In recent months, finding a job has become increasingly competitive. So, how to get hired and beat all competition?
The key lies in really standing out in the pool of applicants. 👀
We pulled together our best advice for standing out when applying for a job. And you don’t just have to take our word for it. We also asked a top recruiter for pointers.
The cherry on top? 🍒 A real-life example of a job seeker that really stood out and got hired, beating all competition.
Best tip for how to get hired: stand out from the crowd – Image source
But first, a quick look at some data. Just in case you’re not convinced that standing out is important these days. 😉
Why it’s important to stand out when applying for jobs in 2020
In case you haven’t noticed, unemployment numbers have been growing across the world in the last few months.
Based on our data, we see that so far, not all job markets have taken a hit when it comes to numbers of job openings. It may just be that MeetFrank is growing in popularity among recruiters in those countries. 💪 Or perhaps there is a lag and job openings will start to decrease later this year.
At the same time, it is clear that there are more and more people actively looking for new employment opportunities.
For example, in Estonia, Finland and Lithuania, the number of active job seekers numbers has increased by 15%, 18.5% and 11.5% respectively. 📈
How to get hired: stand out even before you apply
Yes, you can stand out even before sending in your application. Here’s how! 🏆
1. Get referred 📣 Personal recommendations go a long way these days. A warm referral from a team member or otherwise trusted contact is a surefire way to stand out in the pool of applicants. 🔥
Here’s how: Do you know anyone who works at the company that can recommend you? Do you have any other connections to key people at the firm? If so, don’t be shy to ask for a personal mention to the recruiter.
2. Get noticed 📯 Sometimes, you just have to toot your own horn. In fact, building a personal brand in your specialty will be the best investment for standing out as an applicant. It will be good for you now and long-term, as you’ll be getting job offers even before you need to start looking. 👀
Toot your own horn (or saxophone) at and get noticed – Image source
Here’s how: If you’re a creative, put together a public portfolio of your best work. If you’re a software developer, build something that works! If you’re any other professional, start being vocal about key topics in your specialty on LinkedIn. Start a podcast! Sky’s the limit!
3. Polish your profile 💅 This can seem like basic hygiene, but you’d be surprised how many fail to keep their professional profiles up to date and immaculate. Whether it’s a CV or a LinkedIn profile that you need to submit, make sure it is up to date and on point. 🎯 Here’s how: Make sure you’ve covered all recent and relevant experience on your profile. Highlight your achievements—what did you actually get done and bring to the table in your previous roles. Don’t forget to double-check the grammar!
Don’t forget to spell-check your CV or profile – Image source
⭐️Advice from a recruiter ⭐️ Scoro is a company that attracts a lot of applications whenever they post a job opening on MeetFrank. So, we asked their recruiter Stina for some advice for how to get hired when you’re competing with a lot of applicants. Here’s what she said about polishing your profile: “Keep the CV short, clear, and elegant, but point out what were your main responsibilities at each position.”
Stina also highlights the importance of proper grammar: “Make sure your CV and cover letter are grammatically correct. Use Grammarly or other tools to check the wording and read the text many times. If you don’t have an eye for detail, ask someone else.”
4. Do your research 🧐 Before applying, take your time to research everything you can about the company. What is the company you’re applying to all about? Are you actually a good fit for the company? After all, you are unlikely to get hired if it’s not a good match. 🧩
Before you apply, read about the company – Image source
Here’s how: Look through the key pages of their website. Read their blog. Do some Googling and see if you can find some coverage: recent press releases, interviews with the founders or C-level executives. Hearing the people who run the company talk can be super insightful! 🌟Pro tip: We know, the research can be time-consuming to the point of overwhelming. This is where the MeetFrank app comes in handy. MeetFrank only shows you job openings that are a good matchwith your profile, including your work-related preferences. There’s even a small icon next to each company that shows how well you match! This will save you precious time on the job hunt. 😉
How to stand out during the application process
Next, let’s take a look at how you can stand out during the application process itself. This is your time to shine.
