Want to land a good job? Here are eight tips from Ayala Land's hiring manager

[Get Hired is a new column that aims to help job seekers with their job hunt, by asking hiring managers of different companies about how applicants should conduct themselves during the hiring process.]

Landing a job is both an exciting and a daunting task, especially for fresh graduates looking at jumpstarting a career in the corporate world.

The feel of working in the financial district of Makati, earning a competitive salary, having job security, vacation leaves, insurance benefits make Ayala Land Inc. among the most desired employers in the country.

Ayala Land is the award-winning property development arm of the Philippines’ oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corp.

Among its many projects are some of the biggest malls in the country and the most luxurious addresses in Metro Manila, making it an attractive job prospect to fresh grads.

For Get Hired's debut, we spoke with hiring manager Leah Yvette Alay-ay, who gave jobseekers some tips on how to land a job at Ayala Land.

Leah Yvette Alay-ay tells us what they are looking for at Ayala Land

Extra-curricular activities have bigger impact than grades, school

The university or college where a candidate graduated from is not that big a factor in shortlisting an applicant.

"I think the more important factor would be what you did or what happened when you were in school ... what extra-curricular activities you did? What organizations were you part of? Did you hold leadership positions? It's more important than the school where you graduated from," Alay-ay said.

She  emphasized the importance of emphasizing a fresh graduate applicant's experiences in extra-curricular activities because it may be considered a work experience.

"A fresh graduate won't have any work experience yet to sell themselves to the interviewer as compared to those more experienced ones. Through these organizations they're part of, the leadership positions that they held—it shows us that they're capable of time management, of leading eventually a group of people because they held such positions already through these organizations that's where they gain competencies and relevant experiences," she said.

Don't say what's already written on the resume during interview

Jobseekers often fail the interview stage when they answer the question "Tell me something about yourself" with information already stated in their CVs.

"We don't want candidates telling us or answering that question with all the things that we can already read from their CV. We are looking for things that make a candidate interesting. What makes you interesting? Or what is your story? So we can start a conversation," Alay-ay said.

"Don't answer it with, 'I graduated from this or this course' because we already know that," she said.

Don't be dramatic during interview

Some applicants fail during interviews as they tend to tell their entire life story.

"It's more on managing your emotions. It's quite a turn off," Alay-ay said.

Be confident, expound on your answers

Candidates applying for a position in a company should project themselves as having confidence.

"When they come in the office, I should feel that they are already confident without being arrogant," Alay-ay said.

An applicant's confidence will manifest how he or she answers the interviewers' questions. So a candidate should be able to expound rather than respond with one-liners.

Research about the company, the job

Job applicants are advised to research about the company's nature of business as well as history before heading for their interview as hiring managers often asks questions about the company.

"Question that I like to hear from the candidate is 'What's the culture like?' because it shows the interest of the candidate to work for us ... At the same, I want the candidate to ask questions about the company, the job role, kasi again you don't see everything online so if a candidate asks about more details of the company, about the position then I can say that he or she is really interested to work for the company," Alay-ay noted.

Alay-ay during orientation of the interns under the Ayala Land Group Internship Program

'Scrub' your social media accounts

Among the ways hiring managers check on the background of applicants is social media, thus jobseekers are advised to "scrub" their profiles or at least turn on privacy settings.

"Your social media page says a lot also about your character, your interests ... So if we see something na offensive or unacceptable ... siguro the way they craft their posts, captions, the words that they choose then it will be a turn off," Alay-ay said.

Create an account on job portals

Because most employers now prefer to review job applications through online job portals, Alay-ay is advising applicants to create accounts on platforms like LinkedIn.

"With companies using LinkedIn now to look for possible candidates ... I would like to recommend to fresh graduates to create their LinkedIn profile because they will see in LinkedIn information about the company, different positions that the companies are hiring for," she said.

Soft copies of resumes or a candidate's profile in an online job portal is much preferred than a hard copy.

"It would be easier to sort, we'll be able to help the environment as well, rather than having printed papers and then I'll just dispose them eventually. My preference is through online because it's easier to sort, it's easier to monitor as well," Alay-ay said.

Attitude matters 

"Beyond the technical skills, beyond the communication skills we are looking for someone who has leadership potential, who has the learning ability or agility, who is resilient, who's really bias to results, and attitude matters over these technical skills," Alay-ay said. — LA/VDS, GMA News