3 questions to ask yourself before starting a development job hunt

If you’re looking to get started with a global development career, whether you’re finishing up your degree or looking to transition from the private sector, you probably have a lot of questions, and some of the best questions you can ask to help you prepare are those you ask yourself, including: Are you clear on what you want? “What I often see with coaching clients is that they try to fish in the sea instead of trying to fish in that small pond next door. So you really want to know where you want to be, and the clearer you are, the better it's gonna be for you,” said international coach Simone Anzböck during a recent Devex digital careers event. She was joined by social impact talent agent Spencer Campbell in a discussion to help aspiring professionals prioritize the most important things to consider in the areas of gaining experience, networking, job hunting, and more. Here are three of the many key questions they recommended asking yourself. Am I applying for the right jobs? “There's what you want, and then there's what the marketplace wants,” Campbell, who was a recruiter before he became a talent agent, said. “The idea is to find a match between those two things.” If you find yourself not getting many responses to your job applications, you may not be taking into consideration what the roles’ requirements are and whether your skills and experience are really a good fit. Campbell recommended an exercise where you look at each job description from those you’re applying for and focus on the first three or four bullet points from the “requirements” section. There needs to be a strong match in what the job requires and what qualifications you truly possess. “The first person that reads your resume, they're really just doing a check on plausibility. And so, often, the roles that you think might be a good match for you when you're making a transition may actually not be the ones that end up being the perfect match,” he said. During this “discover process,” if the responses you’re receiving from your applications are “less often than 1 in 10 applications, there could be something wrong with either your materials, your application approach, or the jobs that you're applying to,” Campbell added. Am I confident in myself and what you have to offer? “The story you tell yourself about yourself, about your skills, about your accomplishments, about who you are … it’s going to show up in the process,” Anzböck said. In other words, how you feel about yourself and your abilities will come across in job interviews and networking opportunities. To give your self-esteem a boost, Anzböck recommended a “success page” exercise where you “write down your skills, your strengths, your accomplishments, whether that's from your last job, or whether that's from life, from volunteering, from university, whatever it is,” she said. You should also include the “values you want to lean into” and answer the question, “Why are you perfect for your next employer?” This is important to do “before you write applications [and] before you go into interviews because it's really important that you are confident in your own narrative and what you have to offer. That will go such a long way,” she said. Campbell added that thinking about how others might describe your positive attributes can help you construct your personal narrative. Ask yourself, “What do people in my life, people who've worked with me, people who know me, people who can speak to my strengths, what do they say about me? How can I tap into my existing network? “If I have the most useful piece of advice to share with job seekers — the thing that I think is gonna have the best return on investment for actually getting you a job — it would be effective networking,” Campbell said. Based on his own experience as a recruiter, Campbell said that job applicants who were referred by someone else were 20 times more likely to be hired, which highlights just how important it is to have connections who will ultimately vouch for you. Many of these contacts are already in your network and may know of “jobs that you could be a good fit for, but maybe you haven't thought to apply to, or you haven't seen,” he added. If you’re looking for new contacts, Anzböck recommended focusing on “peer networking,” which involves connecting with those who are at a similar career level as you are, rather than reaching out to CEO-level individuals who may have more influence but likely not the time to engage. This approach can also be more effective because you’re likely to “feel more comfortable talking with your peers than maybe approaching someone five levels up,” she said. Ready to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by the recruiters who matter most? Update your Devex profile and start connecting with top global development recruiters now.