How To Develop A Winning Job Search Strategy That Work

There’s more to a job search than simply applying for online postings, though the majority of job seekers confine their job search to exactly that.

It may sound crazy but job postings are not the number one method employers use to recruit. A good job search strategy includes a number of job search techniques and approaches, including utilizing your network — the number one source of productive job leads.

1. Career Brainstorming

It’s very important that you have a good understanding of what you’re looking for in your career before you launch your job search campaign. This doesn’t
mean you need to lock yourself into a lifelong career decision. On the contrary, you just need to determine your unique profile; for example, the type of work you enjoy, the cultural environment that best suits your work style, your key strengths, the industries that you have interest in and your geographical preferences. This will help you focus your time and energy on exploring the right companies and jobs to match your interests and aspirations.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself that can help you focus on the right job search criteria. I encourage you to take out a blank sheet of paper and
write these questions down. Under each question, write down the answers and rank them in order of best or most important to worst or least important. This information will be very helpful as you begin building out your job search strategy, and will help with formulating your target company list.
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What are your key strengths?
̥ What industries are you interested in?
̥ What size company and culture interest you the most?
̥ What are your geographical preferences?

2. Develop You Target Company Lists

There are several ways that can be used for developing companies. You should start by listing 30-50 companies that you feel you would like to work for. You can speak to friends as well as colleagues and see the companies that they recommend. LinkedIn also has a very strong feature of company job search which can help you in your job search.

For this, you need to go to LinkedIn, click on the menu button and then on the search bar. You then need to select the companies and start the search. The Advanced Job Search strategies options can also be used by you by clicking on Advanced, which is located adjacent to the search bar.

In case you come across a company that seems interesting to you, click on the profile of the company and find out if it is the company that is of interest to you. In case you like it, then you need to click on the Follow button so that the updates, as well as the messages of the company, are sent to you.

3. Develop An Effective Marketing Strategy

In today’s job market, your resume and LinkedIn profile are your two most important marketing tools. Cover letters are important too, and often can help separate your application from the pack. Before you kick off any major job search campaign, take the time to optimize these career marketing tools so you can hit the ground running.

The development of a professional resume (identifying your skills to solve employer problems), cover letter and other job search correspondence is essential. Often these “tools” are an employer’s first contact with you. If your “tools” are sloppy, chances are your work performance will be as well.

4. Reach Our To Hiring Managers

Once the companies that are of interest to you have been identified, you need to identify the people who are working in these companies. For this purpose also, LinkedIn is a great tool. You need to begin by identifying the hiring manager along with the staff in the area where you would like to join. You need to look for the people who will be your colleagues as well as their managers. Then you need to find out the LinkedIn groups that they have joined. This is significant as if you also join that group, you will be able to communicate with them free of cost, without having to update your LinkedIn account. 

You need to find out if they have taken part in any of the group discussions. It will be a great way of entering the conversation and begin to showcase your expertise. Remember that your comments need to be professional, positive and upbeat.

5. Dust Off Interview Skills

As job hunting isn’t usually an everyday task, even the most self-assured creative candidate can get a little rusty. Before an interview, consider what questions may be asked and prepare thoughtful responses. Practice the answers with a friend. This will build confidence, alleviate anxiety during the real interview and reveal opportunities to fine-tune your presentation.

After each job interview, jot down any questions that proved particularly difficult to answer, or moments that caused you to stumble. Self-awareness and continued practice are keys to being an adept and poised interviewee.

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