5 Job Hunting Tips to Score Your Dream Career
It’s not just about your résumé.
Photo: Create & Cultivate
Would you believe more than half of the people who are currently employed are considering a new job?
It feels like we’re always striving for something bigger and better to fulfill our professional and personal goals. But, before you dive into the tedious world of job hunting, be sure to take the necessary steps to ensure you’re as prepared as can be for what your future might hold. This doesn’t just mean updating your résumé; think a lot harder and deeper about how you’re portraying yourself to potential employers.
Here are a few key steps you can take before you embark on the job hunt adventure. No need to thank us when you land your dream job.
Broaden your job search.
While looking for a new job, take the time to really focus on how you want to progress with your professional career. Search for keywords that are broader than you’re used to searching. Sometimes jobs are listed under a variety of topics that you might not be thinking about. For example, if you work in marketing, try searching social media terms, and brand marketing terms to expand your search to reach more companies with even more open positions.
If you’re looking for writing jobs, try searching for magazines and other publications in the area and scouring their websites for open positions that might not show up on job search websites (Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Indeed, etc). You might end up finding something that fits exactly what you’ve been looking for.
Curate a cover letter (every time).
Some applications don’t require a cover letter, but most do. Although it feels easier to just skip the cover letter, never skip it. This is your chance to show the employer who you are and what you’re capable of in your professional field. A cover letter is the best way to talk yourself up, cater to the employer, and show off all of your valid experience.
Take the time to look up various cover letter templates to help you find a format that works for you and your career. It’s also important to read through the position you’re applying for and pick out keywords that are used repeatedly to describe the candidate the company is looking for. Input those specific keywords into your cover letter and back them up with your relevant experience.
This is the perfect way to stand out among the rest of the cover letters employers will be reading. Not only will this make you look good, but it will help boost your confidence for any tough interview questions that come your way in the future.
Follow up with an employee.
Don’t you hate being ghosted by companies? Have you ever gone a month or more without hearing back about a job? Trust me, it’s normal. Think about how many people have applied for the job and how much time it is going to take HR to sift through all of the candidates. After about a week or so, I’ve found it beneficial to search for an email address of someone who works in the department you’re looking to be a part of or someone on the HR team.
Make your email short and sweet. Simply state your name, the position you are interested in, and your desire to learn how the hiring process is going so far.
Here is an example to follow:
Dear (Employee Name),
My name is (Name) and I recently applied for the (Job Title) position. I’m very interested in this role and would love to hear how the hiring process is coming along. Let me know!
I look forward to hearing from you,
(Name)
Perfect your résumé.
This one is self-explanatory but still so important to the job hunt. Without a clean, updated, and crisp résumé, hiring managers won’t be inclined to reach out to you. The first step is to match your résumé to you and your profession. Make it artistic and colorful if you’re in the arts, make it innovative and dynamic if you’re interested in the business field, and so on. Always keep your résumé updated and always save your résumé as a PDF.
That way employers can quickly check out your résumé without the hassle of downloads, slow internet, etc. Don’t forget to input any keywords that are relevant to the position you’re applying for. Did you know more than half of candidates are eliminated from the online job search by applicant tracking systems? This is due to a lack of relevancy between your résumé and the job description.
Canva is a great tool to use to reformat your résumé. The website provides you with a variety of templates to choose from, allowing you to utilize all the space on the page, and provides fonts, colors, and pictures to fit properly onto your résumé. Take your time while creating it, have friends and coworkers look it over for basic editing and readability purposes.
Secure recommendation letters.
Before you start providing various forms of information to a possible future employer, make sure you’ve solidified a couple of recommendation letters. Reach out to previous supervisors and mentors and update them on your career endeavors and what types of jobs you’re applying for. Don’t forget to grab a current email and phone number for each person, so the employer can contact them if need be.
Not all applications ask for recommendation letters, but I’ve found them helpful throughout the interview process. If you’re on a second or third interview, it might be beneficial to pass your letters along to whoever you’ve been conversing with to give yourself a little boost in the hiring process. Any material that highlights your professional work in a positive light can only help you along in the job hunt.
Implement some of these tips right away and get started on finding your dream job. If you’re creative and looking to dive into the marketing/advertising world, check out some job listings here.
