Now, I’m no newbie to working. My first job was at Payless when I was 17 years old and I’ve never stopped since. I’ve had all sorts of jobs from retail to customer service to administrative and creative so I know first hand what it’s like to want a job and not really know how to get one. Today’s blog post is geared towards all my career girls out there. I’ve always been the one to dream about my dream job and it was a cruel reality when I realized there was no such thing. Now, I don’t mean to sound like a debby downer, but even though I’ve had jobs that I thoroughly enjoy I’m going to start out by saying that no job is perfect, but there are certainly jobs that one enjoys more than others so, today I want to share my top tips and tricks for job searching. I feel as though this is especially relevant for all those who are going to graduate college this year. I know from personal experience how stressful it is to not know what will happen after graduation but as is with anything, preparation is key and all you can do is try your hardest at whatever direction you want to go.
Now let’s dive into these tips.
Tip #1: Make a list of all the job search sites
My first tip sounds simple but I truly believe that this is a starting step for anyone. Start off by making a list of all the places where you would go to look for a job. Some of the ones to include would be Indeed.com, LinkedIn.com etc. Having this list is important because this will be incorporated into the steps you will take each day that you search for jobs.
Tip #2 Look at Your connections on LinkedIN
My next tip has to do with LinkedIN. Now, I’ve talked about LinkedIN and how important it is for building professional relationships and staying in touch with professional contacts and this will be another starting point for you when you begin your job search. First, you can use LinkedIN to make a general post letting your connections know you are looking for opportunities and then look through your connections to see who already works at a company for which you want to work for. You never know who you may already know at a place where you’d want to work. Don’t underestimate the power of LinkedIN. You may even get some practice in sending cold emails ?
Tip #3 Make a list of all the places where you’d like to work
This leads me to tip #3 which relates to really visualizing where you want to work. For example, let’s say that you want to work at a school. Your job is to make a list of all the schools where you can see yourself working so that you can constantly keep an eye out for positions as they become available.
Tip #4 Update your materials and customize them
Next, make sure you update your materials so that they are ready to go as you are applying. Remember, although it takes time, you ALWAYS want to customize your resume and cover letter for the position for which you are applying for. Believe me when I say that by doing this simple step you will stand out tremendously because although this piece of advice is commonly given, you’d be surprised at how many people don’t follow it.
Tip #5 Make it a part of your routine
Now, if you are looking for a job make it a part of your routine. To give you some context, when I was looking for a job about three years ago, I would look through my phone before work, during my lunch and after work. Now, I’m not saying you have to be as obsessive as I was but, I highly recommend that if you are looking for a job that you at least take 15 min per day to see what new opportunities have been posted. I would suggest doing this in the morning or at the beginning of the day so that if you see a new position posted you make it a task for you to apply for that position before the day ends.
Tip # 6 Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
My next tip has to do with keywords. I know that when one is looking for a job typing in something like “administrative assistant” seems easy but, always think outside of the box. What I mean by this is to think of all the words associated with what you want to do and when you are searching try different searches using the different words. It sounds simple and obvious but you’d be surprised at the different results you get when you type in different terms. The reason for this is because each company has different titles for similar roles. For example, you can be an administrative coordinator, office manager, community manager etc. Essentially all these job descriptions can be similar but, depending on what you type in you will get different results. In this case it would be helpful to make a list of all the words you are going to type into the search engine when you are looking for a job just so you don’t miss anything. LinkedIN can be helpful here too because as you are looking through profiles you can see what others’ position titles are and use those to search for jobs as well.
Tip # 7 Keep Your Materials Organized
My last tip which really helped me out was to keep my materials organized and what I mean by this is to note down things like, the list of places and positions for which you have applied, the date that you applied for those positions, contact information if you have it, passwords for different websites in case you need to access the website more than once. Having all this information is important and I used it as an incentive for seeing how many places I applied for before I got hired. Spoiler: I applied for over 100 positions in over a year. Also, if you are applying for multiple places, chances are you are not going to remember all the places you have applied for, so if a company calls you, you may not remember you even applied for it in the first place. I also used to cross out places that sent me rejection emails just so I knew to not follow up (since they already formally rejected me).
Looking back now I can say I feel proud of myself for working as hard as I did to land my current job. The search was hard and there were a few disappointments but now I can confidently say that everything happens for a reason because I love the job I’m in now.
I can almost assure you that if you follow these tips and really dedicate yourself to your job search you WILL land something.
Let me know if you have any more tips in the comments below. I feel that collaboration means we all have the opportunity to learn something.
