Looking for a job can be one of the most challenging phase in a person’s life. If your job search efforts are not yielding results, you may want to give a fresh thought to your approach. You need to plan well and focus on important things that help your effort and increases your chances of success.
1. Create a great resume.
To support your job search, it is imperative that you have an awesome resume. A great resume is one that is able to showcase your skills, abilities, experience and is also able to suitably highlight your career priorities. You need to spend time on working on your resume that appropriately represents you. Freshers may need to create a resume that appropriately highlight their education, projects and extracurricular activities. It will help if you can get your resume cross checked by some professionals in similar field.
2. Get your profile on the job portals.
Job portals, help you with your job search, they help you get your profile visible to thousands of recruiters. Being on a job portal, also enables you to apply for job postings by recruiters across many companies. To be able to land up an opportunity you need to be visible to potential recruiters. Once you get your resume ready, sign up for leading job portals.
3. Keep updated on developments in your field and related areas
Try to keep yourself updated on your subject matter, functional area, and industry in general . You need to be aware of what’s happening and what’s new in the area that you want to work. While this is important for freshers, this is also very relevant for experienced job seekers. For freshers it is also important as most of the interview questions and group discussion topics are based on the current happenings and if you don’t want to stand blank in front of your interviewer it may be a great idea to read those newspapers. Try to attend some seminars and workshops on your area of interest, this will definitely help you in gaining knowledge on that particular field. The more knowledgeable you are, the greater are your chances of getting hired.
4. Leverage your network and build your network.
Get in touch with your friends, families, mentors, alumni etc. They might help you with your job search by sharing useful information like job openings and may also help you connect with the right people at right places. Who knows, your friend might even refer you for a job in the firm he is working. Connect with your alumni network, and ex bosses. They are your best bet.
Get on Linkedin. Linkedin is a leading business and professional social-networking platform. Get off Facebook and Instagram for some time. Being on LinkedIn can help you connect with many companies and recruiters. Leading corporates also posts key job openings on Linkedin jobs. If you are already on Linkedin, update your profile and keep it recent and live.
5. Get an internship.
This is very relevant for freshers as well as professionals on a break or sabbatical. Internships help you connect with the corporate world by being exposed to realities of workplace and work expectations. Practical knowledge is as important as theoretical, so it is very important that you gain as much practical knowledge as you can. One of the ways to obtain practical knowledge is by working as intern in your core field. These days we have platforms like Internshala, LetsIntern etc. , that can help you with the same and connect you with the corporates.
6. Keep Learning: Sign up for courses and certification programs.
While you are sitting idle, it helps if you are able to learn more and develop your skill sets in your core and related areas. This is more relevant for fresh graduates looking for opportunities: For example: a student who has an engineering degree in Computer Science can learn Java, Python, Data Science, a mechanical engineering fresher can increase his chances at job hunt by learning software like SolidWorks, Ansys etc. (these are just examples – you need to figure out what will help you in your areas of work and interest.). If you don’t want to spend a fortune on your learning look for free programs on Edx, Coursera etc.
7. Focus on your health and personality
Though knowledge, and experience is the key to landing up great assignments, your personality is also very relevant. Personality may be considered as a sum total of your confidence, appearance, communication, and your body language. Your health – physical and mental is also important. Hit the gym, exercise, stay fit.
8. Don’t lose hope
The last and important point of all. Don’t lose hope. Remember, there are tonnes of opportunity – just look around – you will find news articles saying that there is a shortage of talent manpower in almost all industry.
Landing a job is not just about you being good or bad, its about fitment. Keep looking for places that can leverage your skillsets, and while continuing your search, keep improving yourself.