Best Advice for Job Seekers in Today’s Market

Times are tough, but so are you! Don’t let your fear of the unknown cause you to decrease your efforts in finding a job. There are still companies hiring and lots of them. You need to refocus your efforts, and eventually, you will land an opportunity!

Take a look at our best advice suggestions for job seekers for more information on how to refocus your efforts!

Learn New Skills

Now is the perfect time to dig into learning that new skill you’ve been putting off because of time limitations. This could help you stand out from other candidates that are also going after the same positions that you are.

There are many resources available to help you learn new skills such as metadata design, Salesforce integration, and AI for professionals in the Tech field. Take a look at sites such as Lynda.com, YouTube, and LinkedIn Learning, to name a few. These sites have an abundance of video courses in pretty much every field for professionals to boost up your skill sets.

Pro Tip: Make sure you are continually updating your resume and LinkedIn profile!

Strengthen Your Mindset

Listen to podcasts, take an online course; just make sure that you’re strengthening your mindset.

Strengthening your mindset also means taking breaks when you need them. Make sure you’re staying positive and motivated throughout the day. Go for a walk outside, play catch with your dog, or play a game with your kids! Do something that makes you happy and will take your mind completely away from job searching for at least 30 minutes to an hour!

Leverage LinkedIn

We’re sure that you already know the importance of utilizing your LinkedIn profile when applying for jobs, but do you know how to make your profile stand out?

Well, first things first, let’s cover the basics. Make sure your profile is 100% up to date. Your previous job is listed and goes into detail about what you achieved during your time at the company. Your most important skills are listed – don’t just put the maximum amount of skills that LinkedIn allows. You’ll want to make sure that you’re able to back up the skills you list with achievable results and items you accomplished to achieve those skills. Employers are looking at your skills, and anything on your LinkedIn profile is fair game for them to ask about, so make sure you keep this in mind!

Next, update your profile picture, banner, header, and your about section to stand out. Show your personality (while still being professional) and make sure you don’t just copy and paste from your experience section! It’s also vital that you have a professional profile picture and banner. We know that LinkedIn isn’t everyone’s forte, so reach out to us if you would like some help! We’re always here to provide feedback or give you suggestions!

Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Referrals

Utilize your network to see who might be hiring. You might have success by reaching out to the decision-makers at a company that you want to work at. Utilize a soft opening when reaching out to these people. Open the conversation with, “I am looking for a job in X, do you know of anything or anyone hiring at this time?” Even if that company isn’t hiring, sometimes getting advice and relationship building will open doors for you. It’s also a good idea to go to virtual networking events. This will allow you to talk to different people who might know of a possible opening for you to look at.

Get Clear on Your Value

Companies are seeing high volumes of resumes. What are the top three reasons someone should hire you? What’s one thing that makes you stand out from the rest? Be sure that you have this down before jumping into an interview.

How would you go about figuring this out? Well, think about your accomplishments within your previous position. Success stories are really impactful and help you stand out from the rest of the candidates. Hiring managers want to see how you and your skill sets can add value to their company. Giving them results about what you’ve already accomplished for other companies is the best way to do that. How do you go about writing your success story?

Step 1: You’ll Want to Choose and Format Your Success Story

Make sure the story is relevant to the role you’re applying for. You don’t want to just include a success story to have one. You want to make sure that it will ‘wow’ the person reading your resume and make them want to learn more about what you can do for their company.

You want to be able to explain the success story in a way that other people will understand it. One way we recommend doing this is to split up your success stories into the following categories:

Fixed: You were able to identify a problem and correct it. Make sure you explain how you went about solving the problem and the results that you had after you settled it.
Improved: You were able to take an existing situation, challenge, service, or product that worked before and made it better. Something that you can talk about would be ways that you were able to save your company money.
Created: You were able to build a new process, service, or product entirely from scratch.

Step 2: Leave Out Any Tactics

Make sure you start with a draft of the success story

Explain the initial situation, your actions and the results or impact that you had.
Since you want this to be in a bullet format, start with the model, SAR (situation, action and result). You want a significant impact with few words. Leave out any tactics as they add too much detail. Save tactics for the interview.

Step 3: Include the Right Metrics

You want to make sure that the metric increases clarity and impact and really shows the employer what you have done in the past and can do for them!

Utilize the following metric categories to set up the metrics and how you include them in your resume:

Time: How much time did your success story save? Think about months, days, or hours that this saved you or your team.
Volume: Think about the units made, number of tasks/projects, or hiring and growing a team – “I improved quality control, resulting in 50% fewer product returns.”
Money: Take into account the money you made your previous employer as well as the money you saved them.

The best tips to keep in mind when it comes to the metrics on your resume are:

You can always combine metrics to increase the power of your success story.
Most of the time, it’s beneficial to include a unit of volume after a time or money metric.

Define Your Job Search Process

Determine the companies that you might want to work for.

Decide how many hours you’re going to work each day and stick to it! Another way that you could manage your time is to choose several jobs to apply to in a day. Make sure that you’re staying positive and don’t give up. It’s going to take a little longer for you to get interviews right now, but you will eventually get some with persistence.

Pro Tip: You should your resume for each job! This not only provides them with the keywords they’re looking for but also shows your determination! Make sure that you’re only applying to the jobs that you’re really excited about. Hiring managers want to know candidates are passionate about the position. You want to show your passion for the job that they have open – don’t just copy and paste your resume to send to them. They receive hundreds of resumes in a day. You want to stand out, offer value and make sure that your skill sets align to the job description that they posted.

Test Your Technology

You landed the interview, now what? Companies are doing off-site, online interviews. You must test your network connection before your interview. This way, you know how the software works, and that your interview will go as smooth as possible with limited issues.

Technology isn’t fail proof, and things happen, don’t stress if something isn’t working right. Just contact the person who set up your interview and let them know as soon as possible.

The Interviewing Process – It Might Take Longer Than Normal

You might not realize it, but this is tough for employers, too! Employers want to get to know their candidates and decide who is the right fit—not just in qualifications but in personality.

Just remember, it’s going to take a while to get through all of the interviews. It’s also going to take time to compile the data from these interviews. They may want to wait to hire you until they can meet you in person, or they may even want to do several video calls before making their final decision. Above all, be patient and stay positive!

Looking for Your Next Opportunity?

We want to help you! During every step of the process, from interviews to debriefs, we’re here to be your guide. Interested? Take a look at our job board and reach out to us for the next steps!