5. Craft a killer application 🔥 All recruiters require you to send in an application in some shape or form. In some cases, it’s still the old school combination of CV and cover letter. Other companies have moved on to more modern solutions, like having a structured conversation via an app like MeetFrank. Make sure yours stands out! 🤩 Here’s how: Write up a sincere application, and consider adding something special to it—for a content marketing role, it may be a video, for a copywriter role a blog post, for a business role, a printed, bound, 10-page presentation on innovative ideas for the company.
Add something special to your application, like a custom website – Image source
Sounds like too much? Well, if you are really gunning for that job, go the extra mile. Otherwise, a sleek CV or job profile on the platform of choice will do. ⭐️Real-life example ⭐️ Nicole Tan had never been to Estonia when she applied for a Marketing Manager role with Latitude59.
Here’s her story in her own words: “Though I’d never been to Estonia, I had heard about it being a digital nation and always wanted to visit. When I saw that Latitude59 was looking for a marketing manager, I knew I had to jump on it!”
Nicole applied with a video that illustrated why she’s the right one for the job: “I decided to add a fun video to my application, and I felt that really helped me to stand out from other applicants. I got the job, came to Estonia and I’m still here!”
6. Reverse-engineer the content 👩💻 You probably have more experiences and knowledge than any form of application can show. So, we recommend that you reverse-engineer the content of your application based on the job description. 👷
Here’s how: Read through the job description and see what experience, knowledge and skills they are looking for. Then think about which of your past experiences would work best to highlight that you are the future employee that they are looking for! Obviously, don’t just come up with stuff, but rather be really on point regarding which experiences to really call attention to.
7. Spell out why you are a good fit for the company 🗣 Once you’ve made sure your application fits the role, find a way to make it clear how you are a good culture fit. 👥 Here’s how: Find out what the company stands for. Whether it’s values, mission, or something else, find something that resonates with you. And find a way to weave that into your application, either as something you care about or as something you are interested in. 🌟 Pro tip: if you don’t find anything, take a moment to consider if you’re sure you want to spend the majority of your waking hours with this company.
How to stand out at the interview stage and beyond
You’ve made it to the interview pool? Congratulations! 👏Let’s review how you can stand out in this round and after the interviews.
8. Nail the first impression thing 🥇 You can only make a first impression once, and it plays a key role in your interview. So make yours a good one. 🕺
Here’s how: Take care of the basics, of course—dress appropriately, arrive on time, have a good handshake, and don’t forget to smile. Go easy on the cologne or perfume, just in case. Mind your body language as well—don’t slump, don’t cross your arms or fidget with them. Is your interview online? See how to nail your online interview. ⭐️Advice from a recruiter ⭐️ Stina from Scoro says a sparkle in your eyes will help you stand out: “If you truly want to join the company, make sure everyone else feels it as well. It’s wonderful to see the motivation and sparkle in the candidate’s eyes during the interview.”
9. Come prepared with great answers (and questions, too!) 😎 You know the drill. Most interviews are set up in the same way, with similar questions. After all, the goal is the same, to get to know you and whether you are a good fit for the role and the company. That means you can come prepared! 💡
Here’s how: Come up with answers for the typical questions like ”Tell me about yourself!” and “Why are you interested in this position?”. Use the job description as a handy cheat sheet for what you need to highlight when you’re preparing the answers. Additionally, prepare a few genuine and thoughtful questions like “Can you give an example of a time when your team came together to solve a tough problem?”.
Don’t talk about benefits during the first interview – Image source
🌟 Pro tip: Avoid questions about benefits and time off. These questions should come later.
10. Follow up with a “thank you” 💌
Depending on where you’re from, a follow-up note may or may not be a common practice. Either way, it’s a polite thing to do and helps them remember you well. 🦄 Here’s how: The day after the interview (or Monday if your interview was on Friday), type up a short and sweet email, thanking the interviewer for their time and reaffirming your interest in the role. If there was any part of the discussion you found to be especially interesting, make sure to mention it as well!
A hand-written letter can make you stand out – Image source
🌟 Pro tip: To really stand out, send the “thank you” as a hand-written note! If this feels like too much for whatever reason (cultural or contextual), go with an email.
