The best candidates do this (10 examples)
What I’ve learned reviewing thousands of applications
Over the past month, I’ve reviewed thousands of candidates for the open roles we have on our marketing team.
Some of the candidates have been inbound candidates who applied on our website. Some of the candidates were passive in that I found and reached out to them (we eat our own dogfood and use our talent intelligence platform to recruit for new team members) believing it could be a great match for both their next career step + what we need here at Loxo.
When you’re engaging with these types of numbers, patterns start to emerge. So whether you’re actively on the job hunt, passively looking for your next thing, or are going to be hiring for your team, here are 10 things I’ve learned in this recent hiring window:
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1) Tailored resumes stand out every time
If you’re applying to a job, tailor your resume to the job description.
“But Sam, that’s sooooo much work!”
This is where ChatGPT will be your best friend. Feed it your resume. Feed it the job description. Tell it to pull out your top 3-5 most relevant experiences, skills, and competencies. Drop that into a section above your professional experience.
The biggest disconnect between an applicant and the person reviewing the resume is sifting through all of a candidate’s experience to determine if they’re a good fit for the role. Doing this gives the reviewer a straight line to your fit.
2) Speaking of GPT, we can tell when you’re using GPT
“Sam, you literally just said to use GPT, now you’re saying not to?”
Not quite. It’s dependent upon where it’s being used.
I ask a few questions on our application. Questions like “Why are you interested in joining Loxo?” and “What are you the most proud of? (This can be work-related or personal)”.
And I’m nearly certain I’ve gotten whiplash when reading the response to the second question after reading the response to the first question.
While you may think one GPT-written response may not look like it’s a GPT-written response, after reading hundreds of them, you’d be surprised how quickly you develop a sense for what’s written by someone who cares vs someone who’s copy and pasting something from GPT.
The first question is very easy to toss into GPT and have it give you an output. And most candidates haven’t refined their GPTs to sound like them or prompt it beyond the initial ask, so the output is a very sterile response. (Speaking of patterns - it’s amazing how many candidates chose the hyphenated word “forward-thinking” to describe Loxo and why that’s so appealing to them as a place to work…)
The second question isn’t easy to toss into GPT. It draws from your personal experience and what matters to you. GPT can’t create this one for you. So this one is almost always written directly by the candidate. I love the responses I see to this question, but to the whiplash point earlier, it’s a quick indicator for me to see how a candidate actually writes vs. what may have been pasted into the first response.
3) Don’t just say what you did, show the outcome
Manage our company pages on LinkedIn and Facebook
Create 2 customer stories per month
Send a monthly newsletter to our customers
Notice anything with the above? They’re missing the so what? element.
What happened with those company pages? What are those customer stories doing for you? Is that monthly newsletter helping to accomplish something specific?
I want to know why you’re doing those things and what the outcome is that you are tying to those. This is what a recruiter/hiring manager is seeking. We want to know how you think and what you gauge as moving the needle in the role.
4) Optional questions are there to see your effort
The typical application asks for you to attach a resume and maybe answer a few questions. Then there’s usually a place to attach any other optional items, such as a cover letter or portfolio, or questions that aren’t required to submit the application.
While these optional areas won’t ever be the direct reason a candidate is passed over, when you’re in a competitive pool of candidates, these optional sections are what set the great candidates apart. Take advantage of them.
5) Going above + beyond isn’t sending a connection request to the hiring manager
That’s table stakes now. And the hiring manager knows exactly what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
If you want to go above and beyond while you know you’re in the “review” phase, creativity becomes your best friend.
Of all the individuals who applied to the 3 roles, ONE candidate (< 0.1% of the total pool) cold called + texted me. You know who I had an intro call scheduled with for a few days later? That candidate.
This is one example of many things you can do as a candidate, but as candidate pools grow and the roles are increasingly competitive, finding ways like this to stand out AND show initiative go a long way in a hiring manager’s eyes.
