Yours truly has been busy the last two months. Mostly with remembering how to interview for a job. And understanding how to write CVs these days. Did you know that if you want to have good odds of success, you need to make your CV search engine friendly? Not Google, but the internal ATS systems that recruiters use. Some people started getting around that by pasting the entire job description into the CV they send out (in white, 1pt font) to game the system. That, in turn, made many recruiters upset because it clogged up their candidate pipeline and made them actually read some CVs, but that’s life. As soon as you put an uncaring, badly designed, dehumanized system in place, to guard something of value, people will find ways of getting around it.
I didn’t, by the way. If you’re wondering. Got as far as making my LinkedIn profile more search friendly. My for-human-eyes-only CV still resulted in job interviews at quite a few great companies. I’d like to think it attracted the right people, but who knows? Maybe I was lucky.
The experience of job searching in Berlin, a market that’s as big as it is volatile, has made me a better, slightly more ATS-optimized person. And I am grateful to have thrown myself at this problem.
In the meantime, I’ve been up and about with my camera. Prague, Poznan, Torun, Berlin. Finding beauty where you’d least expect it. Have a look:
Finding something worth paying attention to almost makes everything else alright, doesn’t it?
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Love this article Sebastian – absolutely right… dehumanizing processes FOR humans are the bane of my existence but glad to have met you on your journey. P.S. Love the Golem pics.
Kate! How on earth did you find me here? Thanks for the comment too. You were amongst the most human interactions I had when interviewing.