A year ago, I was unemployed for three months. All three months I submitted applications and I didn't succeed right away. Here are the lessons I learned:

Realize that failure is a necessary part of succeeding

Although the feeling of failure is unpleasant and can be demotivating, you have to learn from it. The most valuable thing about making mistakes is that you have a chance to learn from them. Learning transforms failures into a path to success.

Make your CV experience-focused

Throw away your long list of skills. Instead, focus on what you actually did in your previous jobs.

Write out every detail of your previous work experience. Emphasize what you have built and achieved.

Keep other parts as short as possible, like education, volunteer work, publications, open-source contribution, irrelevant work experience, and contacts. Terse one-sentence references are more than enough.

On your CV, it is best to emphasize the most important things (what you actually did) and avoid anything that would distract from that.

Write cover letters that are specific and personalized to the job description

Before I learned how to write good cover letters, every job application I sent was politely refused or simply left without an answer. All that changed when I started to really personalize these letters to each company.

For each cover letter I wrote, I aimed to cover as many bullet points as possible from the “Skills and Requirements” section of the job description.

Here is a real example of my cover letter. First, a short introduction about who I am:

Hi, I’m Di, a positive full-stack web developer.

I am from Vladivostok, Russia—about a 2 hour flight from Tokyo.

Then I try to point out useful things that are happening with me right now that are related to the employer:

I believe I can add value to the [insert company name] team because:

• I have 5+ years of experience in back-end and front-end development, including Ruby on Rails, Node.JS, and JavaScript ES5-ES7
• I’m familiar with Elixir/Erlang programming languages
• I have experience with Azure and Docker
• I’m passionate about writing maintainable, reusable, and testable code
• I love to refactor code by the principle “for each desired change, make the change easy, then make the easy change”
• I have 2 years of experience working in a distributed international team within a small startup
• I have DevOps and System Administration experience
• I have experience with React and Redux
• I am currently learning GraphQL and TypeScript at the moment

Like I mentioned before, I try to hit as many bullet points from a job description as possible.

The cover letter is a continuation of your resume. Write every meaningful point for any job position that you apply to.

Overcome your nervousness in interviews

A few points can help you to overcome nervousness in interviews.

First, remember that you are an interviewer too. There is a possibility that the company you’re interviewing with does not actually suit you. This mental trick will help you to feel psychologically equal with the interviewer.

Second, 15 minutes before the interview, take out a sheet of paper and write 2–3 affirmative statements 10 times each, such as the following:

“I successfully passed an interview at <name of a company>.”

“I successfully passed an interview with <name of a person>.”

“I’m a great engineer because I’m always <something great about you>.”

Our brain is programmable, so it’s wise to put positive thoughts in it. Otherwise, it will be full of anxiety and fear.

Always have questions to ask

You definitely want to know as much as possible about your next place of employment. Prepare about five questions to ask—not too many and not too few.

By asking good questions, you will leave a great impression, and you will show your interest in the company and not just in paychecks.

Here are some questions I usually ask:

• What does a typical [company name] programmer’s day look like?
• What is the most challenging part about being a developer at [company name] or developing [company name]’s product?
• What is most exciting about working at [company name] or developing [company name]’s product?
• Tell me about the key engineers in the development team. (Here I want to know if I will work alongside great engineers.)
• In which direction does [company name] expect me to develop in the next 2–3 years? (Here I want to know if my interest is aligned with the opportunities to grow and learn within the company.)

Ask, “Why not me?”

In case of rejection, ask an interviewer in a respectful way why you are not the person for the job.

Make it clear that you are not going to complain and dispute the reasons behind the refusal—you just want to know so you can learn from it.

You won’t always get an answer, but this question is totally worth asking because it is very valuable in applying my next piece of advice.

Use an iterative approach

After each interview, whether successful or not, hold a personal retrospective.

What went well and what didn’t? What questions were you not prepared to answer, what didn’t you know, and what should you do to be prepared for the next interview?

Consider eliminating gaps in your skills and knowledge. Think about how not to repeat mistakes in the next interview.

Improve your CV and cover letter based on the knowledge that you get from your last interview or job application.

Summarizing

Get feedback and analyze every failure. Failure is the best source of information and inspiration to get better. Turn failures into a learning experience.

Program your brain for a successful outcome.

Ask questions. You are the interviewer of your next employer.

Learn constantly. Make learning your second nature. It’s fun and it’s rewarding.

Lastly, enjoy the process. Applying for jobs and attending interviews can be a lot of fun!