The typical job search takes months to complete. Every day, you’ll be searching job opportunities online, writing cover letters, and sending applications. And most days, you won’t hear anything back. Your efforts will feel useless. And all the while, your bills will be piling up and your money will be running out.
You might not be able to afford to wait several months for your job search to be successful. You might need to speed things up in order to get a job sooner. Expedite your job search in 2016 by using these strategies that will get you noticed by hiring managers.
Start a Blog
Instead of focusing all of your efforts on job boards, start working on your personal brand. It can pay to create a blog site. Post fresh, industry-related materials that highlight your ideas, thoughts, and expertise. Your personal brand can showcase your unique value proposition to hiring managers and can work as a secondary resume.
Apply as Soon as Possible
Fifty percent of new hires apply the first week of a job posting. If you see a job opportunity that you’re interested in, don’t hem and haw, don’t procrastinate—apply right away. If you wait until the deadline, the hiring managers might have already zeroed in on another candidate, and you will lose your opportunity to stand out.
Don’t Ignore the Cover Letter
When you’ve applied to dozens of jobs, you can get pretty sick of rewriting new, fresh cover letters for each hiring manager. After all, they’re probably not even going to call you back anyway. So you just send a generic cover letter and stop putting in effort. This is the wrong attitude to have. The cover letter is critical; it’s where you can really show off your talents and show hiring managers how you’ll be an asset. Don’t ignore it, and don’t rush through it. Put in the required effort, and it’ll pay off.
Create a LinkedIn Profile
Even if you’re not a social-media type person, you should still create a LinkedIn profile for your job search. LinkedIn is the top professional social media platform. Companies use it to post available jobs. Hiring managers use it to check out candidates. Recruiters use it to find top talent. If you’re not on it, you’ll miss out on tons of potential opportunities.
Get Off Online Job Boards
Online job boards, like Monster and Indeed, have made us lazy. And most job seekers spend the majority, if not all, of their time on them. But they’re not that effective because everyone else is using them too, leading to massive competition. If you want to stand out, look elsewhere. Check out the websites of companies you want to work for. Go to networking events. Be more original in your job search and you’ll find yourself with less competition and higher chances of success.
Follow Up
Do you typically just apply to a job and then forget about it, moving on to the next posting? Hopefully not, because following up is important. If you don’t hear back from a company, send them a quick email. If you heard back and were told you didn’t qualify, reply to thank the contact and request that your information be kept on file. If you’ve had an interview, follow up to thank the interviewers for their time. This will create top-of-mind awareness.
Work with a Recruiter
One of the easiest and most effective ways to expedite your job search this year is to work with a recruiter. Though there seems to be a stigma with asking for help on a job search, doing so can be quite advantageous. Your recruiter can put you in touch with job opportunities you didn’t even know about, apply to jobs for you, put in a good word for you, and set up interviews for you, all for free.
