to people who are in the jobs that they’re applying for. I think that a lot of the stuff, a lot of the job search that people do is all heavily online based. They look are articles, they read these generic top 10 tips, and they kind of come to this conclusion that, “Okay, I think I like this job at this company, I’m just going to apply for it there.” I would recommend, one thing that you can do today, is craft out an email that says something like, “Hey, person at xyz company. I noticed, I found you on LinkedIn, based on your experience at xyz company in the past three years, I think I would really love to talk to you, chat with you for 15 minutes to ask you a few specific questions about your experience at the company you’re at right now. What’s a good time to chat?” If you would literally send that email, it takes like five minutes, you can send that email out to someone right now on LinkedIn and have a great conversation and you can really learn a lot.

James: Brilliant, and you’d be surprised at the number of people that get back to you. Most people tend to be scared that no one’s ever going to reply, but people like to help. So give it a go and you won’t be disappointed.

Raghav:  Yeah.

James: Raghav, it’s been an absolute pleasure to have you on the Graduate Job Podcast. Before we finish, what is the best way for people to get in touch with you and the work that you do?

Raghav: Yeah, so you can get in touch with me on Twitter at RaghavHaran, that’s R-A-G-H-A-V-H-A-R-A-N. My site is landanyjobyouwant.com. I actually have a specific email list, a URL for you guys at this podcast right now. landanyjobyouwant.com/graduatejob So, if you just go there you can sign up.

James: Perfect. And I’ll link to everything we’ve talked about in the show notes. Raghav, many many thanks for appearing on the show.

Raghav: Yeah, thanks so much for having me James. Appreciate it.

James: There you go, told you it was a goodie. Many thanks again to Raghav. If you enjoyed it make sure you let him know on twitter @raghavharan . Lots of things for you to think about in those 30 minutes, so don’t be afraid to rewind and have another listen. The key takeaway for me is on the pre-interview project. Does it take abit of work? Yes, but is it worth it, definitely. You need to stand out from the crowd and this will allow you to do so. Put yourself in the recruiters position, faced with thousands of similar bland CVs, who would you rather interview, someone who does the same, or someone who has taken the initiative, put some time and effort in crafted a decent pre-interview project looking at the issues you as face as a business, or a new marketing strategy, or tweaks to your existing product range, or whatever it might be. You know the answer, so listen to the episode again and put the effort in and stand out. Lecture for today over. The one website address to remember for all the show notes a full transcript is www.graduatejobpodcast.com/landanyjob. 2 final requests from me, if this episode or any of the other 44 have been useful to you,you can thank me in 2 ways, one is to do the survey at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey, and the other is to leave me a review on itunes. The boffins at Apple put lots of weight to itunes reviews and it keeps me high in the charts, so please fire up itunes and leave me a review I will love you forever. All that’s left to say is join me next week when I speak to Tamara Mcleary, who shares how she went from fashion blogger to social media manager. An inspiring episode if I do say so myself. I hope you enjoyed today, but more importantly, I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next week.