How can you identify gaps in your job search strategy?

You build an effective job search strategy. And, then you use the available tools: The foundation is 1) Understanding how companies hire. And, recruiters are the best guides. 2) How identify where open roles are publicized. 3) How to read a job posting or position description. The tools are: 1) A focused core resume which can be tweaked as needed. 2) A focused Linkedin profile. 3) An intelligent long term networking strategy. As much work as this is, once someone learns these skills, they have them for the duration of their career. Anyone who is selling shortcuts, doesn't understand how hiring is done.

5 things to consider to identify gaps in your job search strategy: 1. Career clarity - do you have clear picture of your target role(s), why you're interested in it and how you're qualified for it? 2. Resume - does your resume align with your target role and highlight the relevant skills and accomplishments required for success in your target role? 3. LinkedIn - is your LinkedIn profile complete and optimized with the skills, qualifications and experiences required for your target role? Is it visible to Recruiters/HMs? 4. Job Search - are you strategic with your applications and taking the time to tailor your Resume and message decision makers for every application? 5. Networking - are you building relationships with decision makers?

Be selective with your job search Focus your job search on positions you feel excited about and companies you really want to work for. This will help you feel confident about the position when speaking to the hiring manager. Your passion for the role will also come across in the interview, increasing the likelihood of being hired.

Knowing 'what you want from your next career move' is very important before starting to apply for jobs. This helps you to get more clarity on what do you want and focus on relevant job openings. Applying to everything, is a mistake in today's surplus job market. Recruiters get hundreds of resumes, out of that, what makes your resume stand out, will define your success ratio. Focused job search will help you to project your experience matching the specific job role and makes your resume more apt for the role.

Be very conscious with your career strategy and don't let anxiety win over you. Absolutely, defining your job search strategy is pivotal. To identify potential gaps, start by establishing a clear target: understand the job you want, the skills required, and what employers are seeking. This clarity prevents applying for mismatched positions or overlooking fitting opportunities. Remember, a targeted approach not only streamlines your job search but also enhances your chances of landing roles that truly align with your skills and aspirations.

For a majority of private sector jobs, resumes should rarely exceed 1 page (for aspiring career aspirants) or 2 pages (for seasoned professionals). Ensure the format is in plain text, without tables or graphs or images as most companies scan resumes through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). For each position, write 2-3 accomplishment statements- a sentence that starts with an action verb, relevant task, outcome, accomplishment. Use numbers to show impact- saving time, money, increase in revenue, customers, improving process, etc. Utilize websites like jobscan to compare a resume to the job description for analysis of keywords. Tip: Add city and state to the resume header for a location as full addresses are not necessary.

I agree and would go further to say your resume is a highly contextualised document. Although it is ABOUT you, it is WRITTEN FOR your prospective employer or recruiter. It should be a ‘relevant’ snapshot of your skills, experience and qualifications, which often means leaving out information that isn’t relevant to the role. This can difficult for some people as they (rightly so) have real attachment to certain achievements, skill sets, qualifications and experience but if it isn’t directly relevant to the role you’re applying for, you’re wasting precious words and diluting the impact of your resume. Take out what’s not relevant and make space for relevant information that reflects the position description.

A strong resume opens doors—make yours count. While a resume alone won't secure a job, it's crucial for making a solid first impression. Opt for a professional template that complements your experience, and tailor your resume using keywords from job descriptions to pass through applicant tracking systems. Use tools like ChatGPT for fine-tuning. Remember, your resume should showcase your achievements and how they align with the job's requirements, not just list duties.

Seek out a mentor that will have tough conversations with you. Find platforms, programs, and coaches that offer to conduct mock interviews and provide feedback. Leverage professional recruiters and agencies to streamline your job search.

Your resume needs to highlight the niche you are interested in and expertise that aligns to the level of job you are looking for - ask yourself, what keywords will catch the eyes of the targeted industry you want to work for.

As a career consultant, I recommend focusing on your LinkedIn profile, given its importance in today's job market where 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn for candidate searches. Start by enhancing your profile to attract job opportunities. This involves optimizing each section to highlight transferable skills and integrating keywords that improve compatibility with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). We also measure your Social Selling Index (SSI) score to track improvements. Next expand your network and establish your expertise by sharing relevant, impactful content. With only a small fraction of resumes making it past ATS to human reviewers, a well-crafted LinkedIn profile is key for effective job search outcomes.

I would just add that your digital footprint should support what you want to be doing more of in your life (including work). Thinking about work specifically, your LinkedIn profile offers a fantastic platform to showcase your professional brand. Your brand is made up of your professional mission and value proposition, your strengths and associated skills, a synopsis of your accomplishments thus far in your career, and specifically what you want to be doing more of and with whom. Take a look at your LinkedIn and ask yourself, what are the top three impressions viewers are taking away from your profile? Then assess if this is aligned with where you're wanting to go in your career.

Kick off your job hunt by signaling your availability with LinkedIn's 'Open to Work' feature. Dive into your profile, refining it section by section—think beyond a resume. Look for inspiration from peers in your field; how do they present themselves? Embrace LinkedIn's 'Creator Mode' to showcase your professional journey through articles and posts that highlight your expertise. Link to your personal website prominently and remember, your LinkedIn should reflect your professional narrative, not just echo your resume. Keep it dynamic; regularly update and let your individuality shine.

Clean up your social media profiles- make sure that you are someone that can be taken seriously by an employer. Also- get laser focused on updating your LinkedIn and invest in getting some professional headshots.