Now that you know how to stand out, download the MeetFrank app and get hired for your next job. Good luck! 🍀
For example, bars, restaurants and museums reopened after two months. People are returning to these simple pleasures, with some measure of social distancing in place.
However, recent headlines have painted a grim outlook for the Finnish economy. Research shows that Finland’s GDP is set to shrink by 8% this year. Unemployed job seeker figures nearly doubled in April.
Now the question is, what is the job market recovery outlook like? We’re glad you asked. 🤓
Based on our data, the recovery looks like a rocky road for the Finnish job market. Here are some of the key takeaways on the recovery outlook in Finnish job market:
Employers are not too eager to hire right now. 📉
Job-seekers are increasingly active. 🏃♀️
Expected and offered salaries are in a bit of a disagreement. 💸
Ready? Let’s dig into the details! 📊
Job market overview: May vs June
First of all, let’s take a look at a few fundamental indicators of the state of the job market.
We see that the number of active job openings is down by about 34% in Finland as compared to a month ago.
This decrease does not paint a very hopeful recovery outlook for the Finnish job market. 😳
However, the number of active job seekers has gone up by 10% in the past month. 📈
What do these numbers mean? It sure looks like a growing number of people are actively looking for employment, while employers are increasingly cautious about hiring at this time.
At the same time, the ease of finding a job in Finland has remained quite stable over the last few months, according to our market competitiveness indicator.
So, while the numbers of job openings and job seekers continue to fluctuate, they balance each other out month over month.
Salaries in TOP 6 specialties
When looking at the salaries in Finland, we see that on average, both the expected and offered gross salaries increased in May. 💰
Let’s now take a closer look at the offered salaries, by specialty.
As you can see, the average offered salaries have slightly increased in all specialties, except for Finance. So, even though the numbers of available job offers have gone down, the companies are willing to pay more for the roles that are available. 😉
Now, what about expected salaries?
In general, the salaries that job-seekers expect have increased even more than the offered salaries in the past month. This is a good indicator of job-seeker confidence. 🏆
However, we see a few specialties where the expectations and offers are out of sync. For example, in May job-seekers in software engineering expected lower salaries than what was actually offered. The difference was a stunning 700EUR. 😯
Job-seekers in sales & business development and (tech) project management are on the opposite end of the spectrum. The salary expectations of sales & business development job-seekers are on average about 1300EUR higher than the offered salaries. For (tech) project management, the expectations are about 800EUR higher.
These salary numbers show a disconnect between what the employers and job-seekers think of the state of the job market. Let’s see if either the job-seekers or employers adjust their outlook in the summer months. ⚖️
Competition in TOP 6 specialties
In the first section of this article, we had a quick look at the job market competitiveness. Now, let’s dig into this topic by specialty and see what has changed in the past month. 👀
In general, we see that different fields have very different market competitiveness levels in Finland.
Job-seekers in Finance should find it very easy to find employment, while those in marketing are facing very high competition.
Those looking for a job in IT & sysadmin and software engineering should find it quite easy to get employed. Sales & business development and (tech) project management are leaning towards a challenging job market. 🙇
If we compare the indicators for April and May, we see that the ease of finding a job has remained on the same level for most specialties. The biggest change has happened in the field of IT & sysadmin, where finding a job became more difficult in May.
TOP 10 Companies with the most applications in May 2020
Now, let’s see which companies managed to attract the most applications in May 2020. 🔍
In first place is Supermetrics, a tool that helps marketers get data. They’re doing something right, as the MeetFrank job seekers really want to work with them. 🚀
While Supermetrics was also featured in our previous top chart of desirable companies to work with, then a newcomer is in second place: Kide Science. They offer online play-based STEAM programs that plant the seeds of scientific thinking in the minds of 3-8 year old children. Yay for science! 🧬
In third place is Appgyver, who was leading the list for the year so far a month ago. They are doing something right, as they continue to attract plenty of talent! 👏
The rest of the 10 companies that managed to attract a significant number of applicants include a good mix of IT and software companies, with a marketing & advertising agency thrown into the mix.
Welcome to the MeetFrank family!
