How your Haystack profile can help you stand out

Your tech stack

One of the first things any hiring manager is going to look at is how your tech stack compares to what they’re looking for. Your tech stack also plays a major part in how we match you up to the right roles and companies. Therefore, the first step to building a strong Haystack profile is making sure your tech stack accurately reflects your skills.

However, that doesn’t mean you should just pile in every tech you’ve ever thought about using - keep it simple and stick to those that you’re either highly proficient with or enjoy using. This is a great opportunity to showcase your skills, so you don’t want anything getting lost in the shuffle. We recommend adding no more than ten to your Haystack profile - keep it concise and clear.

You can now also distinguish between your tech stacks, those that are essential to your next role, the ones you love using and which ones you know. By letting us know your strongest techs, we can provide you with more accurate matches, both in your feed and when companies reach out to you directly. Make sure your tech stack accurately reflects your skills to get the best opportunities landing in your inbox!

Haystack Highlights

Haystack Highlights are your opportunity to really showcase your skills and make yourself stand out from the crowd. Here you can draw attention to your biggest projects, achievements and accomplishments.

You can add up to four highlights and we strongly recommend making full use of them, as they will be one of the first things a hiring manager will notice on your profile. A good way to think about your Haystack Highlights is if you could only tell an interviewer four things about yourself to land a new role, what would they be?

You want to draw attention to anything that you think will make you stand out from the crowd, and showcase why you’d be a good hire for their business. Think about the skills a hiring manager for the kind of roles you’re interested in would be looking for, and tailor your Haystack Highlights towards this.

You need to show why that manager should reach out to you before anyone else - using your Highlights in the right way could be the difference between being contacted about your dream role, and being left in the pile with everyone else.

Provide as much info as possible

Spending a few extra minutes to really flesh out your profile could be significantly worth it in the long run. This includes providing information such as relevant employment and education history, and your current or most recent role. This allows a hiring manager to be more confident in their decision to contact you over somebody else and that they’re making the right choice.

With our new feature that allows companies to apply to you, you never know what role you’ll be considered for. The more relevant information you can provide, the easier you make that decision for the hiring manager to pick up the phone and get in contact with you first, above all other candidates. It shows you are serious and dedicated to finding a new role, and you’re willing to put that extra bit of effort in - exactly what a hiring manager is looking for! We’d strongly recommend providing all the information you can - you never know what this could lead to in the future.

Take the time to check everything’s right

Take the time to review all the info you’ve entered into your profile and it’s essential that you make sure it’s correct, as one mistake could be the difference between getting an interview, or being rejected from your dream role. Check all of your spelling and grammar, make sure every sentence makes sense, and that all contact info provided is correct and up-to-date. Most hiring managers are incredibly busy and they’re far more likely to just move on to the next candidate rather than going above and beyond to try and get in contact with you. Spend the extra time to make sure everything is correct!

A strong profile is much more likely to get you noticed, whether you’re applying for roles or companies are reaching out to you. Unlike a traditional job search that can require you to tediously fill in the same information for each role you apply to, once your Haystack profile is complete you’re good to go, so it’s definitely worth spending the extra time to make sure it’s the best representation of you and your skillset. You can choose whether you want to be ‘visible’ or ‘anonymous’ on the home page now!