Is your job search plan working? A lot of people are finding themselves out of work for far longer than they have been in the past. Partly this is due to the slow economy, but also the state of the art has changed in the world of job searching with the rise of social media and online job search. What has been an effective method of finding work may no longer be so.
There are positions out there, and good ones too, but they’re increasingly hard to find and competed for. If you want one of them, and I know you do, then there are a few things I can suggest that you do.
• Single yourself out. You don’t want to be one of a hundred possible candidates. You’re a unique and valuable individual. That’s true of everyone, it’s just that not everyone understands their own value. Find the source of yours and make sure that everything you put out there reflects it.
• Check your portfolio. Now that you have a unique value statement make sure your documents back it up. Take a look, is your resume clear and targeted? Do your cover letters back up your resume? Do you have supporting documents like portfolios of work, publication lists, patents and so on? Remember, if you try to cram too much information into a resume then the hiring people won’t read it. So if you have a lot of publications or work examples you might be better off with a separate list.
• Go over your online profiles. Clean up things like Facebook and Twitter accounts so they reinforce the image you’ve created. If you aren’t using LinkedIn, take a look at it. There are a lot of handy tools to build your online presence. Also use it to track people and companies you’d like to work for. Warm up those leads before asking for a job, remember we like to hire our friends so people looking to get hired should make friends.
• Reinforce your networks. Go back to those old contacts that you haven’t talked to for a while. It’s hard to keep up with people while tenaciously searching for work, but it’s very much worth it both psychologically and practically.
• Google up. Write some articles or reviews relevant to your field and publish them through blogs or sites with decent search engine weight. When we run your name, which we will do before hiring you, we want to see a first page that reinforces your individual value.
Adapted from original article written by Meg Guiseppi/executiveresumebranding.com (http://executiveresumebranding.com/6-essential-strategies-to-land-your-n...)