Are you job hunting for a new opportunity?
Planning to head straight to Indeed?
Hold fire for a minute, and take a read of the following three steps for effective job hunting. Yes, pausing right now may seem counterintuitive. But these three steps will maximize your chance of not only getting a job, but getting the right one.
Step 1: Define your ideal role
The most common mistake I see people make while job hunting is jumping straight into looking at adverts to see what’s available. Taking immediate action seems completely like the right step because “you can’t get a job that doesn’t exist, right?”
There are two flaws to this logic, though.
First, actually yes, you can get a job that doesn’t exist. There’s no reason an employer can’t create a job for you, if you have a skill set that is valuable to them. Second, companies don’t necessarily advertise all positions. In fact, around 70% of jobs are never advertised.
So don’t immediately limit yourself to just 30% of the potential opportunities. Instead, define your ideal role and go after ALL the opportunities that fit that description.
If you’re having trouble with this step, check out my free workbook.
Step 2: Update your resume and LinkedIn profile to be relevant
This is an obvious step, but the point is you need to tailor both your resume and profile to your ideal role (see my previous article on this topic). You still need to tweak your resume for individual opportunities, but be prepared with a good master copy so you can respond promptly.
Step 3: Allocate your job search time effectively
Once you’re ready to find concrete opportunities, by all means look for advertised positions. The three general sources I recommend are LinkedIn, Seek and Indeed. You should also do a Google search for sites specific to your industry. And, of course, sign up for alerts from specific employers you’re interested in.
But remember the 70:30 ratio? If only 30% of jobs are advertised, only dedicate a maximum of 30% of your job searching time to public postings. With the other 70% of your time focus on networking. That means making contact and developing relationships with people in roles directly related to what you’re looking for. As an introductory step, I recommend reaching out for advice on how you might find relevant opportunities.
LinkedIn is an incredibly valuable tool for this critical research and networking to find and create opportunities. So, if you’re not using LinkedIn to the full potential, now is the time to start.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of MindShift.money.
image credit: Bigstock/fizkes
With 14yrs corporate experience and a personal career change under her belt, Anna’s helped dozens of professionals make life-changing career decisions. Essentially she’s a Career Counsellor, but what she’s really passionate about is getting professionals out of jobs they don’t care about and into careers which make them happy.
So many professionals are disengaged and not reaching their potential. They don’t know what to do and in their hearts, they are afraid of wasting their most precious resource… time.
Anna has created a free, two-page Career Change Guide to help you get started on the road to greater happiness. It’s only takes a few minutes to read but who knows where it could lead…