For many, the first few months of the New Year signify a fresh start, new resolutions and a chance for professionals who feel unmotivated about work to search for a new career or a new job.
Experts tell us that early 2018 could be the perfect time to make a change and look for something new.
Nada Enan, Senior Manager Marketing and PR, LinkedIn MENA, offers the following tips on how to best approach finding a new position in the New Year.
Nada: LinkedIn historically sees an uplift in professionals’ job seeking activity, especially during the month of January and onwards when it reaches its peak. It’s also not just the job seekers; the number of new companies looking to hire after a quieter Christmas period also increases with a spike of new job listings on websites such as LinkedIn throughout the first few months of the year.
Here are her top tips on bagging your dream job this year:
Ask yourself what's wrong
Sometimes it may not be your job, it could be a myriad of other factors making you feel stressed, unmotivated or depressed at work. It could be your boss, your manager, your colleagues or lack of recognition.
Nada: Spend sometime this month and take a look back at the year that’s been and try to decide what makes you dissatisfied in your current job. Is it that you’re not being challenged? Is it that you’re not passionate about the work? Write these down.
At the same time, write down what you do like about the role and what career success means to you. Whether that’s the industry, the people you work with or even the work/life balance, there could be a multitude of reasons and definitions but it should give you an idea of what you want and more importantly what you don’t want. This will give you a solid foundation to begin your search.
Let people see you
Being invisible or not having your skills and qualifications in a place that future recruiters can find can be detrimental to your search, which is why this is one of the most important steps for any job seeker.
Nada: It’s time to make yourself visible to companies and potential recruiters. Include all of your relevant experience, recent jobs, passions, skills and education that demonstrate to businesses that they should hire you. On sites such as LinkedIn and GetThat, have your profile ready and updated regularly. Use tools such as LinkedIn’s Open Candidates to privately signal recruiters letting them know that you’re interested in new job opportunities.
Get networking today
It is almost always a single person you randomly met or emailed who will find you a step into what could be your dream job. This makes networking the best thing you could do, especially if you're in an industry which requires an internal recommendation or a reference.
Nada: According to LinkedIn data, 70 per cent of professionals were hired at a company where they had a mutual connection and candidates that were referred by an employee were 8 times more likely to get hired. Add colleagues, friends, family and companies you want to work for – this will make you visible to your contacts’ connections too.
As well as this, take the time to attend networking events within your industry or the industry you would love to work in. You never know who you’re going to meet.
Don't apply to everything
In desperation mode it is easy to click 'Apply' on every second job posting you see. Patience and smart search results have a higher rate of call backs than applying to 500 jobs that have nothing to do with you. This also means that you might have to go back to the first tip and rehash what's important to you.
Nada: Utilise the ‘Jobs’ tab on your LinkedIn profile to find job listings suitable to you, within your industry or the market that you want to move into. It’s easy to set specific job search parameters so you’re recommended roles at companies that you have a desire to work for.
January brings a big surge in new role postings, so now is a great time to see if there is something that is right for you. You should now have a rough idea of roles and companies that you want to go for– so take the plunge and start applying.
Persistence and patience
When I was applying for a job, whenever I got a rejection, especially a personal one, I would actually be happy (obviously not in a crazy way). It is better to think of the fact that they did actually go through your resume, and that humans have a tendency of remembering random pieces of information later. They might remember you for the next most suitable job they have.
Nada: During your application process, there will, unfortunately, be times that you’ll get rejections. Remember to stay as positive as possible and that persistence is key.
Apply for different companies and chase your application to make sure it’s in the hands of the right people. As well as using the jobs tab, try to find the direct person to get your CV into the hands of and chase it. Keep checking in to see if they’ve had a look at your application yet. Demonstrating a degree of tenacity at the job search stage will help you once you get through to the interview process.
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