Effective job search - what should it look like?

Searching for a job is a tedious and demanding process. It is worth preparing well for it and being patient - after all, you cannot give up after a week of searching. At the same time, it is worth approaching the topic professionally, developing a strategy and taking care of every detail. This will certainly help you avoid unnecessary talks and ultimately find your dream job.

Answer a few questions for yourself

Before you start looking for a job, it is worth answering a few questions for yourself. What kind of job do I want and what do I need? Do I need to change my job at this stage of my life? Do I want to change the industry or just the employer? The answers will help you choose the direction in which you want to go when looking for a job.

Then you should look at yourself objectively and ask a few more questions, this time about our competences, strengths, in a word - attractiveness for the future employer. Of course, it is also worth looking at the weaknesses and thinking how to fill the gaps. It is worth confronting your thoughts with someone close or trusted co-worker. As much as we wish, we cannot be 100% objective towards each other.

Where do you want to work?

Once you know exactly what work you need and what your strengths and weaknesses are, you should think about what work would be the only one. It is worth compiling a list of positions, industries and departments that we take into account when looking for a position. They can also be specific company names or working conditions that interest us. It is also worth defining your expectations and needs - whether we dream of working in a corporation or a small team, working hours that interest us, etc.

Here, too, you should confront your expectations with reality - do we have the necessary qualifications when applying for a position in an international corporation? Do we have any idea about it when applying for the position of a marketer? And so on.

Of course, if we lack specific skills, we can quickly make up for it, so the candidate should not be discouraged just after reading the advertisement. Additionally, during a job interview, it may turn out that the company itself offers, for example, training in the required skills.

Job search - an exemplary curriculum vitae

In each guide, we will read the same:

• you mustn't lie in your CV,

• a professional email must be provided,

• not all jobs or skills need to be considered.

Of course, all this is true, but there are other issues to keep in mind. First of all, that a CV, just like a cover letter, cannot be universal. Depending on the position or industry in which the candidate applies, their CV will differ from each other - experience, selected skills or training.

Therefore, if you want to find a job quickly, you have to make an effort, especially when it comes to your CV. It is on this one side that our whether or not to be in the further recruitment stages depends. If the recruiter senses that we have not made an effort to create our own CV, what is the point of inviting us to an interview?

What we include in the CV also depends on our experience. Young people who are just starting their adventure on the labor market have the right to name all internships or apprenticeships they have completed. Employees with more seniority may already skip casual work during their studies. The same applies to education - students can include information about the completed high school in their CV, but the more time passes after graduation, the less important it is.

The headline about hobbies or interests, often neglected by jobseekers, turns out to be very important. Here, literally in a few words, the candidate may interest and be remembered by the interviewer. However, HR specialists warn not to try to distort the reality at this point and to be specific in your interests. Because by entering "literature" in the hobby, does the candidate mean Polish, Russian or Arabic literature? We never know if there will be someone who shares this passion on the other side of the table.

Job search - recruitment portals

Proven recruitment portals are an irreplaceable source of knowledge - from the most up-to-date offers, through specialist advice, guides and earnings comparison websites. These are very good portals and jobseekers should get to know them well. Usually, the guides are edited by HR specialists or other people who know the industry. Large companies usually use these portals in search of employees.

An obligatory item these days is also a profile on the LinkedIn portal, a link to it can even be included in the paper version of your CV.

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Job search - help from friends

A well-known theory is that we are only six steps away from any person in the world. Maybe your friend knows someone in the company you want to work for? It is worth doing a little research, the more so as research shows that 60% of people changed jobs as a result of friends' recommendations, and almost 80% of employees hired into the company already knew someone in it. Why is this happening? Employers more and more often use new tools that use employee recommendation programs. They also often do it through social media, which significantly changes the recruitment process.

It is also good to take care of your professional contacts and not just restrict yourself to the office room where we spend most of the working day. Any trainings or delegations are also a great opportunity to meet people from the industry - it is worth maintaining such contacts. This, of course, has its own professional name - networking.

Explore the market and find the right time

When you decide to change jobs, it is a good idea to do so at the right time. It turns out that the flood of job advertisements also has its dependence! You can expect the most of them at the beginning of the year - then new projects, new budgets, and teams grow. The cucumber season is definitely the holiday season, another flood of offers can be expected in the fall.

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, so when looking for a job, the candidate must always have his finger on the pulse. It is worth realizing at the beginning of the search that this process may take longer than expected. However, this should not discourage us from looking for the perfect job.