Using Indeed to Land a Marketing Interview

After hiring more than 100 people using Indeed, I'm sharing some tips and tricks to land an interview for that dream role--Marketing Wise!

Document Starters/Portfolio Setup

1. Create and refine 1-3 resumes:

• These are completed, error-free, “final-copy” worthy different versions of your resume, but they will work as starter docs for each application submitted.
• If you are looking for one, very defined role in a specific industry, you may not need multiple versions, but you should refine your resume as specifically as possible to this one role.
• If you would be a good fit for a particular type of role but could work in several different industries, create one designed to fit each industry you are interested in.
• If your skills and experience would be a good fit for several roles within a particular vertical, create one for each of those. For example, if I were a marketing generalist, happy to work in several areas of marketing, I would have one each for the roles of Content Marketing Specialist, SEO Manager, Digital Marketing Coordinator, etc.

2. Create and refine cover letters that correspond with your resumes:

• You can do this manually, starting with one cover letter if you already have one that you think would work well, and tweaking it to match each resume when the time comes.
• I recommend feeding your starter resumes into ChatGPT and asking for cover letters based on each resume. Treat each cover letter draft it provides as just that—a draft. Go through and reword things in your own way, and make sure the most important keywords/platforms/skills from your resume are highlighted and prioritized correctly.

3. Create a portfolio (if applicable) tailored to your desired industry/role:

• Depending on your field, potential employers may ask for a portfolio or work sample. You should have this already compiled, organized, and ready to go.
• At the very least, this could be a Google Drive with relevant examples of your work—organized by type of work, industry, etc. Ideally, this would be a professional-looking portfolio webpage with examples of your work and/or links to other entities that showcase your work.
• In addition to displaying creative work, this could also include case study slide decks, before and after screenshots, infographics showing improvement in key metrics, etc.

Search Setup:

Using Indeed, only apply for jobs within the first day (or two) they are posted. Don’t bother spending time applying for out-of-date jobs. Create a search with all your criteria for location, pay, etc.—save that search and sort by date (this is key—always make sure your sorting method is set to this; sometimes on certain screens it will default to something else randomly).

Schedule:

Ideally, you’ll batch-apply for jobs three times a day, every day—even weekends: first thing in the morning before starting any other work, midday, and evening. This ensures that you will be in the first group of respondents no matter the time of day it was posted.

Method

While sorting through the most recently added posts, apply for everything that's a good fit until you get to posts a couple of days old, or you start seeing jobs you have already seen or applied to. If you know you are qualified for a role, apply for it even if you're missing a qualification listed in the post like education or experience.

Not Using AI:

After reading a job description: edit your closest matching resume slightly so it fits with the particular role, and includes key terminology from the description. Then do the same for your cover letter if necessary. Do this for every job!

Using AI:

1. Copy and paste the job description to ChatGPT explaining “I am applying for a job and here’s the job description:” and submit that prompt. For the next prompt, paste your closest matching resume text after “Please analyze the following resume, and point out any important keywords in the job description that don’t appear here:” – make changes to each doc as necessary, or ask ChatGPT for help.
2. After editing the closest matching resume to more closely fit the job description, use the same method above to paste your new resume into ChatGPT and your best-fitting cover letter. Ask ChatGPT to adjust the cover letter to better fit the key points in your new resume.

Approach it like this several times a day until you run out of jobs to apply for each time.

You gain an advantage by getting into mailboxes first and getting into a lot of them. This is key; people most easily remember the first and last impressions in a series, and since we don’t know when an employer is going to stop accepting resumes, this is your only choice in taking advantage of that knowledge.

Tips as you go (in order of importance):

1: For every job description you read, be on the lookout for Profile Insights showing skills, languages, or education Indeed doesn’t know you have. In the example below, I don’t have SDKs listed in my skills, and I don’t have Italian listed in my languages.

Always add any qualification you do have on any job posting in the insights window even if you aren’t applying for that particular job— the more you do that, the less often you have to worry about it while actually applying. It’s as easy as selecting “Yes” under the items—less than a second spent—No time at all to help your resume from joining the 95% of resumes that are never even read (According to JobHunt.org).

***Employers can mark any of these qualifications as “required” and if you haven’t claimed a qualification like those above, it could remove you from the running before anyone even sees your resume.***

2: DO NOT LIE:

Everything I’m suggesting above will help give you an advantage because of how the platform works. I am suggesting utilizing keywords found in job descriptions to better communicate with them using their terminology (but also for getting through the first line of “AI” defense). For example, if you were a manager overseeing the pick, pack, and ship process of a warehouse, but a job posting in operations uses the word fulfillment, this process would prompt you to include that terminology in your documents.

3: Don’t get discouraged:

I know it’s cliché, but it really is tough out there—the job market is full of talented, experienced people looking for work. If you are looking for a remote job, remember that (depending on the position) you’re competing among many highly skilled applicants from all over the state, country, or even the whole world. It may take some time, but effort and resolve are eventually rewarded!