Recently, we welcomed Spark Sustainability, 4Straction and Boost Turku to the Finnish MeetFrank family. 🤗 To discover their latest job offers, download the MeetFrank app and apply today:
Now, what about the labor market? In this article, we’re giving you an overview of Estonia’s job market recovery outlook.
🦅 The bird’s-eye view of the Estonian job market is not too shabby. Here are the key takeaways from the recovery outlook:
Average gross salaries have grown to a six-month high. 🤑
The number of job offers is in a declining trend. 📉
3 Estonian startups attracted the most applicants in May. 👨💻
Hungry for more details? Let’s dig deeper and review how the Estonian job market is doing. 🕵
Job market overview: May vs June
The biggest trend of the last few months continues: there has been a clear decline in the number of active job offers in the past month.
In Estonia, the number of active job offers is down by almost 20% compared to a month ago. 📉
When we look at job seekers though, we see that the number of active job seekers is up by about 5% in the past month.
These key indicators paint a pretty straightforward picture of the recovery outlook. Employers are being cautious while an increasing number of job-seekers are looking for new opportunities.
As a whole, the market competitiveness has remained on more or less the same level in recent months.
Salaries in TOP 6 specialties
What about money? 💰 It looks like Estonian employers are happy to be hiring less, but offer higher salaries than before for the roles they do hire for.
The average gross salary offered in the Estonian job market is now €2,869, which is higher than at any point in the last 6 month.
Let’s take a closer look at the changes in salaries by specialty. First off, we see that based on May and April data, average offered salaries are up in nearly all specialties. The only exception being marketing & PR & media, where the average offered salary dropped by about 700EUR. 💸
Job-seekers’ expected salaries are also on a recovery trend. However, the expectations are still about 300EUR lower than they were in the beginning of the year for the market as a whole. The current average expected salary is €2,240.
Note that expected salaries have not gone up in all specialties. Job-seekers in software engineering, finance, marketing & PR & media and (tech) project management have raised their average expected salaries by about 100EUR each. 📈
At the same time, job-seekers in sales & business development and IT & sysadmin have lowered their expectations by 100EUR. 📉
Competition in TOP 6 specialties
The job market competitiveness in Estonia as a whole has remained quite stable over the past few months. However, we do see small fluctuations in the ease of finding a job per specialty.
For example, finding a job in software engineering, IT & sysadmin, marketing & PR & media and (tech) project management is now easier than before. 👨💻
At the same time, job-seekers in sales & business development and finance may now find it more difficult to find a job than before. 💼
TOP 10 Companies with the most applications in May 2020
Next, let’s take a look at which companies scored the most applicants in Estonia in May 2020. 🏃♀️
In the first place, we see our beloved unicorn Bolt. 🦄 Needless to say, Bolt is a true rockstar. Just about a week ago they announced a new funding round, having raised €100 million from Naya Capital. Yes, during a time of global turmoil. We’ll likely see Bolt in our top lists again.
In second and third place, we see a few other Estonian startups: Yaga, an online platform for second-hand clothes, and Scoro, a business management software. 👏
The rest of the top 10 tells a pretty convincing story of the fields that had exciting work to offer in May 2020. For example, eCommerce is certainly booming right now: 3 companies in the top 10 offer services or tools to eCommerce (Katana MRP, Inbank, Outvio).
We also see 2 agencies that specialize in building digital products in the top 10: Nortal and Cyberland. The remaining two of the top 10 companies are perhaps also telling of the times: Invent Baltics, a consultancy helping technology firms and R&D organizations secure EU funding, and 99math, a multiplayer math game. 🎮
Welcome to the MeetFrank family!
Hello, newcomers! In the past week Orien Trade, ChallengeMe and Pet Retail joined the MeetFrank family. 🥳 See if any of their recent job offers strike your fancy:
This article is based on data from MeetFrank Job Market Insights. For additional and per-track reports, visit this page.