6) Being excited + high energy on an interview isn’t desperate, it shows you care
I’m not saying a candidate needs to artificially “turn it on” while on an interview, but energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Conveying this to a hiring manager shows you care about the work being done. It also signals the type of team member you’ll be.
Are you optimistic?
Are you energized by the work you do/the industry the company is in?
Will you be an energy provider or depletor to the larger team?
Some roles just need a “butt in the seat,” and that’s 100% ok for some organizations. But for other organizations where you don’t want to be a cog in the machine, this is the type of thing that sets you apart from other candidates who are simply going through the motions.
7) Send a thank you after
This one isn’t new. It’s a fundamental one, but I’ve been surprised by how few candidates follow up with a quick thank you note.
Again, not a requirement, but a great place to stand out, show you care, and follow up with a takeaway from the conversation.
7.1) Send a thank you + something actionable
Building off of that, this is where I’ve seen 2 candidates really break themselves away from the pack. Not only did they send a thank you after the conversation, but they followed up with thoughts and actionable takeaways for me that I could implement based on what was shared during the conversation.
THIS IS HUGE.
They show they can listen + get to the meat of what I care about.
They show they can translate that into their discipline and what they can do to impact the outcome.
They show how they think + approach solving it.
AND they give it away as a gesture of help.
These are the types of people hiring managers drool over.
Here’s an example of just one slide within a presentation that a candidate shared with me following our conversation. I did not provide them with a templated deck either, so again, even more brownie points here.
8) Do your research before the interview
Within 2 minutes of talking to a candidate, I can tell if they did their research on our company.
Did they sweep our website to get an idea of what we do, who we serve, and the problem(s) we solve for? That’s table stakes.
The candidates who set themselves apart?
They watched our training videos on YouTube
They listened to our podcast
They signed up for our free PLG offering
And they came to the conversation using these as talking points.
I’m not saying these are requirements for advancing to the next stage of the interview process, but there was a VERY strong correlation between those who I could look in our system to see if they’d signed up for our PLG offering and if they did/didn’t advance.
9) Harsh truth: work/life balance is a you thing, not a company thing
On the surface, this sounds like a valid question to ask. What should I expect from work? What type of hours? When do I need to be online?
But here’s the thing I’ve come to realize over the years - how this question is asked + framed is wildly underthought.
When kept at a broad level “How’s work life balance at Loxo?” this question signals one thing to me: you don’t know how to set boundaries for yourself. (I told you this one was a harsh truth)
When asked in this way, it’s signalling to me that you don’t know how to set boundaries between work requirements and your personal life.
It signals to me you don’t know how to prioritize effectively.
The better way to ask this question?
“I’m a highly driven individual at work. But I also have children and my health is important to me. Can you share an example of someone at Loxo who you think epitomizes this type of balance that I could potentially speak with later to see what I can learn from them?”
10) Interviewers WANT you to succeed
I can’t wait to find the perfect candidate. To have the conversation where I leave afterward thinking, “This candidate is a HELL YES” and feel confident that we have a fit for the role.
To that point, interviewers WANT to see the candidate succeed on the interview. We aren’t some gatekeeper or bouncer trying to keep as many people out as possible. We’re simply seeking the candidate that knocks us off our feet.
And every time, we hope that candidate is the person we’re speaking with. We’re rooting for them every time.
Book quote of the week
“It stands to reason that a person can give the best of himself only when his interest is in his work, when he feels a natural attraction to it, when he likes it. Then he will be industrious and efficient. The things the craftsman produced in the days before modern capitalism were objects of joy and beauty, because the artisan loved his work. Can you expect the modern drudge in the ugly huge factory to make beautiful things? He is part of the machine, a cog in the soulless industry, his labor mechanical, forced.”
- A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Being a Better Leader, by Ari Weinzweig
In case you missed these this week
Don't be afraid to set a high bar and refuse to settle for anything short of it
See you next Saturday,
Sam