4 Ways To Beat the Job Search Competition
The modern job market is a difficult place to navigate. From many different job boards to keep track of, to the enormous amount of online presence you need to maintain, landing a job seems like a seriously overwhelming task. Fortunately, we can help you out with 5 ways that apply everywhere you take your search to online.
With ready access to heaps of information there is no excuse for not paying attention to detail. From how your resume looks to how you present yourself both in the interview and outside it, every little thing should have effort and care put into it. Here are the 5 places you should turn your attention to:
1.Maintain a Professional Online Presence
Very often, your first few interviews will not be in person, so most interviewers turn to a quick google search to find more about their candidates. Because of this, you need to make sure the results they get are what you want.
The most obvious place to start is LinkedIn, it will without a doubt be one of the first answers when you search your name. A good visual presentation with your photo, banner and bio are a must. You should also document what you’ve included in your CV: add your listed jobs, projects and skills and link any relevant connections you have to give yourself an air of authenticity.
If you have a professional blog, your own website or a github page you want your employer to see, give those the same polish and treatment and link them to your linkedin. And lastly make sure all of your social media is private and the outward appearance is clean and inoffensive
2. Improve your writing and editing skills.
The most common way employers will interact with you is through written communication, either looking at your resume, or communicating directly to you via email.
Having spelling and grammatical errors in your resume is something you should not allow to happen, many tools like the spell-check in all text editors, the Grammarly plugin for google chrome or others can solve this for you easily. It is always helpful to have a second pair of eyes, either ask a friend or use a professional resume service to give your resume the final check before sending it. All of the above also applies to your emails with companies, make sure they are correct and have a professional and clear tone.
3. Ace the Online Interview
As we’ve mentioned, your interviews will be mostly online. As such some things like a confident body language, good presentation and behaviour are sometimes lost to the video call. But you have a few new things you could use to your advantage:
You don’t have to unearth your suit you hardly wear anymore. It is enough for a nice, clean, professional shirt that is comfortable for you to wear to give you the perfect presentation. Next is to make sure your surroundings are also up to par, a good background, pleasant lighting and a quiet atmosphere are all the things you wanna set up in advance of the interview.
Now that it’s time for the interview make sure you convey yourself best you can. Stay focused on the interviewer, maintain eye contact with your webcam and maintain a pleasant but not forced smile. For everything else? Act like it’s a normal in-person interview, give clear answers, maintain a good level of enthusiasm and don’t forget to ask questions when given the chance to express your sincere interest in the position.
4. Get Good At Networking
Maintaining a well connected presence is incredibly useful, the more you do it the more likely you will end up with something in common with your interviewer and that could be your ticket in.
Going to job or research fairs and simply talking and being interested in what your industry has to offer is a great start. Exchange linkedin contacts with the people presenting, and even with fellow attendees you click with. If this seems difficult where you are or hard to fit into your schedule you’re in luck! There are also virtual networking events you could attend, these online meetups, seminars or fairs will provide you the same opportunities from the comfort of your own home.