Here’s how to boost that job hunt of yours:
1. Understand your strengths
Get clear about what your strengths, skills and natural passions are. Without knowing what you are good at and what value you can bring to an organization or role, how do you expect others to think you’re the right and best person for a job? Make sure you are clear yourself about what your strengths are. Then communicate and articulate these to others in your job hunt. Learn to harness these strengths and find a role that plays to your strengths.
2. Get to grips with your skills
As well as your strengths, the skills, experience and expertise that you have built up is really important to understand, acknowledge and get across to potential employers. Sit down and review your career to date. Think about what skills you have gained in your various roles and how these are transferable into other situations and roles. Make sure you are clear about this so that you can communicate it to others in key situations. Work with a Guide if you aren’t clear about how to do this yourself.
3. Evaluate your options
Before gallivanting straight into the marketplace and spamming your CV out to everyone and anyone – think about what options you have and what is actually right for you. It’s just wasted energy if you aren’t focused about what you want. Competition will be high for generic roles – so try to get specific about what option is the one that really suits you.
4. Review your job search to date
If you have been in the job market for a while and you have been struggling – why not take some time to reflect and review what you’re doing. Many of us spend endless hours pumping out applications, filling in forms, ringing up agencies, going to interview after interview – all to no avail. So hey – what’s going wrong!? Think about what you are doing and make a plan that ensures that you are working smart and using your time wisely. Are you sending out generic applications? Are you being clear about what you want? Are you being targeted in your job hunt? Do the recruitment agencies know what you’re after? Do they care?
5. Revamp your CV
Before going out into the market and targeting a role, you may need to review and revamp your CV. If you haven’t touched it in many years then definitely spend a bit of time getting it up to date. Spend time understanding what your key strengths and skills are so that you can highlight them in your CV well. Make sure your CV is relevant and targeted to the roles you are going for.
Most of us believe that our CV is the most important aspect of a job hunt. This isn’t entirely correct. It plays its part for sure and you need to take some time out to make sure that you have it looking in tip top shape but it isn’t necessarily the first step to getting you on the right track. Dedicate sometime to the other key points in this list and you’ll be in a much better position to land that dream job you want!
Related: How You Can Boost Your Job Search and Actually Enjoy the Ride
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