[Top Tips] Find your perfect role
Finding your perfect role may seem difficult right now. Many organisations are still struggling in the midst of a pandemic and UK unemployment is at a five-year high. Take a look at our top tips to help you secure the best possible opportunity.
Looking for the new perfect role can be a full time job in itself.
Regardless of whether you are new to the working world or an experienced job seeker, the process of finding your ideal role can be long and frustrating, especially when competition for vacancies is at an all time high.
As a result of the global pandemic there is a much larger pool of talent actively looking for work and whilst the number of jobs available is accelerating as we progress throughout 2021, finding a position and securing your perfect role remains a challenge.
For the majority of job seekers, the process will take some time and finding your perfect role will take more than a couple of hours of searching on job boards.
Here’s our list of top tips to help you secure a role that is perfect for you.
- Be clear on what you want
It’s important to have a strategy and set out your stall from the outset. You need to be clear on the kind of role you are looking for, the salary that you need to secure and how far you are willing to commute for the right role.
If the pandemic has taught us anything however, it has made us take a step back and look at what really is important in life. Having a flexible approach to working may be important to you but joining an organisation whose approach to Corporate Social Responsibility is aligned to yours may also be fundamental in the type of role you are really looking for.
You need to establish what is truly important to you.
- Tailor your approach.
Making sure your CV is up to date and representative of your new approach is a vital early step when looking to secure your perfect role.
However, as more and more companies look to adopt discrimination free recruitment processes and choose not to accept CV’s, the traditional power of a well polished CV diminishes no matter how much time or money you have spent on perfecting it!
For those companies that continue to accept CV’s then jobseekers must take the opportunity to tailor it for every role they apply for. Changing your opening statement and amending your skills to reflect those included in the job description will undoubtedly help recruiters identify you as a suitable candidate.
If an organisation no longer accepts CV’s as part of their application process then you can still tailor your application accordingly. Make sure you use the job description and any guidance notes to hone in on the key attributes that the employer is looking for.
As the use of Automation and AI continues, the need to carefully craft your application questions, becomes even more important. Many technologies are designed to save recruitment teams’ valuable time by automatically picking out keywords that are aligned with the job description. Making sure you have these keywords within your answers will ensure that your application is highlighted positively and secure your progress on to the next stage.
- Optimise your personal brand
Most people today have an online presence. Whether this be through the professional networking platform Linkedin or more social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or TikTok, it’s important to consider how the information or posts you are making will reflect on the kind of role you are looking to apply for.
Whilst the security settings allow users to limit access to Social media platforms, if you have a Linkedin profile this needs to be made as accessible as possible. Optimising your Linkedin profile in line with your perfect role can prove extremely powerful especially if you would like to be found by the thousands of recruiters who use the platform to identify top talent every day.
Make sure your profile is open and that people can clearly see you are actively looking for work.
- Build and cultivate your network
Harnessing the power of Linkedin could be integral to your jobsearch, especially when research shows that 3 people are recruited via Linkedin EVERY MINUTE!
Building your network will not only allow you to increase the visibility of your profile but also allow you to open channels of communication with those who are within your field of expertise or recruiting within that sector. For example, if your perfect role would be in engineering in or around Bristol then you can search and connect with people in similar roles or business owners or industry specialists.
Connecting with people that already work in a company you may be interested in working for will also allow you to find out what kind of companies they worked for and see if they have had a similar career path. You can also explore whether they have mutual connections that would be able to help introduce you.
Don’t be afraid to connect with people. The more people you connect with the more people you will be able to see as part of your network and the more people will see you as a potential new employee.
- Research target companies
Create a list of companies you’d like to work for and take some time to find out more about them. Whilst Linkedin is a good place to start, there are plenty of other platforms you can utilise to build up a comprehensive understanding of a company and what it might be like to work for them.
For example you can also look at:
- The companies website
- Their social media pages
- Review sites such as Glassdoor
- Google News articles
Research into a company can also provide you with some valuable information should you secure an interview and also present competitor organisations that may also become a target.
- Brush up on your skills
Whether your previous role has meant your day to day activities focussed on some key skills and not others or you simply think you would benefit from a quick refresh, taking the time to brush up on your current skills and potentially gaining some new ones will not only allow you to widen your search but also instill greater confidence .
The internet presents a wealth of practical solutions.
For example, for the digital marketing professionals there is a Google Digital Garage, which offers bitesize tutorials to help hone your skills at your own leisure whilst the open university offers hundreds of free courses which require as little as 2 hours commitment.
There’s no end to education and self-improvement.
- Research your industry
If you are looking to branch into a new industry then arming yourself with knowledge will not only help you at the interview stage but also help you to compose your application in a manner that reflects the challenges being faced by organisations across the sector.
For example:
- What effect has Brexit had on the industry?
- Will new legislation such as IR35 present new challenges?
- How will the advancement in technology support the industry?
- How has COVID-19 affected the industry?
- Create profiles on job boards
Due to the cost savings available, more and more organisations are now implementing in house recruitment teams to manage their recruitment.
Access to job boards, CV databases will largely depend on the size of the organisation and the typical needs of the business. This often means that in house recruitment teams have to choose one platform over another when it comes to searching for top talent.
Therefore it is important to create profiles on as many platforms as possible and as well as choosing the most well known platforms it’s equally important to appear on more specific sites that relate to your target companies and industries.
- Sign up to job alerts directly with employers
It’s important to remember that whilst aggregators such as Indeed provide access to a lot of jobs, they don’t have every job! If you have a company in mind that you would like to work for, have a look on their website and see if you can apply speculatively or sign up for job alerts.
Quite often an organisation will search their existing database and send job alerts to registered candidates before a vacancy gets published to external job boards, so if you want to be one of the first to know about opportunities you may be suitable for make sure you utilise the tools that are available to maximise your chances of securing your perfect role.
- Secure some references
Some organisations may ask for you to submit details of referees prior to being offered the role. This again is designed to support the automation of what can be a time consuming task for in house recruiters and HR professionals.
Reach out to your network and speak to people who you think would be willing to provide you with a character reference both personally and work related.
Having a handful of contact details ready to use when you need them will ensure you can complete employer requests quickly.
There is no doubt that Job hunting is undeniably difficult right now. Many organisations are still struggling in the midst of a pandemic and UK unemployment is at a five-year high.
According to Indeed, the average amount of time it takes to find a job is about nine weeks. This however may be significantly impacted by organisations who currently have reduced staff due to furlough, unexpected job losses or increased demand on HR teams brought about by COVID-19.
Be realistic in your approach, set clear objectives and be flexible.
Your perfect role is out there!