Job hunting is not easy at the best of times, but now during covid-19 times it can be even more stressful, hard work and demoralising, but throw in all of life’s other challenges such as home schooling the kids, sport activities and it’s a wonder you have time for job hunting at all! I have detailed 6 key activities that you can do to make job hunting a little easier, hope this help?
1) LinkedIn
Love it or hate it, LinkedIn is the go to place for recruiters and would be employers, so make sure you udate your profile to include the most current information on you and your career, paying particular attention to skills and accomplishments as well as asking for recommendations from your network.
Try to publish an original post, something that is relevant to your current role/area of expertise or even better something to help you get that new job. This will show potential employers that you have got more to offer than other candidates and they will also get a clearer idea about you and how you could be the solution to why they are recruiting in the first place.
Turning on the Career Interests will let recruiters know you’re open to new job opportunities, this button can be found under your profile as below, you should then add in your preferred location, job titles and industries helping recruiters to narrow down potential job options that they will present to you. This feature is only open to recruiters and will not be visible to your current employer.
2) Looking after your self
Job hunting can be particularly stressful especially if you don’t have a role to go to or are unhappy in your current company, so you need to pay particular attention to how you are feeling. What I find helps is to get those closest to you to make you more aware of your actions, especially if they are hurting others around you. If job hunting is getting you down trying scheduling some time out (put that in your calendar) to go for some exercise, go to the gym, take in a yoga class, or take a leisurely walk round your local park. You can’t just rely on others, so you to need to be self-aware. Here I am talking about Self-reflection, which is all about in making time in your busy lives for yourself to focus (without distractions) on your behaviours, life goals and general state of mind, a chance to catch-up with yourself.
When #jobhunting you need to pay particular attention to how you are feeling Click To Tweet
3) The Hustle
Get out there arrange catch-ups with your network, be they friends, past colleagues, vendors you have used or those recruitment agents you trust. If you are already employed and have decided that your current role and company is longer for you, meeting others will have to be done with a degree of circumspect. If you are no longer employed then treat job hunting like a full-time job, its hard work and results are not always immediate, but keep going, your face time with others will pay off.
Heavily utilise your calendar to schedule meetings as part of your search as well as when to follow up on conversations and emails. Make sure you can access your calendar and email on your mobile device, so you never miss a meeting opportunity or email when you are on the go.
Also try to attend as many on line seminars, conferences or workshops as these are great places to meet peers or even your future boss. These events are also an opportunity to pick up current and future trends, as well as how customers have deployed or use particular solutions, all helping you remain relevant.
If you are no longer employed then treat #jobhunting like a full-time job, its hard work and results are not always immediate, but keep going, it will pay off Click To Tweet
4) Volunteer
Volunteering can be a great way of expanding your skills and network, to fill in those gaps in your resume and the sense of giving back and helping others is just a good thing to do. This can be done in person when we get out of lock down and/or of course online. If you don’t have a job to go to it is also a great way to keep busy and will help put life in to perspective, it might even help your sense of wellbeing.
5) Social Media
You may just have to get a bit more creative in your job hunting so you can stand out from the crowd, being active on social media will certainly help raise your profile to potential employees. By posting relevant content on platforms such as twitter or facebook with well-constructed comments will also demonstrate your expertise and knowledge. You can also automate tweets using products such as Hootsuite or Social Jukebox (I use this one as its free and can schedule up to 5 tweets at a time).
6) Check the job boards
Be it LinkedIn, Monster, JobServe or Seek there are a myriad of job boards to choose from, make sure you set up automated email alerts for jobs that interest you, that way you don’t miss out. Job boards are ok, but I would not use them as your main source of job hunting, you will be competing with 10s or even 100s of others when you apply, that’s why the hustle along with LinkedIn are my two favoured approaches to job hunting.
Job hunting is not easy and can be highly stressful, automate as much as you can and utilise your network to work for you. So how have you managed to make job hunting easier on you and your loved ones? leave a comment below to help others.