the optimal job search strategy. part 1

Over the coming weeks I am going to be sharing my experiences and give some advice to you, on what I believe is the optimal job search strategy. So stay tuned and keep watching.

The job market today is not like it was 10, 5 or even 3 years ago. In fact, things are changing on a daily basis and as we have recently witnessed, the landscape is becoming increasingly challenging for job seekers.

The ultra-competitive environment for every position, the huge numbers of unadvertised jobs and the lack of representation from recruiters, have all created this “perfect storm” for people searching for a new position, which has made it exceptionally difficult for people to even get an interview, let alone, find and land a new job. It’s now more important than ever to have a well developed and thought out strategy in place to take chance out of the equation and put the odds back in your favor.

Gone are the days of interviews landing on your lap, in today’s market, you need to take the initiative. You need a plan!

As with any good plan, you must cover all angles and ensure that you are looking at the problem from a multidimensional approach. Your job search is no exception.

In order to establish the most optimal methodology, you first need to look back at what are the challenges you will face. Then you need to reverse engineer the problem and put in place an effective strategy to overcome each one. This step by-step approach guarantees you are doing everything in your power to be found and engaged with by clients when they are hiring a role suitable for you.

There are 2 primary pillars to explore when putting together a plan to find a job, and there are multiple parts to each pillar that need attention. The 2 primary pillars are Passive & Proactive.

Because of the harsh realities of the recruitment market today, you now have to take it into your own hands to represent yourself to potential employers, rather than relying on a third party like recruitment consultants to do this for you. With the introduction of talent acquisition teams across much of the market, your passive approach is key to being found and engaged with about possible opportunities within these companies when they are hiring.

A strong passive approach is very simply the fundamental starting point for anyone looking for a job and involves creating visibility, establishing a strong personal brand, and fostering meaningful connections that can lead to job opportunities.

Some of the areas you will need to focus on are:

Enhance Your Online & Paper Profiles: An incredibly powerful, beautifully presented, and SEO optimized LinkedIn profile that gets you found, as well as a clear and concise, well-articulated and ATS compliant CV are really the first place to begin.

Network Strategically: Networking is a powerful tool for passive job seekers. Attend industry events, conferences, and seminars to connect with professionals in your field. Utilize online networking platforms to engage with industry leaders, peers, and potential mentors. Cultivate relationships by offering support, sharing insights, and providing value to others. Through strategic networking, you can increase your chances of being referred to job opportunities and gaining insider information.

Build Your Personal Brand: Craft a compelling personal brand that showcases your unique skills, expertise, and value proposition. Develop a consistent brand message across your online profiles, resume, and cover letters. Leverage your professional achievements and testimonials to establish credibility. Consistently communicate your brand through thought leadership articles, guest blog posts, or speaking engagements to position yourself as an authority in your field.

Once you have developed and optimized these powerful and game changing tools, you will then be in the best possible position to begin your active job search.

Being proactive is not for everyone. It can be a time intensive process and also often means you will have to “champion” yourself and not be afraid to shout about your own ability. Once you have squared it with yourself that this is required, you can then look at this type of method to greatly enhance your search.

When I talk about proactivity, I do not mean sitting on job boards for hours on end, applying for never-ending amounts of positions, it needs to be taken several steps beyond that. As we have already found out, the vast majority of positions are not advertised on job boards, meaning you have to go above and beyond the normal approach to tap into that 80-90%+ of the job market that is not visible to the public eye.

This requires a much more strategic approach. I always recommend to people that once they have applied to a position, to then source and reach out to the talent team and functional reporting manager for the role directly, in order to promote their CV at source. Often this means directly approaching the company in three ways; functional reporting lines, business leaders and of course, the HR and Talent Acquisition teams. Of course, this requires some detective work, however with platforms such as LinkedIn, it is now easier than ever to use this type of proactive approach which will certainly lead to far better results than just applying for a job and leaving things to chance.

Often, you will find hundreds, if not and even more likely, thousands of candidates have applied for the same role. This means the best chance of being seen by the decision makers of these companies is always to go direct and give yourself the best chance of engagement.

Very few people have an effective method to get to this point, but we aren’t going to stop there. As already mentioned, as most of the jobs are not in the public domain, you need to implement an effective strategy to target and capitalize on the vast majority of open roles that are not being advertised.

What I am going to talk about in my upcoming articles, will also focus heavily on speculative engagement. This means developing a system that targets key companies relevant to your experience and background, and successfully represent yourself to key decision makers within the company without a role even being advertised.

Recruitment is all about one thing, and this is key to your success. Being in the right place, at the right time.

In order to ensure that you are, you need to be consistently networking on an industrial scale and also over a prolonged period of time. This gives you the best possible chance of uncovering hidden jobs and getting yourself visible to the companies and decision makers within those companies to achieve those all-important interviews.

In my next article I will be exploring the importance of personal branding and how this can plays a fundamental and critical part of your job search process.

If you are currently looking for a new position and want to work with the leading Career Transition company across the region, please feel free to drop me a message and we would love to see how we can help you.

[email protected]