1) Ensure your online profiles are either professionally presentable or set to private (LinkedIn and other social media platforms) 2) Maintain a clean and professional layout (even on a personal website or blog) 3) Check regularly what appears when you Google your name and ensure there’s nothing unprofessional 4) Check that information about you is consistent across different platforms. 5) Remove or hide posts that might be viewed negatively by potential employers. 6) Share or engage with content relevant to your industry to showcase your knowledge, work, projects, or papers relevant to your career goals. 7) Display your contact information to make it easy for recruiters to reach you.

Networking is the key to the lock of your next job. It is not over exaggerated. If you spend time building a network and are consistent in how you build relationships, and how you present your executive brand, you will eventually create more job opportunities, and have a community of supporters throughout your career.

Networking gets a bad wrap by being associated with selling oneself and sleazy. But this way of thinking about networking is ALL WRONG and holding people hostage in their careers! It's worth it to redefine and reframe networking as just a series of activities to develop and nurture professional relationships. It behooves us all to consider our career mission and then find the people (and companies) who are already where we want to be, and build authentic relationships with these folks. Think of it this way, these people are looking for you in all your motivations and strengths, so let them find you by finding them first. Consider this: who are you to keep your amazing assets from the people/teams/companies/clients who need them most?

It is said that 70-80% of jobs are never posted. Even if this number is over-estimated, it could be possible that over half of the jobs are never posted. So how are they filled? Through networking. A simple networking strategy could be: 1. Identify what area you want to build your career in 2. Find individuals on LinkedIn or other networking platforms to connect with for informational interviews 3. Prepare 4-5 questions for the interview (get to know- not intended to ask for a job) 4. See how you can help the person as well 5. Send a personalized thank you note the next day 6. Keep in touch every 5-8 months, mentioning how you are progressing, asking about their current projects, etc.

1) Conduct mock interviews by: ***practicing with a friend, mentor, or career coach (Choose someone who can give honest, constructive feedback). *** recording these sessions to observe your body language, tone, response structure and, to identify patterns or recurring issues. 2) Recall past interviews (if any) and identify moments you felt confident and instances where you struggled. 3) Ensure you can confidently answer common industry-specific questions. 4) Practice framing your responses by using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) format, especially for behavioral questions.

Review all of the position documents and find common themes e.g. leadership, communication, teamwork etc. Then reflect on your work history and find quality examples of when you’ve demonstrated those skills. Be sure that your examples reflect the same type of skill needed for that particular position e.g. not just a great example of your broad communication skills but a great example of the same type of communication skills needed for that role. Then prepare your examples using a response model (STAR or CAR are good ones to use), so you have a bank of quality, relevant examples ready to draw on in your interview.

Whenever comes to interview, I will always emphasize more on the importance of it because when you secure an interview, it is as if the key to unlock the "job door" is placed in for you. Doing well in the interview will unlock that "door", which is your dream job. Prior to interviews, you have to prepare yourself with frequently asked interview questions, background info of the company, their collaborators, their product and services and others. These are basic info that you can standby. Mock interviews with close ones are a must, so that you can experience interview settings. Get them to give you constructive feedbacks on how you answer questions and the body language that you portray out, so you can improve on them.

Alongside the points you mentioned, it's crucial to develop a narrative that connects your experiences to the role you're applying for. Practice articulating your story in a way that highlights your skills and achievements relevant to the job. Also, focus on body language and active listening during the interview, as these non-verbal cues are as important as your verbal responses. Remember, interviews are two-way streets; they're not just about being evaluated, but also about assessing if the company and role are a good fit for you. Lastly, after the interview, reflect on what went well and areas for improvement, as each interview is a learning opportunity to enhance your performance in the next.

Your job search is not just applying to jobs. There's way more that comes with it. There's researching and targeting your search. There's networking. There's personal branding. Don't feel like you're an expert in those areas? That's when you hire a coach to help you figure them out. Because if you are doing just one alone, you're going to have a lot more headaches in the job search. It's worth the investment to get the dream job in the end.

I recall a gifted individual who defied conventional hiring norms. Wanted to become a penetration tester, and immersed himself in the world of cybersecurity —no prior job experience, only a passion that led him to set up a home lab, participate in capture the flag competitions, and earn relevant certifications on his own. Long story short, he got a job with us. This tale is a testament to the potential that lies in non-traditional paths and the value of practical, self-directed learning. Sometimes, the best fit for a job isn't a conventional resume but a portfolio of self-acquired skills and a passion for the field.

The right focus, persistence, and commitment can lead to you building a network, community, and brand within any industry. Also, a couple hours listening to podcasts, reading articles, watching youtube videos, etc can give you all the terminology, history, and current events you need to be perceived as knowledgable about an industry.

The job search has 3 main parts to it: Your branding (resume+LinkedIn profile), your job search strategy and your interviewing skills. First, you need to identify where the bottleneck is: 1&2) Are you landing interviews? If yes, move to the next question. If not, here's our bottleneck. Either it's your resume or LI profile or it's jour job search strategy - For your resume and LI profile: Is your resume personalised to the job description? Are you highlighting correctly your achievements? -For your job search strategy: Are you applying online to jobs randomly? Are you considering networking? 3) Are you getting interviews but no offers? If yes, you need to work on your interviewing skills. Use Google Warmup to help you prepare.

Being in a career transition, already outside a company, requires a difficult but necessary exercise of emotional rupture with the former employer, which will allow the construction of a new programmatic, disciplined and strategic routine of searching for a new way of "selling your time": new job, consultancy, interim management, etc. Finding a new job takes work.