Beat job blues on Misery Monday
SORT OUT YOUR CV: Get them rewritten for the big recruitment drive in January. Make sure you do your homework on the company you are applying for, tailor your CV to each different position and firm you target and if you get an interview make sure you have answers prepared for potential interview questions. GET ON SOCIAL MEDIA: This is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to landing your dream job. But unless you manage your online presence very carefully, it can work against you as much as it can work in your favour.
Remember that whatever you can read about yourself online, so can any potential employer.
Social media can also be seen as a reflection of your personality, and therefore your suitability, or “fit”, for an organisation.
Make sure your online presence is consistent, professional
and reflects you in the most positive light possible.
BUILD YOUR NETWORK: Savvy job hunters know that having a strong profile on LinkedIn is vital – some of my contacts in leading organisations indicate that they only use LinkedIn to search for and attract top talent.
But these days, that’s not enough. You also have to be seen to be active – take proactive steps to build your network. Follow recruiters and companies that you are interested in on Facebook and Twitter as well as LinkedIn, join groups of likeminded professionals and comment regularly on activity of interest.
BE TECH READY: The vast majority of hiring companies now use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help them to identify and manage the hundreds of applications that they receive for any opportunity they
advertise. Your CV needs to be “tech ready” to ensure that it gets past these software applications and puts your CV at the top of the pile. This is why tailoring your CV to each job role you apply for is vital.
These ATS are programmed to identify the keywords in the job advert and description the hiring firm creates, so your CV needs to reflect these keywords if you are going to stand out.
And it’s not as easy as dumping a list of skills into the CV – if they are not included in context, they won’t work for you.
● James Innes is the founder of the CV Centre and is a bestselling careers author. He solves a reader’s issue on Page 14.