Filtering Through the Noise: Finding your next job opportunity

In our recent Job Challenges Survey (report), we uncovered the five most formidable hurdles job seekers face today:

1. Preparing for interviews
2. Finding suitable job openings
3. Crafting a compelling resume and/or cover letter
4. Juggling your current job responsibilities while actively seeking a new job
5. Handling job application rejections or non-responses (i.e., managing stress)

Last week, I wrote an article about Problem No.1 - Preparing for interviews, and this week, I want to share with you how to approach Problem No. 2 - Finding suitable job openings.

Introduction

In an era where the internet has become the primary resource for job hunting, the challenge for job seekers is no longer finding job openings but sifting through an overwhelming abundance of them.

Thousands of new listings are posted daily across countless job boards and company websites, making finding opportunities that align with your skills, experiences, and career aspirations much harder.

This guide will show you targeted strategies, helping you cut through the noise and find job opportunities that are not just good - but perfect for you.

Understanding Your Job Market

Before diving into the mechanics of the job search, it's crucial to understand the current state of the job market. Things change quickly, and there’s a good chance that the current job market is very different from the last time you looked for a job.

Delve into industry reports, follow thought leaders on social media, and immerse yourself in professional forums to get a pulse on the market. Additionally, you have to figure out:

1. Where are the jobs going?
2. Salary changes for your location and role
3. Optimal job hunt strategies for the current market

For example, Silicon Valley is currently experiencing layoffs, and those tech jobs are moving to more traditional industries like banking, real estate, healthcare, etc. Furthermore, fully-remote roles are much less prominent than in 2020 and 2021. This should play into your job hunt strategy and help you find the best approach for each role.

Before you even start looking, how has the average salary changed for your role? This info will help you calibrate your expectations and impact your negotiation strategy. The best places to find salary info are:

1. Glassdoor Salaries
2. Levels.fyi
3. Team Blind
4. Reddit Salaries

Lastly, you should consider which job-hunt strategies to use. A healthy mix of front-door (company website) and side-door (referrals) applications works well in an excellent job market.

When the job market turns rough, we need more referrals than front-door applications. The only way to figure this out is to start applying for jobs and keeping an eye on your success rate (getting the first interview)

Advanced Search Techniques

Using advanced search techniques can dramatically transform your job search from broad to targeted.

To get a quick sense of how many jobs are available in your targeted area, use an advanced Google search like this:

(engineer|developer) "javascript" -”manager” (San Francisco|New York|Los Angeles) site:lever.co | site:greenhouse.com | site:jobs.ashbyhq.com | site:smartrecruiters.com | site:jobvite.com         

We’re telling Google to search only these five websites, to include “javascript”, to exclude “manager”, and to look for an engineer OR developer in San Francisco OR New York, OR Los Angeles.

When finding job openings, here are four possible steps you can take (I recommend combining all four):

1. For your favorite companies, look for job postings directly on their websites. Also, sign up for alerts and get notified each time they post a job matching your criteria.
2. Search on LinkedIn
3. Search on Indeed
4. Search on Google (see example above)

Keyword Optimization: Begin with keywords that reflect your skills, desired job titles, and industries. Remember, the more specific your keywords, the more targeted your search results will be. Experiment with variations and synonyms to capture a broad range of relevant listings.

Setting Up Job Alerts

Maximizing the potential of job alerts means not just setting them up but fine-tuning them to ensure you're alerted to the most relevant opportunities. When looking for a new job, I sign up for alerts on LinkedIn and directly on my favorite companies' websites.

Yes, unsubscribing from those notifications can be a hassle once you find a job, but it's worth it.

Evaluating Job Listings

There are two ways of evaluating a job listing:

1. Being very picky and trying to find the perfect job
2. Being very broad and applying to all of the roles that require your “main” skills

I always take approach No. 2 - because you never know where the road might take you. If you are being too picky at the outset, you might disqualify yourself from potentially wonderful opportunities.

For example, when I applied to join LinkedIn, it was for a Performance Engineering role. I was grossly underqualified but still applied because it required JavaScript - one of my primary skills. It also needed many other skills I didn’t have, but it didn’t stop me from applying.

I didn’t get that job, but I was invited to interview again for another role and ended up working at LinkedIn for six years.

If I had been more picky, my job hunt would never have taken such a great turn - hence, I always advocate for a broad search.

If you get an offer from a company you don’t like, it's always much easier to politely decline than to find a good opportunity in the first place, so don’t self-disqualify!

Organizing Your Job Search

An organized approach to your job search helps manage applications across different platforms and track your progress and follow-ups.

I prefer a simple spreadsheet because you can modify it to fit your needs. ?Plus - it's free! If that’s not your cup of tea, plenty of apps exist for job application tracking.

It doesn’t matter which app you use to track your job applications. What truly matters is regularly reviewing and updating your list. This will help you adjust your job search strategy based on the responses you're getting,

From there, you can figure out exactly what needs tweaking and what works well for you! The most important numbers you should focus on are:

1. Rejection after interviews - so you can study your notes for these interviews and improve your game
2. Offers - ultimately, getting an offer is all that truly matters.

The final ingredient is note-taking! You must take detailed notes so you can get better after each interview!

Conclusion

Finding the right job opportunity requires a blend of strategic searching, industry knowledge, and personal branding.

By employing advanced search techniques and organizing your job search, you can efficiently navigate through the noise to find job listings that match your career goals and aspirations.

Rejection is just part of the game; every “no” is one step closer to a “yes”. There is no such thing as a failed interview as long as you learn from each interview and improve your skills afterward.

What techniques have you found most helpful? How do you navigate the vast job market? I’d love to hear your insights, tips, and tricks!