Mastering the Digital Job Hunt: Tools and Techniques for Today’s Applicants

20 November 2024

Job hunting in 2025 is a cumbersome and painful process. The reason is that the job market in regions like the USA and EU is stagnant, particularly in the technology sector. Massive layoffs in 2024 and prior years have also resulted in a lot of people looking for new jobs, thus increasing the already stiff competition.

Then, to add fuel to the fire, quite a few job openings are bogus, i.e., the company is not actually looking to hire someone. This could be due to tax reasons, to mislead competitors, or creating a certain impression. Nevertheless, they waste a lot of applicants' time.

Today, we are going to teach you how to avoid a lot of these problems and enhance your job-landing success rate.

What Are Some Tools and Techniques That Applicants Can Use to Land a Job

Below are some methods of improving your hiring rate, as well as some tools that can help you apply those methods.

Create An Online Portfolio

An online portfolio is one of the most important things an applicant needs to boost their job hiring rate. 

Due to the stiff competition in most fields like IT, employers need to vet applicants based on their experience and skills. The best way to prove that you have experience and skills is to create a digital portfolio that you can share with your potential employers. 

If that didn’t convince you, then you should know that according to a LinkedIn article,  applicants with a robust portfolio have a 200% higher chance of getting hired than those without one.

Nowadays, it is quite easy to create a portfolio website. Using something like Wix or WordPress, anyone can create a website with a no-code interface and upload their portfolio items.

Since it is your own website, you can upload a video, a presentation, or just images of projects you have done. You can include some documentation to prove that you have the background knowledge and technical know-how as well.

Useful Tools 

• Website Builders

As we mentioned, you can use a website builder to create an appealing website that has your entire portfolio on it. Having your own website is a great way of sharing your portfolio because you can control how it is presented. 

• QR Codes

You need some way of making your portfolio website available. Normally, in a digital medium, you would just put in a link to the website. However, some employers will print out your resume instead. 

To make it convenient for them to view your portfolio, you can add a QR code to your resume that leads to your website. To create a QR code, you can use a free tool like a QR code generator. 

QR codes can be scanned with a QR scanner, which usually comes built-in with modern smartphones. As such, QR codes are highly accessible.

Learn how to Spot Fake Job Posts

In the introduction, we mentioned that some job posts are not even real. Applying to them is a waste of time because the employers will string you along for quite a while before they give you customary notice about not being a good fit for their company and whatnot.

Some fake jobs are straight-up scams. They only want to extract sensitive information from applicants or get some money. 

To protect yourself and avoid wasting time, look out for some tell-tale signs of fake job postings. These include some of the following.

• The job is too good to be true, i.e., it has very high pay but minimal job responsibilities. Such jobs have a likelihood of being fake.

• The job description is extremely vague and overcomplicated.

• The job is offering immediate hiring without any interviews. That is a red flag. All legitimate employers will hold an interview. 

• The job listing has poor language and frequent grammar errors.

• You can’t find the company offering the job anywhere online.

• Communication occurs over unofficial channels, i.e., DMs on social media or chat apps, instead of emails.

• The employee demands sensitive information from you over the phone or through message apps. That is almost always a red flag because whatever information they need is already on your resume. 

• Demand payment to get hired. No real job will ask for money upfront or at any other point when recruiting you.

Useful Tools 

Here are some tools that can help you spot fake job posts from real ones.

• Review websites

Review sites for companies can help you identify whether a job posting is real or not. A website like Glassdoor can help you out. Many people leave reviews about companies that you can peruse to get an understanding of them. If a company has a lot of bad reviews, then you should look elsewhere.

Network On LinkedIn and Other Social Media

Networking has always been an integral part of the job application process. Knowing the right people can go a long way into landing a good job.

This is why professional social media platforms like LinkedIn exist. They allow professionals from all skill levels to come together and communicate. 

LinkedIn, in particular, allows you to follow companies and even their employees. You can also send requests to connect with people, and if they accept, you can talk to them in DMs. 

It is always worth it to expand your connections because LinkedIn recruiters will always check their connections and extend job offers to suitable people.

Useful Tools

• LinkedIn Search

LinkedIn has an extensive search system that allows you to search for people and companies. You can use their names, niches, or skills as parameters to make the search results more relevant to yourself. 

• LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn will suggest people you should connect with. These are people who work in the same field as you. So, you cannot go wrong by connecting with them.

Keep Your Email Notifications On

Many job applicants miss out on good job offers due to not checking their email. If you are an active job seeker, you need to develop a habit of checking your email twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. 

However, even better than that is to keep your email notifications on. This way, you can instantly respond to any email that you get. 

The caveat is that you will also get bombarded with spam and marketing emails. So, you have to find some way to deal with that. Fortunately, some tools can help.

Useful Tools 

Clean Email is a tool that allows you to clean your inbox conveniently. It also blocks new emails from unwanted senders and keeps your inbox neat and clean.

As a result, you can focus on emails from companies you applied to.

Optimize Your Resume for ATS

ATS stands for applicant tracking system. These are automated systems that select and shortlist candidates who applied for a job. Now, these systems are very basic. They are looking for specific keywords. 

If you use those keywords in your email/resume, you will be shortlisted and called for an interview. If you don’t, then even if you are overqualified, you won’t make it past the preliminary selection. 

The keywords that you need to use are always in the job advert itself. They may be related to skills, job titles, and even timings or location. You need to identify and use those keywords to get selected.

Useful Tools 

• Job Description Keyword Finder

There are many tools available online that can read a job description and extract all or most of the keywords used in it. These tools take the guesswork out of the equation and help you craft the best job application to increase your chances of success.

Use Job Application Platforms and Calendars for Tracking Applications

Job application platforms are a great tool for aspiring employees. These platforms allow you to create a CV and apply to many jobs from one central platform.

The main advantage of using such a platform is that you can find jobs that are suitable for you. For example, you can look for jobs in your city. You can also look for remote, hybrid, or on-site jobs. 

Another advantage is that you can track your applications easily. You can see things like:

• The date when you applied for a job

• Whether the company has replied back or not

• Whether you have been selected or not.

You can also do this manually with calendar apps. Of course, the problem is that you have to track everything manually. In this regard, a job application platform is far superior.

Useful Tools 

Alma Career is a company that specialises in online recruitment and job advertising solutions. It operates mostly in eastern and central Europe. It has country-specific platforms that cater to the unique employment markets of each region. These portals provide access to job opportunities and career advice resources for applicants. This includes CV creation and application tracking as well.

Look Up Interview Questions and Rehearse Beforehand

One of the parts that a job applicant will likely fail at is the interview. If your interview goes wrong, you can assume that you will not get the job.

One of the common reasons for having a poor interview is nervousness. If you are a new job seeker, you might be familiar with terrible feelings of anxiety as the day of the interview approaches. 

One of the best ways of dealing with such feelings is to prepare for the interview. Look up standard interview questions that are asked in your field. Also, try to find some interview questions at the company where you will be interviewing.

Stand in front of a mirror and speak the questions and their answers out loud. This will help you become less nervous when speaking and allow your mouth and tongue to create a muscle memory of the answers. 

Useful Tools 

There are some websites that can help you prepare for technical interviews. You can do live interviews with peers and answer their questions. Such a website can help you overcome your nerves and ace your interview.

My Interview Practice - another tool similar to Pramp that helps your practice for interviews. It is not limited to technical fields, so it has more scope.

Conclusion

This concludes our article on mastering the digital job hunt. With the tools and techniques we have highlighted, you can massively improve the success rate of your job applications and interviews. So, go out there and apply for that dream job!