If you are one of the job seekers, it is now an excellent opportunity to spend quality time doing what you could not do earlier. With the overall situation slowing down due to coronavirus, you as job seekers would be forced to be at home and will find yourself with a lot of time with yourself. Most certainly this phase too shall pass and we will be back to normalcy soon. In the interim, this is a good opportunity for job seekers to do the following 10 things which will certainly accelerate your job search.
Here are the 10 Things Job Seekers should Follow During this Pandemic Slowdown:
1] Target List:
Make a target list of prospective jobs and roles that you would like to apply for.
2] Stories of Success:
List down your stories of success over the past 10 years with measurable outcomes. These stories will help job seekers in identifying their transferrable skills which broaden their job options to allied industries/roles. Importantly, you can use them for developing a pitch letter, resume, LinkedIn profile, and during interviews.
3] Networking:
Make a list of your ex-bosses, ex-colleagues, ex-teammates. All of them would be employed with different organisations and can become a source (lead) for starting a conversation with prospective employer organisations.
4] Achievement Driven 2 Page Resume:
Rework on your resume, make it 2 pages, focus on success stories of achievements, edit out content which is related to responsibility, delete repetitive vocabulary, add a headline and add core skills and a profile summary with a focus on your unique strengths.
5] LinkedIn Profile:
Today 90 to 95% of recruiters are sourcing candidates through LinkedIn (Source: US News). So you need to have a strong LinkedIn profile that brands you and is complete. Mention a headline which helps in positioning you as an expert in your field.
6] Recommendations:
Ask for recommendations on LinkedIn from ex-bosses, your customers, and your teammates. It adds to your branding.
7] Reach Out to Employers:
Use LinkedIn to reach out to prospective hiring managers/ recruiters and start a conversation. Whoever shows a positive response, take it ahead with a meeting.
8] Research:
Do in-depth research on all target employer companies. Do it in detail to understand the business pain points of each job that you want to apply to. That helps you prepare your candidature pitch when you meet them.
9] Pitch Letter:
For each job that job seekers apply for prepare a customised pitch letter (commonly called a cover letter). It presents you as a solution provider to the employer’s problem (pain point). This comes out from the research that you do.
10] Tricky Interview Questions:
List down interview questions that are challenging to answer and thoughtfully prepare job seekers’ responses. Hurdles could be frequent job changes, currently not holding a job, low salary as compared to your experience or simply questions like – Tell me something about yourself ? or Why should we hire you? It is not a good idea to take these questions for granted. You need to prepare as you would for an entrance exam to a top course so that you stand out as a candidate.
And I am not mentioning it separately, however, it goes a long way when you send a thank you note to recruiters who you have met or those who have responded. That is how you start building your positive impression as job seekers.
I guess as job seekers’ hands will be full when you do all of the 10 things I am suggesting. So start by taking a small step and do at least one thing from these 10 which takes job seekers closer to your dream job. Make the best of this time so that as things return to normalcy, you will be away ahead in your job search.
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Happy Job Hunting!
Sarabjeet Sachar
Seasoned Career Coach, Founder & CEO, Aspiration