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Your ultimate guide on how to land your dream job at a tech giant

it’s never been easy to land a job at a tech giant. But with remote work more commonplace, there's even more competition out there.
it’s never been easy to land a job at a tech giant. But with remote work more commonplace, there's even more competition out there.   -  Copyright  Canva

By Amanda Kavanagh

Competition for tech roles is notoriously fierce. High salaries and enviable benefits packages are obvious draws, while continuous learning, accelerated career development, plus remote and flexible working policies add to the allure.

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Truthfully, it’s never been easy to land a job at a tech giant. But now with remote working policies more commonplace, an organisation’s search for the perfect candidate has fewer geographical limits, which means even more competition for you.

To get ahead of the pack, there’s plenty of prep you can do.

Clue into keywords

Once you’ve identified your target organisations, spend some time reviewing their job specs and company profiles – you’ll find plenty of both over at Euronews.jobs.

Highlight recurring keywords, especially ones that match your skills, experience and knowledge. You will use these in your application.

If you’re seeking a technical role, there may be areas or programmes you’ll need to upskill in. Always make sure you’re up to date on the programme releases that are listed in the job spec.

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Tweak your CV

It’s time to take those keywords and mirror them. For example, if the job spec outlines they’re looking for someone with “management experience”, make sure your CV and cover letter mention “managing” people or projects.

Be very specific, and list your tech stack and programme knowledge in both long-form keywords and acronyms. This dual method will help your CV pass a recruitment team’s applicant tracking system (ATS).

When it comes to experience, try to link as many bullet points as you can to results. So it’s not that you “Identified and logged problems”, but more that you “Reduced critical incidents by 40 per cent in six months”. Explicitly show the value you bring.

Make connections

Social media makes it so easy to connect with people who already work at your target organisations.

Sometimes you’ll have a friend, former classmate, college alumni or colleague who is currently working there, but often you’ll need to cold call someone working in your preferred department.

Ask for a 15-minute virtual coffee and use this time to conduct informational interviews.

If you have a genuine connection, they may be happy to refer you for a role – especially if their company offers referral bonuses for staff. A personal referral is valuable as it can often help you bypass the first-stage screening interview.

Research missions and values

Tech companies tend to be quite explicit about their mission and values, and what is often known as the company culture. Read up on them and see if they’re a fit for you.

Know your value

In this instance, value isn’t how much you deserve to be paid, but how much value you can bring to the organisation.

Tech hiring is not always experience-based, especially if you work in a new or emerging area.

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Create an elevator pitch of what you’d bring to the organisation. Know its strengths and weaknesses, and have a diplomatic answer ready for when they ask what you’d change.

Rehearse for your interview

Rope a friend or family member – ideally if they work in tech – into interview rehearsals.

Know what you like about the company and be sincerely enthusiastic. Get comfortable with your pitch so on the day it feels like a two-way conversation and not a test.

If at first, you don’t succeed…

Don’t be discouraged. This is often easier said than done.

But know that it can take multiple applications to break into a much-coveted tech role. Ask for feedback, take learnings and apply them.

If you have zero tech experience, consider applying for roles in start-ups, smaller tech companies or doing freelance work to start with. You can build relevant experiences and these can be a stepping stone to a role in big tech.

Tech companies, large and small, advertise European roles on Euronews.jobs. Here are three tech giants hiring right now.

1. HubSpot

As a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, HubSpot needs very little introduction. Thousands of businesses across 120 countries rely on its technology to align marketing, sales, services and web management to improve and track the customer journey.

HubSpot’s mission is to “care about building a culture of flexibility, learning and belonging,” and it offers unlimited vacations, remote work, healthcare, parental benefits and tuition reimbursement.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, HubSpot has European offices in Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium and the UK, and is hiring for a number of technical and non-technical roles.

See open roles at HubSpot.

2. Spotify

Swedish-founded streaming platform Spotify calls its values “The Band Manifesto”, and highlights that innovation, passion, playfulness, sincerity and collaboration are all important.

Glassdoor reviews give Spotify an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 to work at, based on over 1,000 reviews left anonymously.

According to Statista, as of the second quarter of 2022, Spotify had 188 million premium subscribers, a 14 per cent increase from the same period in 2021.

To service this ever-growing customer base, the company is hiring in a number of areas, including engineers, data scientists, partner managers and procurement.

Find out more about joining the band at Spotify.

3. eBay

It’s hard to believe that eBay was founded way back in 1995, when Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb, a site dedicated to connecting buyers and sellers in “an honest and open marketplace”.

The company is still innovating. From partnering with UK reality show Love Island to promote pre-loved fashion, to collaborations with Snapchat and expanding its Authenticity Guarantee programme to trading cards, autographs, sneakers and handbags, 2022 has been a busy year.

Always diversifying and changing, eBay is hiring engineers, developers, accountants and researchers to work in Europe right now.

Get more information on eBay roles.

To find European tech jobs, visit the Euronews Job Board, set up alerts and bookmark the link for regular check-ins.