The ‘Know’s of Job Hunting

Job hunting.  It’s not an activity that many take up as recreation.  In fact, say the words and you’re met with scrunched noses and silent cringes.  While it’s never going to take out #1 spot in the Top 5 Ultimate Fun Things To Do, it doesn’t have to be painful.  Below are the ‘Knows’ of job hunting to help make your next search that little bit easier.

Know what you’re looking for

Or are least have an idea of what you’d like as your next role.  This will help shape your search and allow you to focus your job hunt from the start.  Casting a wide net is good, but not always productive.   It can lead to time wasted sitting through job ads and feeling overwhelmed with the sheer amount of roles out there.  Get an idea of what you’d like and start your search from there.

Knowing what you want to do is also critical as you may find yourself having a conversation with someone who knows someone who knows someone that’s hiring for that very role.  Being able to articulate what you’d love your next role to be may open up the doors of possibility for you.

Know what you value

Each time I change jobs, I consider what the overall package is before applying and measure advertised roles against my current role to ensure that it would be worth my time to go through the effort of it all.  We start looking for other roles for a multitude of reasons:  things at our current workplace go pear shaped; not enough promotions; not enough pay; your boss is terrible; you’ve had enough, and so on, and so on.

But is your current role really that bad in comparison to others? When you start weighing up things like salary, hours, workloads, your relationship with your colleagues and other employee benefits, how does your current role stack up? Do you love the work-life balance, 9-5 hours of your current role but are looking at a much more demanding role that pays more but won’t offer you the same stress-free structure?

You have to consider what’s best for you.  This will change many times throughout your career, especially as you’re carving your corner of the universe.  Don’t chase a role purely for the money, as you ultimately want to enjoy your work.  Take a serious look at what you want out of your next role, how it compares to your current one, and make an informed decision on what’s best for you.

Know where you want to get to

What opportunities will your next role hold in store for you?  Do you have an end goal in mind?  This concept is becoming less common as we’re likely to have multiple careers over our lifetime but the principle is still there.   If you could have any job you wanted within 5-10 years, what would it be?  What’s stopping you from achieving that?   It can be hard to look down the barrel of your career and know exactly where you want to get to, but there’s certainly no harm in trying to do it.  Nothing has to be locked in at this point in time, but starting to put those gears in motion now will help you with your job hunt.

Are you looking at roles that will help develop your skill set, challenge and help you grow? Will the jobs you’re applying for today help get you to where you want to go?  If your answer is “No” or “Not really”, then don’t waste your time.  Be aggressive with your career but wait for the right stepping stone to come up and make it worth your while.

Know how to proofread

Don’t waste your potential employer’s time with an application riddled with errors.  Nobody likes reading a resume with grammatical errors in it.  With the plethora of free proofreading software on the internet, there is NO excuse for a CV with spelling mistakes.  Plain and simple, know how to proofread. And if you don’t know, learn or download software to help you.

Featured image courtesy of Unsplash