June is off to a musical start in Lithuania. On Monday, Lithuania celebrated its emergence from the coronavirus pandemic with a series of live musical performances across the country. 🎻
Musicians perform to thank for quick coronavirus disease containment –Image source
Our job market reports from the last few months have shown healthy activity and stomach-turning turbulence in the Lithuanian labor market. Now, it’s time to take a step back and review the recovery outlook in Lithuanian job market. Here are some of the key takeaways on the recovery outlook in Lithuanian job market:
The number of active job openings is about 22% lower than a month ago.📉
Salaries remain on similar levels as before. ⚖️
Job seekers in software engineering, IT & sysadmin and finance enjoy a relatively low level of competition. 🏅
Sounds interesting? Read on for the whole report. 😎
Job market overview: May vs June
One of the key indicators of the job market is the number of active job openings.
We see that in June, this number is lower than in May. In fact, the number of active job openings is down by about 22% in the Lithuanian job market. 📉
At the same time, the number of active job seekers is up by around 4% as compared to a month ago.
Despite these changes, the job market competitiveness has remained more or less on the same level in the last few months. 🔭
Salaries in TOP 6 specialties
Next, let’s review the most recent data on salaries in the top specialties in Lithuania.
In general, we see that the average offered and expected salaries remained in the same ballpark in the past month. ⚖️
However, this was not the case in all specialties. The offered gross salaries in sales & business development have decreased by about 400EUR on average.
At the same time, gross salaries in finance and (tech) project management have gone up a bit. 📈
In the job market as a whole, salary expectations have slightly increased. When we take a closer look, we see that the average expected salary is up in all specialties except for software engineering and (tech) project management. 💰
Competition in TOP 6 specialties
Earlier, we saw that the number of active job offers has decreased, while the number of active job seekers is slightly up. Let’s see what impact this has had on job market competitiveness by top specialties. 🕵️♀️
1 point means that it’s really difficult to find a job while 5 points hint that there are many job offers available.
In general, we see that job seekers in IT & sysadmin, software engineering and finance enjoy a relatively low level of competition.
Recently, it has gotten even easier than before to find a job in IT & sysadmin and finance. At the same time, it’s become a little more difficult to find a job in software engineering in Lithuania. 👩💻
Marketing & PR & media, (tech) project management and sales & business development are fields with toughest competition for finding a job in Lithuania. In all of these specialties, the competitiveness has remained more or less on the same level in May, as compared to April.
TOP 10 Companies with the most applications in May 2020
Let’s take a look at which Lithuanian companies received the most applicants in May.
In second place is Smart Brands Laboratory, a company that helps private label brands scale across channels and geographies. In third place is KEVIN, a fintech company that provides developer-friendly payment infrastructure.💳
The rest of the list includes a good mix of companies that have managed to attract the attention of talent. There’s Coingate in the field of crypto, the software powerhouse Adroiti, and Pipelinepharma, an online pharmaceuticals B2B marketplace. 💊
Welcome to the MeetFrank family!
In the past week, we welcomed quite a few new companies to MeetFrank. Here’s who started hiring with MeetFrank: iDenfy, Sloth software Solutions, POPPRI, Mark ID, Outokumpu, Koditus, Vertex and HOTrema. 🎊
This article is based on data from MeetFrank Job Market Insights. For additional and per-track reports, visit this page.
Similarly to other countries in the region, Finland has begun a gradual reopening of the country. This includes reopening borders with neighbouring countries for seasonal laborers and work-related travel. We bet this is a welcome change for many employers in Finland. 🙏
Speaking of change — this week, we noticed some changes on the Finnish job market. More specifically, we see that the number of job openings has fallen noticeably. At the same time, the job seekers seem to have regained some confidence as the average expected salary is up.
The last few weeks have seen quite a few ups and downs in the job market stats, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the turbulence is still present. You can review last week’s Finnish job market review here, if you’d like.
Without further ado, let’s jump into the current week’s Finnish job market report. 🏃
Job Market Overview
In recent weeks, the numbers of job openings in Finland have seen noticeable jumps up and down. This week, yet again, the number of active job openings is down by 10.5%. 📉
We also see that, 8.8% of the talent in Finland are currently active job seekers. This remains quite modest, if compared to some other countries in the region: the percentage is around 10-12% for Estonia and Lithuania, for example.
