Job Hunting is a full time job
Thankfully, lots of folks are going back to work. Yet, there remains a vast number who have been replaced or displaced and are still in search of their next employment. Whether you’ve been downsized, laid off, or your employer didn’t survive the pandemic, the “job” of finding a job is daunting. The search is literally your (current) full-time job. Here are some job search tips you probably already know, but may need to revisit.
Hundreds of Companies are hiring
Technology and health care industries alone are clamoring for people. Check out companies hiring in colorado. You can then click on category (job categories), Title, Location, Date Posted, Type (full or part-time, contract), Company Type (industries), or Employer. Do some additional research. You’ll find such things as 54 Companies Actively Hiring During COVID.
Most jobs are found through networking
In fact, the number is somewhere north of 80%. Furthermore, experts say only about 10% of jobs are found through the exhausting effort of sending resumes to job board postings. A couple of facts make that process even more disheartening. Most jobs (again around 80%) are not even posted on job boards. Secondly, those companies advertising a job receive dozens of resumés. Your resumé may have to make it through an automated tracking system (ATS), designed to weed out most applicants. The elimination continues with those who scan the resumés that pass the first test. They also are simply looking for something to disqualify your application. If you’re lucky enough to get through these less than personal examinations, you better also have a compelling cover letter.
Target and Network
Most of the time spent on your “job search job” should be spent researching. First, decide whether you’re staying in a particular industry or if your job skills and experience fit multiple industries. Take the time to identify as many companies as you can that you would like to work for (targets).
Next, learn everything you can about those target companies; their culture, products, public reputation, history. Use Linked In and your network to find contacts at those companies. The objective is to get an introduction to someone who might be able to help you. It doesn’t matter if they actually have a job opening in your field. What you’re doing is connecting. They may be hiring at some point or they may know another company that’s hiring for your position.
Focus on the value you provide
Create a brief summary of what you do, how you do it, and the passion you have for your profession. Call it your elevator pitch, a branding statement, or a personal who-what-why. By whatever name, this is your value proposition. Example: “I’m a hard-working, successful account manager. I’m known for my relationship building skills and attention to detail. I’m passionate about creating reciprocal value for my company and our customers.” Find your own words and practice it until it’s second nature. Use it in networking and interviews when you get the inevitable “tell me about yourself” question.
Every hiring manager will ask (in one form or another) “what can you do for me? Or “how can you solve my problem?” You need to find out what goal he or she has or problem that needs fixing. Every contact you have with the company needs to focus on what problem(s) you solve. . . what value you bring.
Which brings me to your accomplishment stories. Develop as many brief descriptions of situations on previous jobs where there was a problem or issue you took on and solved or improved. Describe the problem, why it was an issue, what you did, and what the result was. State the result in some dollar amount, percentage or number, specific if you can (saved the company $100K) – or at least general (“saved the company over $100K; Improved customer response time over 30%; reduced average time to market to less than 3 months”).
These can be used in interview situation to respond to the goal/problem question in the last paragraph. They also translate to your resumé.
Speaking of which – customize the title and keywords in your resumé for each specific job you’re applying to. Include a few “action-result” bullets for each job you list in your career section. These bullets come from the stories I just described. They’re the last part of your stories – what you did to make or save the company money, or improve something, and the result (in numbers).
This is obviously just an overview. Check out Forbes for some more ideas. Dig into each of these points in your research. Get some professional career coaching if you can. Finding your next job is a challenge and hard work. Answering job board postings isn’t a great use of your time. Get busy on targeting, researching, building your value proposition, networking, and connecting. Companies are hiring. Find them and show them why they should hire you. Good luck.