About the Author: Abbey Adams currently works at an enterprise SEO marketing company while also maintaining her music blog blondieandthebeat.com) of six years. Throughout her time as a freelance writer for a women’s magazine, she’s learned to share every story and always try to empower as many women as possible. You can usually find her typing in bed binging “Sex and the City” (for the 10th time) or at the gym sweating out her anxiety on the stairclimber.
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This story was originally published on September 19, 2019, and has since been updated.
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3 Mistakes You're Probably Making on Your Résumé
It’s all about your accomplishments.
Photo: ColorJoy Stock
While writing a résumé is necessary for everyone, it can be an incredibly arduous task. It’s not intuitive and it’s not something broached in school, so many people are forced to make do with what they know. But how do you create a document designed to help you succeed when you've never been taught how?
Whether or not you’ve created your résumé on your own or acquired help, there are three mistakes you’re probably making. Fear not, because they are simple fixes that will instantly make your document more effective.
You Don’t Have a Skills Matrix at the Top
I always say this, but by far one of the most important things to include on your résumé is a skills matrix up at the top. This should land below your headlining statement and above your professional experience, but it is extremely important that it’s toward the top of your document. This is where you’ll include any specialized skills, software knowledge, languages, etc. It’s a surefire way to highlight what you can do for the company and what skills you possess.
One study shows that hiring managers and recruiters look at individual résumés for an average of 7.4 seconds each, so it is essential that you highlight your skills at the top of your document. This way, if they only read one section of your document, they will immediately be able to tell if you qualify for the position, or not. You want to give readers an easy and effective way to see what you can do and what skills you possess. By providing this information at the top of your résumé, readers don’t have to dig through job descriptions to figure it out.
You’re Not Writing Your Résumé WithYour Desired Job Description in Front of You
You need to write (or edit) the document as if you’re applying for a specific position. What does this mean? It means that you need to go through the job descriptions that you’re interested in and integrate keywords and phrases throughout your document.
Perhaps you’re happy with your current role, but you eventually want to further your career within the same industry. Do a bit of research and find industry-specific roles that interest you, and use those job descriptions for inspiration. Do they utilize keywords or phrases which you can utilize in your résumé? Does a job description have a more eloquent way of wording one of your job duties?
If you’re not using current job postings to help you write your résumé, you’re doing yourself a disservice. See how industry professionals talk about jobs and utilize that in your document. Using industry jargon will help you appear more professional and knowledgeable about what you do. Some companies also have bots that "read" résumés before they do, to weed out the ones that don't make sense.
You’re Highlighting Your Job Duties and Not Your Achievements
“Subjective terms and clichés are seen as negative because they don’t convey real information,” says Rosemary Haefner, VP of human resources at CareerBuilder. “For instance, don’t say you are ‘results-driven;’ show the employer your actual results.”
It is absolutely important to highlight the specifics of your role, however, if you’re only highlighting the job description and not your achievements, your résumé will not be as effective as it could be. You want to show potential employers what you have accomplished so they can get a better idea of what you will bring to the company and what you can do for them.
If you only talk about the role you played but don’t show them what you did within that role, your résumé will not serve you well. Include as much data and metrics as possible. Here are some great examples of metrics to include in your résumé:
How many accounts did you manage?
How much in sales volume did you secure (weekly, monthly, or annually)?
Did you reduce cost (either by a percentage or dollar amount)?
How many clients did you interact with (daily, weekly, monthly, or annually)?
Did you surpass a quota?
Did you manage a team? If so, how many team members did you manage?
Did you work with any notable clients or vendors?
You may not have metrics off the top of your head, so go ahead and calculate them. Do some research and figure out your personal statistics! As long as you can prove your work and your numbers, you can include them on your résumé.
If you’re one of the many people making these mistakes, all you have to do is fix them and move forward. Writing a résumé is hard, so don’t dwell on your missteps. Learn from them and continue to improve. If you get really overwhelmed, reach out for help. There are people out there (like me) who are willing and able to help. If you ever get discouraged, remember that there’s a reason why certified professional résumé writers have a job.
About the Author: A native San Franciscan, Michele Lando is a certified professional résumé writer and founder of writestylesonline.com. She has a passion for helping others present the best version of themselves, both on paper and in person, and works to polish individuals' application package and personal style. Aiming to help create a perfect personal branding package, Write Styles presents tips to enhance your résumé, style, and boost your confidence.
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This story was originally published on June 2, 2018, and has since been updated.
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