Job Hunting Strategies

 

Job hunting – applying for job opening one after another yet did not get any responses. What could have happen back-end? Job openings are being snagged by internal referred candidates? Are you not going for the right jobs with your skills?

It is never about hoping to get calls for interviews anymore. It doesn’t just work by waiting… Job hunters got to make sure that you use various methods to stand out from the crowd.

Fret not, make sure you stand tall above the job-seeking crowd, and below are some ways that can help you in achieving a quicker success rate during your job hunting process.

Aim for the Right Jobs

Your current position and experiences should better somewhere relevant in the job market. Do your own researches before you start applying for jobs - Match your skills, interests and job exposures to the right career choice and the companies’ requirements. There are many factors that you can look at, for example, your experiences have equipped you with the right skills to move up the next level in your career path. You have intended to look for a higher job title or salary, you should not send out your resume aimlessly, even when you see that the salary does not match you.

Create a searchable social media profile

In our era of technology, recruiters rely a lot on social media and technology platforms to source and look out for potential candidates. Of course, this does not deter recruiters from forgetting about human touch. LinkedIn is one of the platforms that recruiters are engaging with candidates these days. Unless you are not expecting any contacts to get in touch with you, please always keep your job portal profiles visible for all. You will never know what good deals or great opportunities might come your way.

Expand your network

Just by applying on job portals is not sufficient in the market nowadays. Expand your network and get your words around your trusted friends and colleagues that you are on a lookout. They can be the ones who might even recommend greater jobs to you.

Be proactive

It is no longer in the era that the longer you wait; the better ones will come your way. You have to fight for what you want. You have to send reminder emails or even a second email so that the employers will be able to take notice of your email. While you are assertive and proactive in getting in contact with the recruiters or employers, this increases your chance and also says something about you, and your eagerness in getting into the job.

How you can respond to job advertisements

There are countless websites that offer job listings, and it is true that many of them offer attractive posts and salaries. However, there are also a ton of people competing with each other to get noticed by said companies. While there is no specific way to reply to a job advertisement, how can one be sure if the tone or language is appropriate to create a good first impression? It is important to note that these companies usually go through their list without properly looking at the resumes, so the reply itself is quite crucial in continuing the conversation.

Long gone are the days of scanning through newspapers, or relying on relatives to refer over their companies for jobs. It is true that the convenience of having all these job opportunities at your fingertips can be quite daunting, and one can make many minute errors without noticing it. However, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. The usual practice is to reply to their advertisements with a quick email, but there are certain ways that can bump a candidate up and help get their foot into the door faster.

BE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

After giving a succinct introduction, jump right into what you are expecting from the company. Be sure to list helpful information such as salary expectations and working hours, so that they can also determine if you can a suitable fit for the company’s requirements. This will also help them to filter out potential candidates faster, and save on the extra logistical emails requesting the aforementioned information. Otherwise, if they did not list out what they are looking for in candidates exactly, offer to give a brief description of your credentials and what you can do for the company. 

AVOID SPELLING AND GRAMMAR ERRORS

Always double check, even triple check, the quality of the replies before sending it out to the companies. This is because once the reply is in the email outbox, it cannot be edited or retracted. As mentioned, such replies are paramount in creating good first impressions, and spelling and/or grammar mistakes are a huge warning sign for the recruiters to skip over your reply. There are multiple online tools that can help vet spelling errors and even grammar blunders, so be sure to put them to good use before hitting that send button.

INCLUDE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION

If the format of the reply does not allow you to include your resume, then either consider including a short blurb of your skillset in your reply itself, or take the initiative to offer to send over the resume via another channel. For example, leave your contact details for them to contact you and lead with something like, “I would be more than happy to send over my resume. Let me know who I can contact for this.” It opens up a conversation with them and encourages them to contact you in order to find out more, just be sure to follow up!