In my professional career, I have worked with 100+ clients across the globe. To achieve this feat, the first thing that I had to do after getting shortlisted, was to give interviews. I haven’t kept a count of the total number of presentations or interviews I must have given. But in my 10 years of professional experience, it should be easily more than 500! To do that, I have always leveraged the best job hunt tools or software available at my disposal.
Initially, it was as simple as Canva or CVMaker. And then applying on job portals like Linkedin, Naukri.com, Indeed, and Monster among many others.
What followed was waiting for calls! And when the call is received, hoping that they will ask me the questions I know. And hopefully, I will get selected!
So, long story short – I have made a lot of mistakes!
Someone said, “life is too short to learn from your own mistakes”. And you can learn from mine! So, I am going to share 5 tools that will help you land your dream job in 2024.
These tools are profession-agnostic! If you’re a FRESH GRADUATE, someone with 2 or 3 years of digital marketing experience, or a SEASONED professional looking to upskill their knowledge, you are all set to take the journey!
1. NovoResume to create a great CV/ Resume
I have been using NovoResume since 2020 and what it does is – just like other tools, it has good templates. But here’s the thing – there are 2 types of employers:
- Those who go through your CV personally! Basically, there is a human eye that would be assessing your CV, and
- Companies using AI Resume parser to assess CVs. After working with a few HRTech companies, I know one rule of thumb during mass hiring. If the company size is 200+ employees, there is a high chance that they are using an Applicant tracking system (ATS). And majority of these ATS have built-in AI for resume parsing functionalities.
You can make all your amazing CVs with custom designs and creative word-plays. But most probably, your CV is not getting through.
So, how can Novoresume help me?
So, in NovoResume’s free version, you can choose to create 1 CV of 1 only page (for some reason). But I think that is enough for most people!
And then if you are applying for a bigger company where you are sure that they will be using AI Parsers, you can purchase their monthly plan. It will cost you around ₹800 which comes at around $11. And then you can simply create another CV instantly as it will fetch your information from the first one.
Plus there are other cool things that they have like the WYSIWYG CV builder. It gives you a drag-and-drop option.
Plus, it gives recommendations to improve your CV while you do it. The best part is – that using this platform is extremely simple.
And for all these reasons, it has been my choice to create CVs for the past 4 years!
Coming to the next tool which will always be free, forever, I hope!
2. Wappalyzer/ BuiltWith to know the Tech stack of your employer
According to Wappalyzer, 93% of Fortune 500 companies use Wappalyzer to UNDERSTAND their competitors’ tech stack.
It’s a Google Chrome extension that tells you the entire tech stack of a company when you visit its website.
Here’s one thing, and I hate to make it too technical for some, but you MAY not get all the marketing technologies! And this happens when the company is using a Tag Manager.
But still, you will have plenty of information that you can use to put in your CV. Or even better, you can showcase your knowledge about the company during the interview!
And talking from experience, PEOPLE DO NOTICE this and get impressed when they see that you’ve done your homework!
When I used to apply for full-time positions, that was my strategy. Even nowadays, when I am presenting my marketing consultation services to companies, I still use Wappalyzer.
Although my intentions are a bit different. Let me tell you how.
So, for instance, let’s say a company is using Adobe Experience Cloud, previously called Adobe Marketing Cloud. I let them know that I have used Marketo but overall THAT IS not my expertise. And then I tell them that I know Hubspot Marketing Hub.
Because at this stage, I want to have a MATCH with the companies I work with!
A lot of companies use Wappalyzer for competitive analysis. But as someone who wants to improve their selection chances, Wappalyzer CAN be YOUR SECRET WEAPON.
And…. as I said before, it’s free!
Alright. Now let’s make things a little bit technical but fun!?
3. Dripify to connect with the Hiring Manager
So… even I discovered this tool in late 2023 and it IS DARN good! Let me tell you what it does. So, on LinkedIn, you must have seen people having a badge – I’m Hiring. Right? The violet color thing wrapped around their profile.
So, all you need to do is – search for those people on LinkedIn. Use the filters to make sure that you have a list of all relevant industries where you want to work.
Then copy the URL of LinkedIn, and paste it on Dripify.
Dripify will then create a prospect list and start LinkedIn automation for you! it will send LinkedIn connection requests to all those people on your behalf and interact with them. It will LIKE their posts, visit their profile, endorse them, and send them 1-to-1 messages. This way, you can stand out from the rest of the applicants!
What more can you do on Dripify?
You can see your analytics on Dripify and keep optimizing your sequence. The sequence is like an automatic workflow that will allow you to instruct Diprify on how to interact on your behalf.
For example, as soon as someone accepts your connection request, you can ask Dripify to view their profile and like 4 of their recent posts. On the next day, you can endorse them or send a message, and so on!
The best part is – Dripify users see an average OPEN RATE of 21%. This is higher than any other outbound channel. Also, this approach automatically puts you in a better position than all other candidates who are not using it!