Despite the weekly turbulence, we can see that it has become slightly easier to find a job in Finland in recent months. This is due to an increase in the number of job offers available, without a significant increase in job seekers.
Not all fields are equal, of course. For example, we see that finding a job in software engineering has become easier in recent weeks. At the same time, job seekers in marketing & PR have tougher competition than before. 🙅♂️
Next, let’s talk about average salaries in the Finnish job market. We can see that the average expected salary has recently increased and is now closer to the average offered salary. ⚖️
The average offered salary remains around the same level as it was in April. As you can see, employers are still offering higher salaries than job seekers expect.
So, if you are a job seeker, don’t be afraid to ask for what you’re worth! But just to be sure, check out the salary data for your field first. 😉
Weekly special chart: Job openings across top specialties
This week’s special chart looks at numbers of job openings across the top 6 specialties, globally and locally in Finland. First, let’s take a look at the global data. 🔍
As you can see, software engineering leads the chart with the most job openings globally. Among the rest of the top specialties, sales & business development job openings are doing good numbers, with IT & sysadmin not too far behind.
Similarly to the global numbers, software engineering also has the most active job openings in Finland, followed by sales & business development. Next in line are customer support and IT & sysadmin, followed by finance and marketing & PR & Media.
From these charts, it is clear that software engineering talent is still in great demand both in Finland and globally. We at MeetFrank are happy help companies with hiring in software engineering roles. You can join the MeetFrank family here. 🕺
Weekly highlight: IT & Sysadmin
🕵️♀️ This week, we are zooming in on the IT & Sysadmin specialty in Finland. Let’s see what the numbers tell us about how the field is faring.
Right off the bat, we can see that there are over 1000 IT & Sysadmin specialists on the MeetFrank platform. About 7.5% of the IT & Sysadmin talent in Finland are currently active job seekers.
Looking at the last 6 months’ data, we can see that historically, finding a job in IT & Sysadmin in Finland has been relatively easy. This has been especially so in the more recent months. 👇
Now, when we look at the numbers of active openings in the specialty, it gets really interesting. We see that since the end of March, the number of active job openings has been going up pretty consistently. 📈
With a relatively low percentage of talent actively looking for new challenges and an increasing number of job openings, the IT & Sysadmin field is in a sweet spot for job-seekers at this time.
The numbers of applications in IT & Sysadmin vary a lot from week to week. It does look like recent weeks have seen an increase in job applications, as compared to March and April.
Salaries in IT & Sysadmin are far above the market averages in Finland. This shows it is a cherished and valued field. 🦾
In the last few months, offered salaries have seen a slight downward trend, while expected salaries have remained relatively stable.
According to this data, we can encourage job seekers to ask for higher compensation. See for yourself, the employers are willing to pay almost 10% more than is expected, on average. 💰
Want to try out asking for a higher compensation? Here are the most recent openings where you could give it a go:
Now, what would it take to get hired in an IT & Sysadmin role? We see that currently, cyber security and familiarity with Linux are the currently most cherished skills in the field in Finland.
🥇We don’t give out awards to the most popular job openings. But if we did, then the winner in IT & Sysadmin in Finland would be Saint-Gobain Finland’s job opening for an IT Specialist for their Nordic & Baltic team. This opening has received the most applications in the last 30 days! You can check it out here.
Welcome to the MeetFrank family!
This week, we are happy to extend a warm welcome to Thales DIS Finland for joining the MeetFrank family. 🏆 You can see their latest job offer and a few other recent job openings on the Finnish job market below.
Saint-Gobain Finland is looking for an IT Specialist for their Nordic & Baltic -team
Best tip for how to get hired: stand out from the crowd – Image source
Toot your own horn (or saxophone) at and get noticed – Image source
Don’t forget to spell-check your CV or profile – Image source
Before you apply, read about the company – Image source
Add something special to your application, like a custom website – Image source
See Nicole’s video application on YouTube
Dress nicely for the interview – Image source
Don’t talk about benefits during the first interview – Image source
A hand-written letter can make you stand out – Image source
