#1. Identify Your Career Goals
Start with the basics. Figure out what kind of career you want by assessing your values, skills you have developed, and accomplishments. Overall, giving yourself time to reflect on your career needs will steer you in the right direction. Attending a career planning workshop or session can also be helpful if you need to dig deeper.
#2. Identify your skills
Before you build or update your resume focus on identifying your hard and soft skills you have developed through your career so far. By doing this, you can see which skills you need to advance on through training and which you can carry over into the position you are applying for.
#3. Build a solid resume
If you haven’t updated your resume in a while, it might be worth refining before you apply to positions. You can build a solid resume by keeping it simple, sharing relevant information, focusing on accomplishments in your previous roles and avoiding too much personal information. Cover letters are just as important when applying for jobs as well!
#4. Apply and network beyond online resources
Don’t get stuck doing your entire job search online, over 60% of available jobs are not advertised! Access the hidden job market by going beyond online job advertisements. You can tap into this market by traditional networking (like Chamber or business meetups), contacting employers directly, volunteering or even reaching out to neighbours, friends or family.
#5. Keep organized
When you are on the hunt for jobs, it can quickly become confusing as to which places you have applied to. Keep track of the jobs you applied for with a simple word or excel document. You can also build on this document to add information about interviews with employers. Another way to stay on top of things is to save all the job descriptions in a folder on your computer so you can refer to them before and during your interview.
#6. Do your research
Doing your research prepares you for interviews but also can be a key indicator in knowing if the company you are applying to is the right fit. Knowing information about companies also gives you an upper hand to stand out from other applicants by emphasizing how your goals align with theirs during the interview.
#7. Prepare your references
There is nothing worse than giving references to a recruiter at the end of an interview and having them find out your reference does not work at the company or did not get your permission to be used. Make sure to reach out to your references for permission and that their contact information is correct.
Need more support on your job search? WorkLink can help! WorkLink offers a variety of virtual workshops from career planning, resumes/cover letters to identifying your employment skills! Learn more about our workshops.