You can use their free trial and see if it’s working out for you. To continue, you can just pay $39 which is around ₹3500 per month.
Think from a 😅CAPITALIST perspective – you will make at least 30, 40 or ₹50,000 rupees per month by investing just ₹3500. So, I think it’s a big win!
But don’t just go on my word, I am not a financial advisor. You can try it for yourself and the least it will do for you is – build your LinkedIn connections. More importantly, it will add people who you would like to be part of your LinkedIn connection. And this, at least for me, is very important. If you are at your early stage, you will surely cherish taking this decision!
Okay, now moving on to the next tool:
4. Microsoft Copilot to prepare for the interview
So, here’s the thing – I have EXTENSIVELY used, you can say, almost every AI tool. I have done multiple courses since ChatGPT’s name started popping up on my LinkedIn. I have got at least 15 AI plugins on my Chrome. Tried many, if not all of them! Apart from job hunt tools, you can read the list of 30+ content marketing AI tools that will give you an idea of what’s in store!
So, this is my take – Microsoft Copilot is just THE BEST! It’s using the latest GPT-4 and DALLE-3 models by Open AI.
But without geeking out a lot, when it comes to human-like interaction, Bard and Claude are not even close!
Now that could be my personal experience but it is what it is!
So, what can Copilot do for you?
It can get you information and then prepare you for questions about an industry. But more importantly, it can create amazing case study questions that are asked by GOOD INTERVIEWERS!
If you want it to customize content for your CV based on the Job Description, it can just do that. All you need to do then is make a few edits and then Copy-paste.
A better job hunt tool – Monica!
The only problem I have with Copilot right now is that you can only have 5 chats with it in a row. And after 5 chats, it resets. But if you want more, then there’s another option! Just go ahead and purchase a Google Chrome extension called Monica and you can leverage:
- all the major AI chatbots.
- YOU CAN SUMMARIZE ANYTHING… like LITERALLY anything there’s on the web.
A webpage, a YouTube video, pdf. Then, it can TRANSLATE images to text, one language to another, and WRITE things for you!
So, if you ARE planning to spend on an AI tool and you are NOT A POWER USER.
(By power user, I mean, someone who will not use more than 5000 queries per month. Which I believe, for most people, is way above what they can do in a month!
I think Monica is the one for you! it will help you not just during the job hunt but even when you are working!
AND WITH THAT, THE LAST ONE! This one feels to me like a bit of a gray area.
And I am not 100% sure if this tool does what it says it does but somehow it did….
Okay, I think you’ll know what I want to say when I explain this further…
So, imagine, you are about to give an interview. You have no idea who you will be talking to, or what kind of personality they will have. If you say XYZ, maybe you could have said it differently.
But for that, what you need is – a digital profile of that person so that you know what they prefer. And that is exactly what this tool does, but better!
5. Crystal to know your interviewers before meeting them
CRYSTAL is inspired by the theory of personality by Carl Jung. I you don’t know that, I would STRONGLY recommend you read about it. Because it WILL, and I guarantee you, it WILL help you build better interpersonal skills.
So, Crystal is a web application and it has a Chrome extension. The first time you install Crystal, you will have to go to your own LinkedIn profile page. Then, it will analyze your profile and give you an estimate of your personality.
So, what Crystal or Crystal Knows does is – that you can visit someone’s LinkedIn profile and it will analyze their personality traits. Then, based on the first assessment it did on you, it will recommend things that are common between both of you and things you should and should not say to the other person. And the way you should say them.. and a lot of stuff!
So, does ‘Crystal Knows’ really work?
The first time I tried it, I thought it was using the Barnum-Forrer effect! But I couldn’t be more wrong!
So, I tried using the ‘findings’ and ‘recommendations’ from Crystal for 1 month on my potential clients. And ACTUALLY, and I am not kidding, I saw an increase in my conversions.
Now, I am not 100% sure if it was Crystal’s advice that helped me do that. Or if it was just me being OVERLY CAUTIOUS to NOT say things that Crystal showed me.
But hey!! It worked… for me, at least!
I guess, that is why some people believe in astrology… now you know why I called it GRAY AREA!
But anyway, you can use Crystal on 10 people for free. And then if you want to continue, you will have to spend $50 per month for 200 profiles!
So… that will make every profile assessment cost around $0.25 which is ₹20 rupees.
And I think my ROI is already justified on this tool but it’s up to you. If you feel like you are getting some sort of value, then just go for it. Or if you think that I am DELUSIONAL, let me know!
Conclusion
So, just to sum things up… The 5 tools you can use to boost your chances of getting a digital marketing job:
- NovoResume to build your CV
- Wappalyzer to know the company’s tech stack
- Dripify to automate your communication with the hiring companies
- Copilot to help you practice for interviews and get you all the content you need
- And finally, Crystal or Crystal knows…. for…. PSYCHOLOGICAL upper hand…. maybe or COMMUNICATION ADVICE with your INTERVIEWER…I don’t know but you get the idea! 😅